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FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK not work with FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT

I have a problem with an activity which is started with FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT is not recreated and present on the screen after FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK.
So the step is:
Open app, enter Welcome Activity.
Finish Welcome activity and start activity A without specific intent flag.
Start activity B with FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT from activity A (new instance of B is created and now stack became A->B).
Start activity A from B with FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT (existing A instance brought to top of stack so stack became B->A).
And under some condition, I need to start over from the beginning (just like another normal app launch), so started Welcome activity using FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK.
So the app will enter phase 2 again after phase 1, which is what I expected, but then, if I try to start activity B again with FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT from activity A, there is activity B's callback 'onNewIntent, onStart, onResume' in a row, but it doesn't present on the screen.
It looks like to me that there is still the previous instance of activity B somewhere but not showing to me.
I don't specify launch mode for either activity A or B.
I know that document says about FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK that "This can only be used in conjunction with FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK.". And use them together does solve my problem, but then if I click home button to put app background and then launch again, it will become another app launch (enter phase 1) but not back to the previous top activity.
So my questions are:
When I use FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK to start welcome activity, I don't see onDestroy of either activity A or B, is it by design?
If they are not destroyed, where do they stay and can I have a reference to them?
How can I make activity B presented on the screen after all of these steps?
Code for phase 5:
Intent i = new Intent(A.this, WelcomeActivity.class);
i.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(i);
Thanks in advance.
AndroidManifest.xml
<activity
android:name=".activity.WelcomeActivity"
android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity
android:name=".activity.A_Activity"
android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:theme="#style/BaiduMapTheme.MainMap"
android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan" />
<activity
android:name=".activity.B_Activity"
android:configChanges="locale|fontScale|keyboard|keyboardHidden|layoutDirection|mcc|mnc|navigation|orientation|screenLayout|screenSize|touchscreen|uiMode"
android:screenOrientation="portrait"
android:windowSoftInputMode="stateVisible" />

OK, now I think I have those questions because of my incorrect using of the intent flags.
First of all, I should use FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK and FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK at the same time as the document says.
Then everything looks normal and as expected, except one that: if I put the app into background and then click the launch icon again, the WelcomeActivity will be created again.
Previously I thought my existing activity stack is cleared and a new WelcomeActivity is created, but it turns out the existing activity stack is still there, but an extra WelcomeActivity is created, so what I need to do is add some extra flag in WelcomeActivity to determine if it's created in this condition, if yes, then just call finish() in onCreate(), then I can back to the previous activity I was in before enter background.

App is getting started again after launcher click even when it is already running

I have the problem that my App is starting again if the user clicks the launcher icon even if it is already running. I used singleTaks for that Activity and as many Stackoverflow Answers said -> This should solve the problem - but it doesnt.
<activity
android:name=".activities.ActivitySplash"
android:launchMode="singleTask">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
As you can see i did define the launchMode to be singleTask. I open the App. Navigate to Screen X (I even could stay on the Startscreen, has the same effect) and now i press the home button. When i now press the launcher icon again the already running app does not pop up or is getting resumed (call it as you wish). Instead the App is completly started new.
How can i prevent that behaviour, if singleTask isnt working?

Try with SingleTop:
if the target task already has an existing instance of the activity
at the top of its stack, that instance will receive the new intent (in
an onNewIntent() call); a new instance is not created. In other
circumstances — for example, if an existing instance of the
"singleTop" activity is in the target task, but not at the top of the
stack, or if it's at the top of a stack, but not in the target task —
a new instance would be created and pushed on the stack.

Strange issue with opening app

I have LoginActivity where after successful logging I start MainActivity via intent and finish LoginActivity.
I press back button and then open app via icon and It shows me MainActivity but if I open app from recent apps list after pressing back button so I see LoginActivity
I've checked if LoginActivity was destroyed
How can It be?
manifest
<activity android:name=".LoginActivity" />
<activity android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask" />
start MainActivity
Intent intent = new Intent(getActivity(), MainActivity.class);
mProgressDialog.dismiss();
startActivity(intent);
getActivity().finish();

Remove android:launchMode="singleTask"
Why you are adding launchMode, adding this you will be able to get its instance only once. Let default be "Standard", for more information, please have a look at the documentation.

Docs say:
The "standard" and "singleTop" modes differ from each other in just one respect: Every time there's a new intent for a "standard" activity, a new instance of the class is created to respond to that intent. Each instance handles a single intent. Similarly, a new instance of a "singleTop" activity may also be created to handle a new intent. However, if the target task already has an existing instance of the activity at the top of its stack, that instance will receive the new intent (in an onNewIntent() call); a new instance is not created.
So, you wouldn't need singleTask launch mode. Apart from this, I can't see <intent-filter> for your LoginActivity as being MAIN action and LAUNCHER category.

Android Home activity launching a sub-activity

I am relatively new to Android programming. I have been given a task at work where I need to create a Custom Home activity launcher. I did a bit of research and found the example on the Android developer website (home sample). This was the start for my prototype.
The custom Home activity will need to require the user to authenticate (enter some simple credentials). My thought was to launch a sub-activity from the Home activity and pass back the results in the intent to the Home activity. I need to be able to capture information about these credentials and that information was going to be passed back to the Home activity. However, I have problems when trying this. I get a log in the LogCat that says the following: "Activity is launching as a new task, so canceling activity result."
I am aware of the startActivityForResult method, but that does not seem to be working for me. Here is where I launch the activity from my Home activity:
#Override
protected void onResume() {
super.onResume();
bindRecents();
Intent iii = new Intent(this, Login.class);
startActivityForResult(iii, STATIC_LOGIN_INTEGER_VALUE);
}
When that code executes, I get the above mentioned log from the ActivityManager tag.
My Login activity has a button that the user will hit once they have entered their credentials. If the credentials are good, then I try to do the following (I put in several logs so that I could try to figure out what is going on):
public void onClick(View src) {
// check for authentic credentials
if(IsValid())
{
Intent loginAuth = new Intent("Login");
loginAuth.putExtra("userRole", userRole);
Log.d("LOGIN", "Setting result...");
if (getParent() == null) {
Log.d("LOGIN", "Parent was null");
setResult(Activity.RESULT_OK, loginAuth);
}
else {
Log.d("LOGIN", "setting result on parent...");
getParent().setResult(Activity.RESULT_OK, loginAuth);
}
Log.d("LOGIN", "Finishing the activity");
finish();
}
}
I defined these activities in my manifest file as the following:
<activity android:name="Home"
android:theme="#style/Theme"
android:launchMode="singleInstance"
android:stateNotNeeded="true">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name="Login"
android:label="Login"
android:launchMode="singleInstance">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.HOME" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
I was playing around with the intent filter on the Login activity. I had originally had it set to nothing. I also had the launchMode blank (which defaults to standard I believe). I have played around with most of these options and nothing seems to change the fact that the ActivityManager seems to want to launch the activity as a new task and wants to ignore the returned intent (which I need).

The problem is that you declared your activities with launchMode="singleInstance", so Android creates a new task (i.e. a new process) when it launches the Login activity. Activities in different tasks cannot return results to each other. From the Activity.startActivityForResult() docs:
For example, if the activity you are
launching uses the singleTask launch
mode, it will not run in your task and
thus you will immediately receive a
cancel result.
singleInstance is like singleTask but even more restrictive. Try removing the launchMode attribute from your manifest so that the Login activity will launch in the same task, then using FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK when you need to launch a different activity in a separate task.
Barry

The documentation says
For example, if the activity you are launching uses the singleTask
launch mode, it will not run in your task and thus you will
immediately receive a cancel result.
THIS IS WRONG.
You can use the singleTask just fine, what you can't use is singleInstance.
Let's return to the problem. What is the problem?
The problem is that when you call startActivityForResult() on an activity, the caller activity and the activity you are launching must be on the same task for the startActivityForResult() to work properly that means that you can't call startActivityForResult() to an activity using the Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK.
why singleInstance isn't working?
Because a "singleInstance" activity stands alone as the only activity in its task. If it starts another activity, that activity will be launched into a different task regardless of its launch mode — as if FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK was in the intent. In all other respects, the "singleInstance" mode is identical to "singleTask".
Why singleTask is working?
Because singleTask doesn't require the creation of a new task for the new activities being launched.
I quoted from this answer to explain the difference between the two launch modes.

Have you declared the setResult(int resultCode, Intent data) in your Login activity.
Android Documentation says
"Note that this method should only be used with Intent protocols that are defined to return a result." If it is not or some other conditions matches as in the documentation of Activity.startActivityForResult(), it will not run in your task and thus you will immediately receive a cancel result."

Android: bug in launchMode="singleTask"? -> activity stack not preserved

My main activity A has as set android:launchMode="singleTask" in the manifest. Now, whenever I start another activity from there, e.g. B and press the HOME BUTTON on the phone to return to the home screen and then again go back to my app, either via pressing the app's button or pressing the HOME BUTTONlong to show my most recent apps it doesn't preserve my activity stack and returns straight to A instead of the expected activity B.
Here the two behaviors:
Expected: A > B > HOME > B
Actual: A > B > HOME > A (bad!)
Is there a setting I'm missing or is this a bug? If the latter, is there a workaround for this until the bug is fixed?
FYI: This question has already been discussed here. However, it doesn't seem that there is any real solution to this, yet.

This is not a bug. When an existing singleTask activity is launched, all other activities above it in the stack will be destroyed.
When you press HOME and launch the activity again, ActivityManger calls an intent
{act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER]flag=FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK|FLAG_ACTIVITY_RESET_IF_NEEDED cmp=A}
So the result is A > B > HOME > A.
It's different when A's launchMode is "Standard". The task which contains A will come to the foreground and keep the state the same as before.
You can create a "Standard" activity eg. C as the launcher and startActivity(A) in the onCreate method of C
OR
Just remove the launchMode="singleTask" and set FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP|FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP flag whenever call an intent to A

From http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html on singleTask
The system creates the activity at the root of a new task and routes the intent to it. However, if an instance of the activity already exists, the system routes the intent to existing instance through a call to its onNewIntent() method, rather than creating a new one.
This means when the action.MAIN and category.LAUNCHER flags targets your application from the Launcher, the system would rather route the intent to the existing ActivityA as opposed to creating a new task and setting a new ActivityA as the root. It would rather tear down all activities above existing task ActivityA lives in, and invoke it's onNewIntent().
If you want to capture both the behavior of singleTop and singleTask, create a separate "delegate" activity named SingleTaskActivity with the singleTask launchMode which simply invokes the singleTop activity in its onCreate() and then finishes itself. The singleTop activity would still have the MAIN/LAUNCHER intent-filters to continue acting as the application's main Launcher activity, but when other activities desire calling this singleTop activity it must instead invoke the SingleTaskActivity as to preserve the singleTask behavior. The intent being passed to the singleTask activity should also be carried over to the singleTop Activity, so something like the following has worked for me since I wanted to have both singleTask and singleTop launch modes.
<activity android:name=".activities.SingleTaskActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask"
android:noHistory="true"/>
public class SingleTaskActivity extends Activity{
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Intent intent = getIntent();
intent.setClass(this, SingleTop.class);
startActivity(intent);
}
}
And your singleTop activity would continue having its singleTop launch mode.
<activity
android:name=".activities.SingleTopActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:noHistory="true"/>
Good luck.

Stefan, you ever find an answer to this? I put together a testcase for this and am seeing the same (perplexing) behavior...I'll paste the code below in case anyone comes along and sees something obvious:
AndroidManifest.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example" >
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3"/>
<application android:icon="#drawable/icon" android:label="testSingleTask">
<activity android:name=".ActivityA"
android:launchMode="singleTask">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<activity android:name=".ActivityB"/>
</application>
</manifest>
ActivityA.java:
public class ActivityA extends Activity implements View.OnClickListener
{
#Override
public void onCreate( Bundle savedInstanceState )
{
super.onCreate( savedInstanceState );
setContentView( R.layout.main );
View button = findViewById( R.id.tacos );
button.setOnClickListener( this );
}
public void onClick( View view )
{
//Intent i = new Intent( this, ActivityB.class );
Intent i = new Intent();
i.setComponent( new ComponentName( this, ActivityB.class ) );
startActivity( i );
}
}
ActivityB.java:
public class ActivityB extends Activity
{
#Override
public void onCreate( Bundle savedInstanceState )
{
super.onCreate( savedInstanceState );
setContentView( R.layout.layout_b );
}
}
I tried changing minSdkVersion to no avail. This just seems to be a bug, at least according to the documentation, which states the following:
As noted above, there's never more than one instance of a "singleTask" or "singleInstance" activity, so that instance is expected to handle all new intents. A "singleInstance" activity is always at the top of the stack (since it is the only activity in the task), so it is always in position to handle the intent. However, a "singleTask" activity may or may not have other activities above it in the stack. If it does, it is not in position to handle the intent, and the intent is dropped. (Even though the intent is dropped, its arrival would have caused the task to come to the foreground, where it would remain.)

I think this is the behaviour you want:
singleTask resets the stack on home press for some retarded reason that I don't understand.
The solution is instead to not use singleTask and use standard or singleTop for launcher activity instead (I've only tried with singleTop to date though).
Because apps have an affinity for each other, launching an activity like this:
Intent launchIntent = context.getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageName);
if(launchIntent!=null) {
launchIntent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_RESET_TASK_IF_NEEDED);
}
will cause your activty stack to reappear as it was, without it starting a new activity upon the old one (which was my main problem before). The flags are the important ones:
FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK Added in API level 1
If set, this activity will become the start of a new task on this
history stack. A task (from the activity that started it to the next
task activity) defines an atomic group of activities that the user can
move to. Tasks can be moved to the foreground and background; all of
the activities inside of a particular task always remain in the same
order. See Tasks and Back Stack for more information about tasks.
This flag is generally used by activities that want to present a
"launcher" style behavior: they give the user a list of separate
things that can be done, which otherwise run completely independently
of the activity launching them.
When using this flag, if a task is already running for the activity
you are now starting, then a new activity will not be started;
instead, the current task will simply be brought to the front of the
screen with the state it was last in. See FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK
for a flag to disable this behavior.
This flag can not be used when the caller is requesting a result from
the activity being launched.
And:
FLAG_ACTIVITY_RESET_TASK_IF_NEEDED Added in API level 1
If set, and this activity is either being started in a new task or
bringing to the top an existing task, then it will be launched as the
front door of the task. This will result in the application of any
affinities needed to have that task in the proper state (either moving
activities to or from it), or simply resetting that task to its
initial state if needed.
Without them the launched activity will just be pushed ontop of the old stack or some other undesirable behaviour (in this case of course)
I believe the problem with not receiving the latest Intent can be solved like this (out of my head):
#Override
public void onActivityReenter (int resultCode, Intent data) {
onNewIntent(data);
}
Try it out!

I've found this issue happens only if the launcher activity's launch mode is set to singleTask or singleInstance.
So, I've created a new launcher activity whose launch mode is standard or singleTop. And made this launcher activity to call my old main activity whose launch mode is single task.
LauncherActivity (standard/no history) -> MainActivity (singleTask).
Set splash screen to launcher activity. And killed launcher activity right after I call the main activity.
public LauncherActivity extends Activity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Intent intent = new Intent(this, HomeActivity.class);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_TASK_ON_HOME);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
}
<activity
android:name=".LauncherActivity"
android:noHistory="true"
android:theme="#style/Theme.LauncherScreen">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>
</activity>
<!-- Launcher screen theme should be set for the case that app is restarting after the process is killed. -->
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTask"
android:theme="#style/Theme.LauncherScreen"/>
Pros: Can keep the MainActivity's launch mode as singleTask to make sure there always is no more than one MainActivity.

If both A and B belong to the same Application, try removing
android:launchMode="singleTask"
from your Activities and test because I think the default behavior is what you described as expected.

Whenever you press the home button to go back to your home screen the activity stack kills some of the previously launched and running apps.
To verify this fact try to launch an app from the notification panel after going from A to B in your app and come back using the back button ..........you will find your app in the same state as you left it.

When using launch mode as singleTop make sure to call finish() (on current activity say A) when starting the next activity (using startActivity(Intent) method say B). This way the current activity gets destroyed.
A -> B -> Pause the app and click on launcher Icon, Starts A
In oncreate method of A, you need to have a check,
if(!TaskRoot()) {
finish();
return;
}
This way when launching app we are checking for root task and previously root task is B but not A. So this check destroys the activity A and takes us to activity B which is currently top of the stack.
Hope it works for you!.

This is how I finally solved this weird behavior. In AndroidManifest, this is what I added:
Application & Root activity
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:alwaysRetainTaskState="true"
android:taskAffinity="<name of package>"
Child Activity
android:parentActivityName=".<name of parent activity>"
android:taskAffinity="<name of package>"

Add below in android manifest activity, it will add new task to top of the view destroying earlier tasks.
android:launchMode="singleTop" as below
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:launchMode="singleTop"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme.NoActionBar">
</activity>

In child activity or in B activity
#Override
public void onBackPressed() {
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), Parent.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP|Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}

<activity android:name=".MainActivity"
android:launchMode="singleTop">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
//Try to use launchMode="singleTop" in your main activity to maintain single instance of your application. Go to manifest and change.