Android Service Stops When App Is Closed

Question

I am starting a service from my main Android activity as follows   final Context context   base getApplicationContext    final Intent intent   new Intent context  MyService class   startService intent     When I close the activity page by swiping it out from the recent apps list  the service stops running and restarts after some time  I can t use persistent services with notifications because of my app requirements  How can I make the service NOT restart or shutdown and just keep on running on app exit

User · Answer

Services are quite complicated sometimes.

When you start a service from an activity (or your process), the service is essentially on the same process.

quoting from the developer notes

Most confusion about the Service class actually revolves around what it is not:

A Service is not a separate process. The Service object itself does not imply it is running in its own process; unless otherwise specified, it runs in the same process as the application it is part of.

A Service is not a thread. It is not a means itself to do work off of the main thread (to avoid Application Not Responding errors).

So, what this means is, if the user swipes the app away from the recent tasks it will delete your process(this includes all your activities etc). Now, lets take three scenarios.

First where the service does not have a foreground notification.

In this case your process is killed along with your service.

Second where the service has a foreground notification

In this case the service is not killed and neither is the process

Third scenario If the service does not have a foreground notification, it can still keep running if the app is closed. We can do this by making the service run in a different process. (However, I've heard some people say that it may not work. left to you to try it out yourself)

you can create a service in a separate process by including the below attribute in your manifest.

android:process=":yourService"

or

android:process="yourService" process name must begin with lower case.

quoting from developer notes

If the name assigned to this attribute begins with a colon (':'), a new process, private to the application, is created when it's needed and the service runs in that process. If the process name begins with a lowercase character, the service will run in a global process of that name, provided that it has permission to do so. This allows components in different applications to share a process, reducing resource usage.

this is what I have gathered, if anyone is an expert, please do correct me if I'm wrong :)

User · Answer

The Main problem is in unable to start the service when app closed  android OS In Some OS  will kill the service for Resource Optimization  If you are not able to restart the service then call a alarm manger to start the receiver like this Here is the entire code  This code will keep alive ur service   Manifest is             lt service             android name   BackgroundService              android description   string app name              android enabled  true              android label  Notification    gt           lt receiver android name  AlarmReceiver  gt               lt intent-filter gt                   lt action android name  REFRESH THIS    gt               lt  intent-filter gt           lt  receiver gt    IN Main Activty start alarm manger in this way   String alarm   Context ALARM SERVICE          AlarmManager am    AlarmManager  getSystemService alarm            Intent intent   new Intent  REFRESH THIS            PendingIntent pi   PendingIntent getBroadcast this  123456789  intent  0            int type   AlarmManager RTC WAKEUP          long interval   1000   50           am setInexactRepeating type  System currentTimeMillis    interval  pi     this will call reciver and reciver is   public class AlarmReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver       Context context        Override     public void onReceive Context context  Intent intent            this context   context           System out println  Alarma Reciver Called             if  isMyServiceRunning this context  BackgroundService class                 System out println  alredy running no need to start again              else               Intent background   new Intent context  BackgroundService class               context startService background                        public static boolean isMyServiceRunning Context context  Class lt   gt  serviceClass            ActivityManager activityManager    ActivityManager  context getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE           List lt ActivityManager RunningServiceInfo gt  services   activityManager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE            if  services    null                for  int i   0  i  lt  services size    i                      if   serviceClass getName    equals services get i  service getClassName     amp  amp  services get i  pid    0                        return true                                                    return false            And this Alaram reciver calls once when android app is opened and when app is closed SO the service is like this   public class BackgroundService extends Service       private String LOG TAG   null        Override     public void onCreate             super onCreate            LOG TAG    app name           Log i LOG TAG   service created                Override     public int onStartCommand Intent intent  int flags  int startId            Log i LOG TAG   In onStartCommand              ur actual code         return START STICKY              Override     public IBinder onBind Intent intent               Wont be called as service is not bound         Log i LOG TAG   In onBind            return null              TargetApi Build VERSION CODES ICE CREAM SANDWICH       Override     public void onTaskRemoved Intent rootIntent            super onTaskRemoved rootIntent           Log i LOG TAG   In onTaskRemoved                Override     public void onDestroy             super onDestroy            Log i LOG TAG   In onDestroyed

User · Answer

From Android O  you cant use the services for the long running background operations due to this  https   developer android com about versions oreo background   Jobservice will be the better option with Jobscheduler implementation

User · Answer

Why not use an IntentService    IntentService opens a new Thread apart from the main Thread and works there  that way closing the app wont effect it  Be advised that IntentService runs the onHandleIntent   and when its done the service closes  see if it fits your needs  http   developer android com reference android app IntentService html

User · Answer

Just override onDestroy method in your first visible activity like after splash you have home page and while redirecting from splash to home page you have already finish splash  so put on destroy in home page  and stop service in that method

User · Answer

I m in the same situation  so far I learned when the app is closed the service get closed also because they are in a one thread  so the service should be on another thread in order fot it not to be closed  look into that and look into keeping the service alive with alarm manager here an example http   www vogella com articles AndroidServices article html this way your service won t be shown in notification   lastly  after all the research I ve done I m coming to realize that the best choice for a long running service is startForeground    because it is made for that and the system actually deals with your service well

User · Answer

lt service android name   Service2              android process   string app name              android exported  true              android isolatedProcess  true                gt    Declare this in your manifest   Give a custom name to your process and make that process isolated and exported

User · Answer

You must add this code in your Service class so that it handles the case when your process is being killed     Override     public void onTaskRemoved Intent rootIntent            Intent restartServiceIntent   new Intent getApplicationContext    this getClass             restartServiceIntent setPackage getPackageName              PendingIntent restartServicePendingIntent   PendingIntent getService getApplicationContext    1  restartServiceIntent  PendingIntent FLAG ONE SHOT           AlarmManager alarmService    AlarmManager  getApplicationContext   getSystemService Context ALARM SERVICE           alarmService set                  AlarmManager ELAPSED REALTIME                  SystemClock elapsedRealtime     1000                  restartServicePendingIntent            super onTaskRemoved rootIntent

User · Answer

make you service like this in your Mainifest     lt service             android name   sys service youservice              android exported  true          android process   ServiceProcess    gt    then your service will run on other process named ServiceProcess    if you want make your service never die     onStartCommand   return START STICKY onDestroy   -  startself create a Deamon service   jin -  create a Native Deamon process  you can find some open-source projects on github startForeground     there is a way to  startForeground without Notification  google it

User · Answer

Using the same process for the service and the activity and START STICKY or START REDELIVER INTENT in the service is the only way to be able to restart the service when the application restarts  which happens when the user closes the application for example  but also when the system decides to close it for optimisations reasons  You CAN NOT have a service that will run permanently without any interruption  This is by design  smartphones are not made to run continuous processes for long period of time  This is due to the fact that battery life is the highest priority  You need to design your service so it handles being stopped at any point

User · Answer

try this  it will keep the service running in the background   BackServices class  public class BackServices extends Service        Override     public IBinder onBind Intent arg0               TODO Auto-generated method stub         return null              Override    public int onStartCommand Intent intent  int flags  int startId             Let it continue running until it is stopped        Toast makeText this   Service Started   Toast LENGTH LONG  show          return START STICKY           Override    public void onDestroy           super onDestroy          Toast makeText this   Service Destroyed   Toast LENGTH LONG  show             in your MainActivity onCreate drop this line of code   startService new Intent getBaseContext    BackServices class      Now the service will stay running in background

User · Answer

Running an intent service will be easier  Service in creating a thread in the application but it s still in the application

User · Answer

This may help you  I may be mistaken but it seems to me that this is related with returning START STICKY in  your onStartCommand   method  You can avoid the service from being called again by returning START NOT STICKY instead

User · Answer

Best solution is to use the sync Adapter in android to start the service  Create a Sync Adapter and call start service their   inside onPerformSync method   to create sync Account please refer this link https   developer android com training sync-adapters index html  Why SyncAdapter  Ans  Because earlier you used to start the service using your App context  so whenever your app process get killed  When u remove it from task manager or OS kill it because of lack of resources   at that time your service will also be removed  SyncAdapter will not work in application thread   so if u call inside it   service will no longer be removed   unless u write code to remove it

[android] Android Service Stops When App Is Closed

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