Check if application is on its first run

Question

I am new to android development and and I want to setup some of application s attributes based on Application first run after installation  Is there any way to find that the application is running for the first time and then to setup its first run attributes

User · Answer

I m not sure it s good way to check it  What about case when user uses button  clear data  from settings  SharedPreferences will be cleared and you catch  first run  again  And it s a problem  I guess it s better idea to use InstallReferrerReceiver

User · Answer

There is no way to know that through the Android API  You have to store some flag by yourself and make it persist either in a SharedPreferenceEditor or using a database    If you want to base some licence related stuff on this flag  I suggest you use an obfuscated preference editor provided by the LVL library  It s simple and clean   Regards    Stephane

User · Answer

The following is an example of using SharedPreferences to achieve a  first run  check   public class MyActivity extends Activity        SharedPreferences prefs   null        Override     protected void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState            super onCreate savedInstanceState              Perhaps set content view here          prefs   getSharedPreferences  com mycompany myAppName   MODE PRIVATE               Override     protected void onResume             super onResume             if  prefs getBoolean  firstrun   true                    Do first run stuff here then set  firstrun  as false                using the following line to edit commit prefs             prefs edit   putBoolean  firstrun   false  commit                        When the code runs prefs getBoolean      if there isn t a boolean saved in SharedPreferences with the key  firstrun  then that indicates the app has never been run  because nothing has ever saved a boolean with that key or the user has cleared the app data in order to force a  first run  scenario   If this isn t the first run then the line prefs edit   putBoolean  firstrun   false  commit    will have been executed and therefore prefs getBoolean  firstrun   true  will actually return false as it overrides the default true provided as the second parameter

User · Answer

SharedPreferences mPrefs  final String welcomeScreenShownPref    welcomeScreenShown        Called when the activity is first created      Override public void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState        super onCreate savedInstanceState       setContentView R layout main        mPrefs   PreferenceManager getDefaultSharedPreferences this           second argument is the default to use if the preference can t be found     Boolean welcomeScreenShown   mPrefs getBoolean welcomeScreenShownPref  false        if   welcomeScreenShown               here you can launch another activity if you like          SharedPreferences Editor editor   mPrefs edit            editor putBoolean welcomeScreenShownPref  true           editor commit       Very important to save the preference

User · Answer

import java io File      import java io FileOutputStream      import java io IOException      import java io RandomAccessFile      import java util UUID       import android content Context       public class Util                                                                                                                                                                     private static final String INSTALLATION    INSTALLATION            public synchronized static boolean isFirstLaunch Context context                String sID   null              boolean launchFlag   false              if  sID    null                    File installation   new File context getFilesDir    INSTALLATION                   try                       if   installation exists                          launchFlag   true                                                    writeInstallationFile installation                                             sID   readInstallationFile installation                      catch  Exception e                        throw new RuntimeException e                                               return launchFlag                     private static String readInstallationFile File installation  throws IOException               RandomAccessFile f   new RandomAccessFile installation   r      read only mode             byte   bytes   new byte  int  f length                 f readFully bytes               f close                 return new String bytes                      private static void writeInstallationFile File installation  throws IOException               FileOutputStream out   new FileOutputStream installation               String id   UUID randomUUID   toString                out write id getBytes                 out close                      gt  Usage  in class extending android app Activity   Util isFirstLaunch this

User · Answer

There s no reliable way to detect first run  as the shared preferences way is not always safe  the user can delete the shared preferences data from the settings  a better way is to use the answers here Is there a unique Android device ID  to get the device s unique ID and store it somewhere in your server  so whenever the user launches the app you request the server and check if it s there in your database or it is new

User · Answer

This might help you  public class FirstActivity extends Activity        SharedPreferences sharedPreferences   null      Editor editor        Override     protected void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState            super onCreate savedInstanceState            setContentView R layout activity login            sharedPreferences   getSharedPreferences  com myAppName   MODE PRIVATE               Override     protected void onResume             super onResume             if  sharedPreferences getBoolean  firstRun   true                You can perform anything over here  This will call only first time                  editor   sharedPreferences edit                     editor putBoolean  firstRun   false                   editor commit

User · Answer

The following is an example of using SharedPreferences to achieve a  forWhat  check       preferences   PreferenceManager getDefaultSharedPreferences context       preferencesEditor   preferences edit    public static boolean isFirstRun String forWhat        if  preferences getBoolean forWhat  true             preferencesEditor putBoolean forWhat  false  commit            return true        else           return false

User · Answer

The accepted answer doesn t differentiate between a first run and subsequent upgrades  Just setting a boolean in shared preferences will only tell you if it is the first run after the app is first installed  Later if you want to upgrade your app and make some changes on the first run of that upgrade  you won t be able to use that boolean any more because shared preferences are saved across upgrades   This method uses shared preferences to save the version code rather than a boolean   import com yourpackage BuildConfig       private void checkFirstRun          final String PREFS NAME    MyPrefsFile       final String PREF VERSION CODE KEY    version code       final int DOESNT EXIST   -1          Get current version code     int currentVersionCode   BuildConfig VERSION CODE          Get saved version code     SharedPreferences prefs   getSharedPreferences PREFS NAME  MODE PRIVATE       int savedVersionCode   prefs getInt PREF VERSION CODE KEY  DOESNT EXIST           Check for first run or upgrade     if  currentVersionCode    savedVersionCode                This is just a normal run         return         else if  savedVersionCode    DOESNT EXIST                TODO This is a new install  or the user cleared the shared preferences         else if  currentVersionCode  gt  savedVersionCode                TODO This is an upgrade               Update the shared preferences with the current version code     prefs edit   putInt PREF VERSION CODE KEY  currentVersionCode  apply        You would probably call this method from onCreate in your main activity so that it is checked every time your app starts   public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity         Override     protected void onCreate Bundle savedInstanceState            super onCreate savedInstanceState           setContentView R layout activity main            checkFirstRun               private void checkFirstRun                              If you needed to  you could adjust the code to do specific things depending on what version the user previously had installed   Idea came from this answer  These also helpful    How can you get the Manifest Version number from the App  39 s  Layout  XML variables  User versionName value of AndroidManifest xml in code   If you are having trouble getting the version code  see the following Q amp A    How to get the build version number of your Android application

User · Answer

Just check for some preference with default value indicating that it s a first run  So if you get default value  do your initialization and set this preference to different value to indicate that the app is initialized already

[android] Check if application is on its first run

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