How to check if a service is running on Android

Question

How do I check if a background service is running   I want an Android activity that toggles the state of the service -- it lets me turn it on if it is off and off if it is on

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The proper way to check if a service is running is to simply ask it  Implement a BroadcastReceiver in your service that responds to pings from your activities  Register the BroadcastReceiver when the service starts  and unregister it when the service is destroyed  From your activity  or any component   send a local broadcast intent to the service and if it responds  you know it s running  Note the subtle difference between ACTION PING and ACTION PONG in the code below  public class PingableService extends Service       public static final String ACTION PING   PingableService class getName      quot  PING quot       public static final String ACTION PONG   PingableService class getName      quot  PONG quot        public int onStartCommand  Intent intent  int flags  int startId            LocalBroadcastManager getInstance this  registerReceiver mReceiver  new IntentFilter ACTION PING            return super onStartCommand intent  flags  startId               Override     public void onDestroy              LocalBroadcastManager getInstance this  unregisterReceiver mReceiver           super onDestroy               private BroadcastReceiver mReceiver   new BroadcastReceiver              Override         public void onReceive  Context context  Intent intent                if  intent getAction   equals ACTION PING                     LocalBroadcastManager manager   LocalBroadcastManager getInstance getApplicationContext                     manager sendBroadcast new Intent ACTION PONG                                      public class MyActivity extends Activity       private boolean isSvcRunning   false        Override     protected void onStart             LocalBroadcastManager manager   LocalBroadcastManager getInstance getApplicationContext             manager registerReceiver mReceiver  new IntentFilter PingableService ACTION PONG               the service will respond to this broadcast only if it s running         manager sendBroadcast new Intent PingableService ACTION PING            super onStart                Override     protected void onStop             LocalBroadcastManager getInstance this  unregisterReceiver mReceiver           super onStop               protected BroadcastReceiver mReceiver   new BroadcastReceiver              Override         public void onReceive  Context context  Intent intent                   here you receive the response from the service             if  intent getAction   equals PingableService ACTION PONG                     isSvcRunning   true

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In your Service Sub-Class Use a Static Boolean to get the state of the Service as demonstrated below   MyService kt  class MyService   Service         override fun onCreate             super onCreate           isServiceStarted   true           override fun onDestroy             super onDestroy           isServiceStarted   false           companion object           var isServiceStarted   false           MainActivity kt  class MainActivity   AppCompatActivity        override fun onCreate savedInstanceState  Bundle             super onCreate savedInstanceState          setContentView R layout activity main           val serviceStarted   FileObserverService isServiceStarted         if   serviceStarted                val startFileObserverService   Intent this  FileObserverService  class java              ContextCompat startForegroundService this  startFileObserverService

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In kotlin you can add boolean variable in companion object and check its value from any class you want    companion object       var isRuning   false      Change it value when service is created and destroyed   override fun onCreate             super onCreate           isRuning   true        override fun onDestroy         super onDestroy       isRuning   false

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Got it    You MUST call startService   for your service to be properly registered and passing BIND AUTO CREATE will not suffice   Intent bindIntent   new Intent this ServiceTask class   startService bindIntent   bindService bindIntent mConnection 0     And now the ServiceTools class   public class ServiceTools       private static String LOG TAG   ServiceTools class getName         public static boolean isServiceRunning String serviceClassName           final ActivityManager activityManager    ActivityManager Application getContext   getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE           final List lt RunningServiceInfo gt  services   activityManager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE            for  RunningServiceInfo runningServiceInfo   services                if  runningServiceInfo service getClassName   equals serviceClassName                    return true                                  return false

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The response of geekQ but in Kotlin class  Thanks geekQ    fun isMyServiceRunning serviceClass   Class lt   gt      Boolean      var manager   getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE  as ActivityManager     for  service in manager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE             if  serviceClass name equals service service className                 return true                     return false     The call  isMyServiceRunning NewService  class java

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It is possible for you to use this options from the Android Developer options to see if your service is still running in the background   1  Open Settings in your Android device  2  Find Developer Options  3  Find Running Services option  4  Find your app icon  5  You will then see all the service that belongs to your app running in the background

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You can use this  I didn t try this yet  but I hope this works    if startService someIntent     null        Toast makeText getBaseContext     Service is already running   Toast LENGTH SHORT  show      else       Toast makeText getBaseContext     There is no service running  starting service     Toast LENGTH SHORT  show        The startService method returns a ComponentName object if there is an already running service  If not  null will be returned   See public abstract ComponentName startService  Intent service    This is not like checking I think  because it s starting the service  so you can add stopService someIntent   under the code

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Please use this code    if  isMyServiceRunning MainActivity this  xyzService class        Service class name        Service running   else          Service Stop     public static boolean isMyServiceRunning Activity activity  Class lt   gt  serviceClass            ActivityManager manager    ActivityManager  activity getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE           for  ActivityManager RunningServiceInfo service   manager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE                 if  serviceClass getName   equals service service getClassName                       return true                                  return false

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I use the following from inside an activity   private boolean isMyServiceRunning Class lt   gt  serviceClass        ActivityManager manager    ActivityManager  getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE       for  RunningServiceInfo service   manager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE             if  serviceClass getName   equals service service getClassName                   return true                      return false      And I call it using   isMyServiceRunning MyService class    This works reliably  because it is based on the information about running services provided by the Android operating system through ActivityManager getRunningServices   All the approaches using onDestroy or onSometing events or Binders or static variables will not work reliably because as a developer you never know  when Android decides to kill your process or which of the mentioned callbacks are called or not  Please note the  killable  column in the lifecycle events table in the Android documentation

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Again  another alternative that people might find cleaner if they use pending intents  for instance with the AlarmManager    public static boolean isRunning Class lt   extends Service gt  serviceClass        final Intent intent   new Intent context  serviceClass       return  PendingIntent getService context  CODE  intent  PendingIntent FLAG NO CREATE     null       Where CODE is a constant that you define privately in your class to identify the pending intents associated to your service

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A small complement is   My goal is to know wether a service is running without actualy running it if it is not running   Calling bindService or calling an intent that can be caught by the service is not a good idea then as it will start the service if it is not running   So  as miracle2k suggested  the best is to have a static field in the service class to know whether the service has been started or not   To make it even cleaner  I suggest to transform the service in a singleton with a very very lazy fetching  that is  there is no instantiation at all of the singleton instance through static methods  The static getInstance method of your service singleton just returns the instance of the singleton if it has been created  But it doesn t actualy start or instanciate the singleton itself  The service is only started through normal service start methods   It would then be even cleaner to modify the singleton design pattern to rename the confusing getInstance method into something like the isInstanceCreated     boolean method   The code will look like   public class MyService extends Service      private static MyService instance   null      public static boolean isInstanceCreated           return instance    null        met      Override    public void onCreate              instance   this                   met      Override    public void onDestroy              instance   null                  met    class   This solution is elegant  but it is only relevant if you have access to the service class and only for classes iside the app package of the service  If your classes are outside of the service app package then you could query the ActivityManager with limitations underlined by Pieter-Jan Van Robays

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There can be several services with the same class name    I ve just created two apps  The package name of the first app is com example mock  I created a subpackage called lorem in the app and a service called Mock2Service  So its fully qualified name is com example mock lorem Mock2Service   Then I created the second app and a service called Mock2Service  The package name of the second app is com example mock lorem  The fully qualified name of the service is com example mock lorem Mock2Service  too   Here is my logcat output   03-27 12 02 19 985  D TAG 32155   Mock-01  com example mock lorem Mock2Service 03-27 12 02 33 755  D TAG 32277   Mock-02  com example mock lorem Mock2Service   A better idea is to compare ComponentName instances because equals   of ComponentName compares both package names and class names  And there can t be two apps with the same package name installed on a device   The equals   method of ComponentName    Override public boolean equals Object obj        try           if  obj    null                ComponentName other    ComponentName obj                 Note  no null checks  because mPackage and mClass can                never be null              return mPackage equals other mPackage                       amp  amp  mClass equals other mClass                   catch  ClassCastException e              return false      ComponentName

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simple use bind with don t create auto - see ps  and update     public abstract class Context                     return  true  If you have successfully bound to the service         false  is returned if the connection is not made       so you will not receive the service object         public abstract boolean bindService  RequiresPermission Intent service           NonNull ServiceConnection conn   BindServiceFlags int flags     example        Intent bindIntent   new Intent context  Class lt Service gt        boolean bindResult   context bindService bindIntent  ServiceConnection  0     why not using  getRunningServices     List lt ActivityManager RunningServiceInfo gt  getRunningServices  int maxNum  Return a list of the services that are currently running    Note  this method is only intended for debugging or implementing service management type user interfaces     ps  android  documentation is misleading i have opened an issue on google tracker to eliminate any doubts   https   issuetracker google com issues 68908332  as we can see bind service actually invokes a transaction via ActivityManager binder through Service cache binders - i dint track which service is responsible for binding but as we can see the result for bind is   int res   ActivityManagerNative getDefault   bindService       return res    0    transaction is made through binder   ServiceManager getService  activity      next     public static IBinder getService String name        try           IBinder service   sCache get name           if  service    null                return service            else               return getIServiceManager   getService name     this is set in ActivityThread  via    public final void bindApplication                 if  services    null                   Setup the service cache in the ServiceManager             ServiceManager initServiceCache services               this is called in ActivityManagerService in method    private final boolean attachApplicationLocked IApplicationThread thread              int pid                thread bindApplication       getCommonServicesLocked          then     private HashMap lt String  IBinder gt  getCommonServicesLocked       but there is no  activity  only window package and alarm    so we need get back to  call     return getIServiceManager   getService name        sServiceManager   ServiceManagerNative asInterface BinderInternal getContextObject       this makes call through       mRemote transact GET SERVICE TRANSACTION  data  reply  0     which leads to    BinderInternal getContextObject     and this is native method                   Return the global  context object  of the system   This is usually        an implementation of IServiceManager  which you can use to find        other services              public static final native IBinder getContextObject      i don t have time now to dug in c so until i dissect rest call i suspend my answer   but best way for check if service is running is to create bind  if bind is not created service not exist  - and query the service about its state through the bind  using stored internal flag on it state    update 23 06 2018  i found those interesting          Provide a binder to an already-bound service   This method is synchronous    and will not start the target service if it is not present  so it is safe    to call from   link  onReceive         For peekService   to return a non null   link android os IBinder  interface    the service must have published it before  In other words some component    must have called   link android content Context bindService Intent  ServiceConnection  int   on it         param myContext The Context that had been passed to   link  onReceive Context  Intent       param service Identifies the already-bound service you wish to use  See      link android content Context bindService Intent  ServiceConnection  int      for more information      public IBinder peekService Context myContext  Intent service        IActivityManager am   ActivityManager getService        IBinder binder   null      try           service prepareToLeaveProcess myContext           binder   am peekService service  service resolveTypeIfNeeded                  myContext getContentResolver     myContext getOpPackageName           catch  RemoteException e              return binder      in short       Provide a binder to an already-bound service   This method is synchronous and will not start the target service if it is not present    public IBinder peekService Intent service  String resolvedType                  String callingPackage  throws RemoteException          public static IBinder peekService IBinder remote  Intent service  String resolvedType               throws RemoteException       Parcel data   Parcel obtain        Parcel reply   Parcel obtain        data writeInterfaceToken  android app IActivityManager        service writeToParcel data  0       data writeString resolvedType       remote transact android os IBinder FIRST CALL TRANSACTION 84  data  reply  0       reply readException        IBinder binder   reply readStrongBinder        reply recycle        data recycle        return binder

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Xamarin C  version   private bool isMyServiceRunning System Type cls        ActivityManager manager    ActivityManager GetSystemService Context ActivityService        foreach  var service in manager GetRunningServices int MaxValue             if  service Service ClassName Equals Java Lang Class FromType cls  CanonicalName                 return true                      return false

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My kotlin conversion of the ActivityManager  getRunningServices based answers  Put this function in an activity-  private fun isMyServiceRunning serviceClass  Class lt out Service gt          getSystemService ACTIVITY SERVICE  as ActivityManager           getRunningServices Int MAX VALUE            map   it service className             contains serviceClass name     false

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If the service belongs to another process or APK use the solution based on the ActivityManager   If you have access to its source  just use the solution based on a static field  But instead using a boolean I would suggest using a Date object  While the service is running  just update its value to  now  and when it finishes set it to null  From the activity you can check if its null or the date is too old which will mean that it is not running   You can also send broadcast notification from your service indicating that is running along further info like progress

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First of all you shouldn t reach the service by using the ActivityManager   Discussed here  Services can run on their own  be bound to an Activity or both  The way to check in an Activity if your Service is running or not is by making an interface  that extends Binder  where you declare methods that both  the Activity and the Service  understand  You can do this by making your own Interface where you declare for example  quot isServiceRunning   quot   You can then bind your Activity to your Service  run the method isServiceRunning    the Service will check for itself if it is running or not and returns a boolean to your Activity  You can also use this method to stop your Service or interact with it in another way

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I had the same problem not long ago  Since my service was local  I ended up simply using a static field in the service class to toggle state  as described by hackbod here  EDIT  for the record    Here is the solution proposed by hackbod      If your client and server code is part of the same  apk and you are    binding to the service with a concrete Intent  one that specifies the    exact service class   then you can simply have your service set a    global variable when it is running that your client can check        We deliberately don t have an API to check whether a service is    running because  nearly without fail  when you want to do something    like that you end up with race conditions in your code

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This applies more towards Intent Service debugging since they spawn a thread  but may work for regular services as well  I found this thread thanks to Binging  In my case  I played around with the debugger and found the thread view  It kind of looks like the bullet point icon in MS Word  Anyways  you don t have to be in debugger mode to use it  Click on the process and click on that button  Any Intent Services will show up while they are running  at least on the emulator

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Take it easy guys        I think the most suitable solution is holding a key-value pair in SharedPreferences about if the service is running or not   Logic is very straight  at any desired position in your service class  put a boolean value which will act as a flag for you about whether the service is running or not  Then read this value whereever you want in your application   A sample code which I am using in my app is below   In my Service class  A service for Audio Stream   I execute the following code when the service is up   private void updatePlayerStatus boolean isRadioPlaying            SharedPreferences sharedPref   this getSharedPreferences getString R string str shared file name   Context MODE PRIVATE           SharedPreferences Editor editor   sharedPref edit            editor putBoolean getString R string str shared file radio status key   isRadioPlaying           editor commit        Then in any activity of my application  I am checking the status of the service with the help of following code   private boolean isRadioRunning             SharedPreferences sharedPref   this getSharedPreferences getString R string str shared file name   Context MODE PRIVATE            return sharedPref getBoolean getString R string str shared file radio status key   false       No special permissions  no loops    Easy way  clean solution     If you need extra information  please refer the link   Hope this helps

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Another approach using kotlin  Inspired in other users answers  fun isMyServiceRunning serviceClass  Class lt   gt    Boolean       val manager   getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE  as ActivityManager     return manager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE               any   it service className    serviceClass name       As kotlin extension   fun Context isMyServiceRunning serviceClass  Class lt   gt    Boolean       val manager   this getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE  as ActivityManager     return manager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE               any   it service className    serviceClass name       Usage  context isMyServiceRunning MyService  class java

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Below is an elegant hack that covers all the Ifs  This is for local services only       public final class AService extends Service            private static AService mInstance   null           public static boolean isServiceCreated                 try                      If instance was not cleared but the service was destroyed an Exception will be thrown                 return mInstance    null  amp  amp  mInstance ping                  catch  NullPointerException e                       destroyed not-started                 return false                                                  Simply returns true  If the service is still active  this method will be accessible              return                     private boolean ping                 return true                      Override         public void onCreate                 mInstance   this                      Override         public void onDestroy                 mInstance   null                    And then later on       if AService isServiceCreated                      else          startService

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I just want to add a note to the answer by  Snicolas  The following steps can be used to check stop service with without calling onDestroy      onDestroy   called  Go to Settings -  Application -  Running Services -  Select and stop your service  onDestroy   not Called  Go to Settings -  Application -  Manage Applications -  Select and  Force Stop  your application in which your service is running  However  as your application is stopped here  so definitely the service instances will also be stopped    Finally  I would like to mention that the approach mentioned there using a static variable in singleton class is working for me

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For the use-case given here we may simply make use of the stopService   method s return value  It returns true if there exists the specified service and it is killed  Else it returns false  So you may restart the service if the result is false else it is assured that the current service has been stopped     It would be better if you have a look at this

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Inside TheServiceClass define    public static Boolean serviceRunning   false    Then In onStartCommand         public int onStartCommand Intent intent  int flags  int startId         serviceRunning   true               Override public void onDestroy         serviceRunning   false        Then  call if TheServiceClass serviceRunning    true  from any class

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onDestroy isn t always called in the service so this is useless    For example  Just run the app again with one change from Eclipse  The application is forcefully exited using SIG  9

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I have slightly modified one of the solutions presented above  but passing the class instead of a generic string name  in order to be sure to compare strings coming out from the same method class getName    public class ServiceTools       private static String LOG TAG   ServiceTools class getName         public static boolean isServiceRunning Context context Class lt   gt  serviceClass           final ActivityManager activityManager    ActivityManager context getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE           final List lt RunningServiceInfo gt  services   activityManager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE            for  RunningServiceInfo runningServiceInfo   services                Log d Constants TAG  String format  Service  s   runningServiceInfo service getClassName                  if  runningServiceInfo service getClassName   equals serviceClass getName                      return true                                  return false            and then  Boolean isServiceRunning   ServiceTools isServiceRunning                      MainActivity this getApplicationContext                        BackgroundIntentService class

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The only efficient fastest clean way of detecting if a service is running is to create a PING PONG functionality  Implement Messenger or AIDL method inside the service  isAlive   - which return the state of the service  Do not implement broadcasts because they can be missed

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Check if the service is Running      param serviceClass the class of the Service        return true if the service is running otherwise false     public boolean checkServiceRunning Class lt   gt  serviceClass       ActivityManager manager    ActivityManager  getSystemService ACTIVITY SERVICE       for  RunningServiceInfo service   manager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE                 if  serviceClass getName   equals service service getClassName                           return true                      return false

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For kotlin  you can use the below code   fun isMyServiceRunning calssObj  Class lt SERVICE CALL NAME gt    Boolean       val manager   requireActivity   getSystemService Context ACTIVITY SERVICE  as ActivityManager     for  service in manager getRunningServices Integer MAX VALUE             if  calssObj getName   equals service service getClassName                   return true                     return false

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An extract from Android docs      Like sendBroadcast Intent   but if there are any receivers for   the Intent this function will block and immediately dispatch them   before returning    Think of this hack as  pinging  the Service  Since we can broadcast synchronously  we can broadcast and get a result synchronously  on the UI thread   Service   Override public void onCreate        LocalBroadcastManager       getInstance this        registerReceiver new ServiceEchoReceiver    new IntentFilter  ping            do not forget to deregister the receiver when the service is destroyed to avoid        any potential memory leaks     private class ServiceEchoReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver       public void onReceive  Context context  Intent intent          LocalBroadcastManager           getInstance this            sendBroadcastSync new Intent  pong               Activity      bool serviceRunning   false       protected void onCreate  Bundle savedInstanceState           LocalBroadcastManager getInstance this  registerReceiver pong  new IntentFilter  pong             LocalBroadcastManager getInstance this  sendBroadcastSync new Intent  ping             if  serviceRunning                run the service                      private BroadcastReceiver pong   new BroadcastReceiver            public void onReceive  Context context  Intent intent              serviceRunning   true                       The winner in many applications is  of course  a static boolean field on the service that is set to true in Service onCreate   and to false in Service onDestroy   because it s a lot simpler

[android] How to check if a service is running on Android?

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