Activity stack behaves incorrectly during the first run of an app when started from Eclipse [36907463]

Obsolete

Bug

[AOSP] Version-4.1

Status Update

No update yet.

Description

he...@gmail.com

created issue #1

Apr 6, 2009 04:08PM

App description: app contains a menu item to show a Help screen. Pressing
this menu item launches a new Activity that provides the help screen. The
code that launches this new Activity is

String packageName = HelpActivity.class.getPackage().getName();
String packageAndClassName = HelpActivity.class.getName();
Intent intent = new Intent().setClassName(packageName,
packageAndClassName);
startActivity(intent);

Steps to reproduce:

Run app from Eclipse
(App is launched on the phone)
Click the menu item
(The help Activity appears)
Press the HOME key
Start app again from the icon on the home screen

RESULTS
First run of this scenario:
The main Activity appears. Pressing the BACK key shows the help activity.
Pressing BACK again quits the app and returns to the home screen.

Subsequent runs of this scenario:
The help Activity appears. Pressing the BACK key shows the main activity.
Pressing BACK again quits the app and returns to the home screen.

This only happens when launching the app from Eclipse. This incorrect
behavior on the first run is not observed if I export an apk from Eclipse,
sign it, and install it on the phone with "adb install Some.apk".

Comments

en...@gmail.com <en...@gmail.com> #2Nov 2, 2009 02:07AM

Thank you very much for reporting this issue, Jack. Looks like the issue is caused by somewhat unnecessary and contrived logic in apksigner.bat, which is special-casing -J* parameters. Unfortunately, this logic doesn't handle whitespace containing parameters, even those which aren't -J*.

I've uploaded a tentative fix

https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/394238/ for review. The patched apksigner.bat is attached. This fixes the issue on my Windows 10 box.

Jack, please test the fix in your environment and let us know whether it works for you too.

je...@gmail.com <je...@gmail.com> #3Dec 3, 2009 07:35PM

Confirmed, that fix works. Thank you for the quick turn-around on this.

je...@gmail.com <je...@gmail.com> #4Dec 3, 2009 07:35PM

Project: platform/tools/apksig
Branch: master

commit b293b2087837853e32a1cff008d58644dbbd4cc2
Author: Alex Klyubin <klyubin@google.com>
Date: Wed May 10 16:53:25 2017

Handle whitespace when removing -J* parameters in .bat

apksigner.bat contains special logic for -J* parameters. This logic
was not designed to handle parameters containing whitespace. This
commit fixes the issue. It is unclear whether this -J* logic is even
needed. So, if it keeps breaking stuff, we should probably simply
remove it.

Test: apksigner sign --ks "nonexistent.jks" --ks-pass pass:123123 --ks-key-alias "bug apksigner test" nonexistent.apk
Fails with FileNotFoundException instead of "a was unexpected at this time"
Bug: 38132450

Change-Id: Ice3294e9993b075533c77d94eb870cfd35a65bbc

M etc/apksigner.bat

https://android-review.googlesource.com/394238

https://goto.google.com/android-sha1/b293b2087837853e32a1cff008d58644dbbd4cc2

ma...@gmail.com <ma...@gmail.com> #5Dec 5, 2009 06:49AM

Project: platform/tools/apksig
Branch: master

commit 0f88b97634034673f062a8ac6c3dab7d3d9befe3
Author: Alex Klyubin <klyubin@google.com>
Date: Thu Jun 22 09:43:22 2017

Bump apksigner version to 0.7

Changes since 0.6:
* Fixed a bug in whitespace handling in command-line parameters in
apksigner.bat.

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/38132450
* Fixed a bug in JAR signature verification when multiple digests
are present for the same named entry in MANIFEST.MF.

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/38497270
* Honor android:targetSandboxVersion (introduced in Android O) when
verifying APKs. When android:targetSandboxVersion is set to 2 or
higher, the APK is required to be signed with APK Signature Scheme
v2.
* When signing, reject APKs with CR, LF or NUL in ZIP entry names.
Such names are not permitted by the JAR siging spec and are also
rejected by Android Package Manager.

Test: apksigner version
Bug: 38132450
Bug: 38497270
Bug: 36426653
Bug: 62211230
Change-Id: Ifa120b0e43b458c99c3da6fde1136e0cbb92caee

M src/apksigner/java/com/android/apksigner/ApkSignerTool.java

https://android-review.googlesource.com/420784

https://goto.google.com/android-sha1/0f88b97634034673f062a8ac6c3dab7d3d9befe3

ro...@gmail.com <ro...@gmail.com> #6Dec 8, 2009 03:22AM

The fix has been released in apksigner 0.7, released as part of Android SDK Build Tools 26.0.1.

su...@gmail.com <su...@gmail.com> #7Jan 23, 2010 07:30PM

Hi,
When is this issue supposed to get fixed.

I am facing similar scenario.

Task 1 -->Activity A --> Press back , code is such that Activity A is still there in
Activity stack.
Then in same task Activity B is launched which further launches Activity C using
NEW_TASK flag.
Pressing Back key from Activity C , Activity A is shown. ====> This is strange
behaviour
Press back again and Activity B is shown. ====> Still more confusing.

ch...@orr.me.uk <ch...@orr.me.uk> #8Feb 10, 2010 11:54AM

If you're launching your default Activity directly from Eclipse, you can't be
guaranteed that you'll get the same behaviour as manually launching it from the icon
on your device.

Just edit your Launch Configuration in Eclipse to change "Launch Action" from "Launch
Default Activity" to "Do Nothing".

Android should just document this particular issue.

ge...@gmail.com <ge...@gmail.com> #9Mar 8, 2010 11:03PM

Agrees with markww. This is more than an Eclispe isssue. I am not finding any cases
where the activity stacjk is preserved. Something deeper is going on...

to...@gmail.com <to...@gmail.com> #10Mar 14, 2010 01:52PM

This has been confusing me for weeks.. glad I found this thread. This behaviour could
do with being better documented.

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #11Apr 19, 2010 12:47PM

I can't believe such an issue still has 'New' status being created 1 Year ago!!
The issue is VERY important, because EVERY app upgrade is vulnerable.

Could anybody suggest some sort of workaround?

ch...@orr.me.uk <ch...@orr.me.uk> #12Aug 27, 2010 09:22PM

I suggested a workaround in comment 8, but this was fixed in an ADT release months ago.

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #13Oct 8, 2010 10:36AM

Check how I workarounded this -

http://github.com/cleverua/android_startup_activity

ch...@gmail.com <ch...@gmail.com> #14Mar 2, 2011 10:54PM

I am experiencing the same issue in comment 5. However, the app works perfectly fine when I run from eclipse. When I publish and download from the server, it displays the same behavior as comment 5. Additionally, when I go back into the application, and just start hitting the back button until the application exits, I cannot recreate the issue...even if I force stop the application adn start it up again. I always force stop the application and uninstall it before reinstalling it for testing.

I know this post is rather old, but if someone has a suggestion for me, please let me know.

ge...@gmail.com <ge...@gmail.com> #15Mar 2, 2011 11:27PM

Chris,

I never resolved exactly what was going on when I had this issue - but it appeared to go away as my management of memory leaks improved. Maybe I never really had the issue the other guys reported at all. I just had leaks and an unpredictable stack as a result.

If you are not using MAT then it might be a good first place to start. I found this useful a while back

http://ttlnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/attacking-memory-problems-on-android.html

There may be more up to date blogs about now - but I am a little out of the loop now as most of my work is currently focussed on GWT/Appengine.

in...@bigredzebra.com <in...@bigredzebra.com> #16Jun 9, 2011 06:42PM

This problem is still there in 2.2 anyway. The flag that you mention that is set in the Intent (in comment 5) is Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK.

It would be nice if this got fixed as it probably causes a lot of developer pain.

du...@gmail.com <du...@gmail.com> #17Jul 13, 2011 02:07PM

Yeah, I just spent the better part of a day's work hunting for a leak that wasn't there. This should at least be some place where it is easier to find.

bs...@gmail.com <bs...@gmail.com> #18Jul 21, 2011 01:54AM

I experience the same issue as comment 5, in all of those scenarios it is occurring, not just in Eclipse. I looked into Comment 13's code for a workaround and it seems to be working good so far - initial opening of a fresh install now seems to keep the stack intact.

bc...@gmail.com <bc...@gmail.com> #19Aug 5, 2011 05:27PM

This bug was reported over 3 years ago! What is is going to take to get a fix?

dr...@gmail.com <dr...@gmail.com> #20Aug 19, 2011 09:10AM

Fixed required here too, lost 3 days of development time on this!

ra...@gmail.com <ra...@gmail.com> #21Aug 25, 2011 12:20PM

I solved this issue whith the following code in the onCreate() method:

if (!isTaskRoot()) {
final Intent intent = getIntent();
final String intentAction = intent.getAction();
if (intent.hasCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER) &&
intentAction != null && intentAction.equals(Intent.ACTION_MAIN)) {
finish();
}
}

Opposed to other proposed solutions, this does not require the declaration of "android.permission.GET_TASKS"

ne...@gmail.com <ne...@gmail.com> #22Aug 28, 2011 09:21AM

#21 thank you, very helpful solution.

le...@gmail.com <le...@gmail.com> #23Dec 13, 2011 08:02AM

Thank you radu (#21)! This seems to have done the trick without the extra permission.

I agree with mark (#5), this is happening on the device. When I do a fresh/re-install from the device and I immediately hit the "Open" button from the install screen, sometimes I also receive a warning from the system:

12-12 21:02:15.424: W/ActivityManager(1428): startActivity called from non-Activity context; forcing Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK for: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] cmp=blah.blah/blah.blah.StartupActivity bnds=[0,197][480,293] }

Perhaps this is why that flag is being set in the first place?

ye...@gmail.com <ye...@gmail.com> #24Jan 3, 2012 04:32PM

Thanks #21!
I spent 2 days trying to figure this issue

[Deleted User] <[Deleted User]> #25Feb 28, 2012 02:43PM

#21 It is working if we are resuming to the before 1 hour as after 1 hour it is not working . DO you have any idea what is happening???

vi...@gmail.com <vi...@gmail.com> #26Feb 28, 2012 03:00PM

> #21 It is working if we are resuming to the before 1 hour as after 1 hour it is not working . DO you have any idea what is happening???

Have you tried (#13)?

dw...@acm.org <dw...@acm.org> #27Feb 28, 2012 05:06PM

This problem STILL exists in Android 2.3.3. Our application does an OTA update and our users have been reporting strange behaviour, crashes and other weirdness after an update. We've now determined that this bug is the cause. The users launch the app directly from the installer (after an update) and then if they return to the home screen and relaunch the app by using a shortcut or from the list of applications we end up with multiple instances of our main activity (which is definitely a no-no).

This is very distressing as the problem has been around for a very long time and it seems that a lot of developers have lost a lot of time due to it.

It looks like the workaround in #21 will work for us.

dw...@acm.org <dw...@acm.org> #28Feb 28, 2012 05:08PM

Perhaps we would get more attention to this problem if we changed the title. It actually has nothing to do with Eclipse. This is a real problem on real devices and affects all users, not just developers.

dw...@acm.org <dw...@acm.org> #29Mar 9, 2012 04:36PM

This problem still exists in Android 4.0!

I have created a new

issue 36941942

with the title "App launch fundamentally broken when app is launched via browser, market install or market update". I've attached source code, 2 APKs, step-by-step instructions, log files and screen shots that exactly describe the problem and how to reproduce it.

This bug is present on all Android versions. It happens when you launch the app from a development environment (Eclipse, IntelliJ, etc.), download from the web browser, install from the market, upgrade from the market, or install by using a file manager.

Please help get this issue resolved by making a comment to

issue 36941942

and starring that one.

Thanks!

do...@gmail.com <do...@gmail.com> #30Mar 20, 2012 10:16PM

#21 doesn't seem to work on Android 4.0 and 2.3.4.

kr...@gmail.com <kr...@gmail.com> #31Apr 4, 2012 08:33AM

#21 works for me non 2.3.4 (Samsung Galaxy SII)

mi...@gmail.com <mi...@gmail.com> #32Apr 9, 2012 01:04AM

#21 works for me on Android 4.0.3. I'd really like to use this fix, but comment #30 says it doesn't work there on 4.0. Can anyone else verify that?

So it seems to me that just about every app written for Android either has this bug or has a hack in code to get around the bug, which is absurd when you think about it, especially since the discussion has been going on for three years.

I'd like to use #21, but I can only test it on 2.1, 2.2, 2.35, Fire, and 4.0.3. I'll report if they're working on there

Bottom line, is #21 the way to go?

Thanks

an...@koukaam.se <an...@koukaam.se> #33Apr 13, 2012 02:58PM

This works for me on 1.6, 2.3.5, 3.2, 4.0.3:

In onCreate():

if (!isTaskRoot()) {
finish();
return;
}

Could anybody tell the drawback of this approach? Thanks!

[Deleted User] <[Deleted User]> #34May 29, 2012 05:53PM

Nice description on how to fix this behavior here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4341600/how-to-prevent-multiple-instances-of-an-activity-when-it-is-launched-with-differ

Not sure about the drawbacks but it seems to work for my project.

ju...@gmail.com <ju...@gmail.com> #35Sep 12, 2012 12:44PM

Wow, super pathetic that this is still not fixed.

This is really BROKEN AS HELL! Spent days on this, luckily I found this bug report.

Haven't tried the fix yet, I will do so now.

ju...@gmail.com <ju...@gmail.com> #36Sep 12, 2012 01:07PM

Fix from #21 didn't work quite right for me. It handles this wrong on (2.1 and 4.1.1 at least).

1) Start from launcher. Navigate to some child activity.
2) Start using Open button in Market/Play store app. Should return to child activity from 1) but doesn't.

#33 did work. Thanks!

za...@gmail.com <za...@gmail.com> #37Mar 28, 2013 05:24AM

[Comment deleted]

ka...@gmail.com <ka...@gmail.com> #38Jun 27, 2013 10:14AM

MarketPlace launch is solved by google. but browser app launcher still there

This problem still exists on 4.2.1

mi...@gmail.com <mi...@gmail.com> #39Jun 27, 2013 06:18PM

Depending on your code, #21 might not be sufficient. It detects a duplicate launch and properly finish()es the Activity ... however, just calling finish() does not stop the current method (onCreate most likely) from executing. And thus if you have extra code in your onCreate which takes some meaningful action, that code will still run.

Note that #33 includes both finish() followed immediately by a return to conclude execution of onCreate.

I combined these two at the top of my LauncherActivity.onCreate and it's working great:

if (!isTaskRoot()) {
Intent intent = getIntent();
String action = intent.getAction();
if (intent.hasCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER) && action != null && action.equals(Intent.ACTION_MAIN)) {
finish();
return;
}
}

mi...@gmail.com <mi...@gmail.com> #40Oct 24, 2013 02:03PM

I too have lost a lot of time to this bug.

I found that if I take exactly the same APK and install it using "adb install", my app works correctly and as I expect.

However, if I (or my users) download the apk and install it from the Downloads, I find the behaviour described above, namely a new instance of my Activity being created on the stack when the user navigates to home and then back to the app via the launcher. This can be verified with "adb shell dumpsys activity <activity>"

mi...@gmail.com <mi...@gmail.com> #41Oct 24, 2013 02:35PM

Confirming problem is still present on 4.3, seen on Galaxy Nexus with stock firmware (maguro).

mi...@gmail.com <mi...@gmail.com> #42Oct 24, 2013 02:36PM

[Comment deleted]

ve...@gmail.com <ve...@gmail.com> #43Oct 24, 2013 02:44PM

The Problem still exists in 4.2 and galaxy s2 mobile....
Almost 1 month to fix this bug thanks for the help guys.

jo...@gmail.com <jo...@gmail.com> #44Feb 26, 2014 08:45AM

It's really sad that google still can't fix the problem. However the good news is all you need to do is add a dedicated launcher activity and it works great. Finally fixed this problem for my app after I wasted days on other solutions.

https://github.com/cleverua/android_startup_activity

me...@gmail.com <me...@gmail.com> #45Oct 16, 2014 07:30PM

#40 is the working solution.

I wish Google could spend some time to resolve existing bugs instead of just updating versions of Android.

en...@google.com <en...@google.com> Dec 25, 2014 05:21PM

Status: Won't Fix (Obsolete)

si...@gmail.com <si...@gmail.com> #46Sep 8, 2015 06:56AM

Reproduced on 4.4 too

ar...@gmail.com <ar...@gmail.com> #47Oct 14, 2015 02:38PM

Android 6 still has this issue :D

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19545889/app-restarts-rather-than-resumes

al...@gmail.com <al...@gmail.com> #48Oct 20, 2015 04:53PM

It works for me in my Asus 4.4. Thnks

gp...@gmail.com <gp...@gmail.com> #49Oct 28, 2015 08:02PM

Any fix for this issue? I'm wasting my time on the same issue..

xa...@gmail.com <xa...@gmail.com> #50Nov 9, 2015 08:50AM

i also see the same issue from Monkey. it keeps instance my Entry activity multiple times. the issue seems because we first start our activity by 'am start -f 0x10200000 -n com.xx.xxx/.StartupActivity'... we did not specify '-a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER ' parameter. after apply the parameter, it works as expect.

i do not understand why the parameter for first start is that important.

jb...@gmail.com <jb...@gmail.com> #51Sep 2, 2016 08:17AM

I had same issue.

I got quick fix from:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19545889/app-restarts-rather-than-resumes

yu...@gmail.com <yu...@gmail.com> #52Mar 10, 2017 06:19AM

android M still got this issue . when I install a new apk from file Manager, and launcher it from install finish Activity.

I think this launcher is different from Home screen. so got this problem...

dw...@sharpmind.de <dw...@sharpmind.de> #53Jul 27, 2017 02:30PM

Still broken in Android 7 :-(

vs...@gmail.com <vs...@gmail.com> #54Dec 28, 2017 07:25AM

Good Afternoon,

My issues is
1.When i open and and went to some activity.
2.then i click home button,then it go to background task.
3.when it click lauch icon .app is not resumed activity. it starts from Splash activity.
This is only occurs in released App not debug app.debug app working well,

I tried launchmode="singleInstance" or "SingleTop" what else..i tired all posibilities..other than any reply to me.
Regards,
Srinivas

an...@gmail.com <an...@gmail.com> #55Mar 16, 2018 03:18PM

I still got this issue.

[Deleted User] <[Deleted User]> #56Jun 1, 2018 03:14PM

Comment #39

offers a good way of mitigating this issue.

Unfortunately this issue and the related issue

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/36941942 were closed in 2014, but there appears to be something peculiar going on with regards to applications relaunching running processes.

To best illustrate the problem, we've published the following sample project:

https://github.com/Pixplicity/PoorIntentions

The app can also be found on Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixplicity.poorintentions

The behavior can be observed in this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XvBzBcfLsU

in...@bigredzebra.com <in...@bigredzebra.com> #57Jun 1, 2018 03:32PM

I already opened a new issue for this problem (which has still not been resolved, but is still open) here:

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/64108432

ga...@gmail.com <ga...@gmail.com> #58Apr 14, 2022 11:17AM

Still open guys, framework people, you suck.

mk...@gmail.com <mk...@gmail.com> #59Jul 1, 2022 07:36AM

I'm facing this issue on api 32.
After searching for solution since last 2 hours, I came here.
Sad to see it still open.

st...@gmail.com <st...@gmail.com> #60Dec 24, 2022 01:34PM

Comment has been deleted.

Message last modified on Dec 24, 2022 01:34PM

sh...@gmail.com <sh...@gmail.com> #61Mar 3, 2023 10:55AM

if you are using 'FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK', then change it to 'FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP'. Hope this resolves the issue.

go...@gmail.com <go...@gmail.com> #62Jul 31, 2024 03:56AM

#21 It perfectly works on android 14 But one thing you can mention this snippet in not splash or launcher activity , you should mention in your home activity , it will work better