Proper way to stop IntentService

I'm using an IntentService to upload images to a server. My problem is that I don't know how/when to stop the service. When I call stopself() in onHandleIntent(Intent ..) all Intents which are waiting in the IntentService queue are removed. But I don't want to stop the service from an activity because I want to complete upload proccess even if my application is not running.

Solution 1:

My problem is that I don't know how/when to stop the service.

IntentService automatically stops itself when onHandleIntent() ends, if no more commands had been sent to it while onHandleIntent() was running. Hence, you do not manually stop an IntentService yourself.

When I call stopself() in onHandleIntent(Intent ..) all Intents which are waiting in the IntentService queue are removed.

Which is why you do not do that.

But I don't want to stop the service from an activity because I want to complete upload proccess even if my application is not running.

Then you let the IntentService stop itself.

Solution 2:

An IntentService stops itself when it has no more Intents (jobs) to process. It runs stopSelf(startId) for each Intent (job). Have a look at the IntentService source or the Extending the Service Class from here http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals/services.html