Android 9.0: Not allowed to start service: app is in background.. after onResume()

There is a workaround from Google:

The issue has been addressed in future Android release.

There is a workaround to avoid application crash. Applications can get the process state in Activity.onResume() by calling ActivityManager.getRunningAppProcesses() and avoid starting Service if the importance level is lower than ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND. If the device hasn’t fully awake, activities would be paused immediately and eventually be resumed again after its fully awake.

So I think it should like that:

// hack for https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/113122354
    List<ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo> runningAppProcesses = activityManager.getRunningAppProcesses();
    if (runningAppProcesses != null) {
        int importance = runningAppProcesses.get(0).importance;
        // higher importance has lower number (?)
        if (importance <= ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND)
            URLPlayerService.startActionBroadcastServiceData(PlayerActivity.this);
    }

I have used handler as a workaround and it works pretty good but not 100%:

// hack for https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/113122354
   handler.postDelayed(() -> URLPlayerService.startService(PlayerActivity.this),200);

UPDATE: This is working for us in Prod, but it's not 100%. I have received one crash report over the past month and a half when there would have been well over a hundred otherwise. Until this is properly fixed, this seems like our best option for now. Maybe if I raised the time beyond 300 that one crash would never have happened?

We're testing this out right now which so far seems to be working. Will update as we see more results

class ResumingServiceManager(val lifecycle: Lifecycle) : LifecycleObserver {

    init {
        lifecycle.addObserver(this)
    }

    val disposable: CompositeDisposable = CompositeDisposable()

    fun startService(context: Context, intent: Intent) {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
            context.startService(intent)
        } else {
            Single.just(true)
                    .delaySubscription(300, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
                    .subscribeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
                    .observeOn(AndroidSchedulers.mainThread())
                    .subscribeBy(
                            onSuccess = {
                                context.startService(intent)
                            }

                    ).addTo(disposable)
        }
    }

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_STOP)
    fun stopped() {
        disposable.clear()
    }

    @OnLifecycleEvent(Lifecycle.Event.ON_DESTROY)
    fun destroy() {
        lifecycle.removeObserver(this)
    }
}

In onCreate() initialize it and then anytime you want to start a service in onResume just call resumingServiceManager.startService(this, intent)

It's lifecycle aware so it will clear the disposable if it pauses cancelling the onSuccess from triggering when it might be on the way to the background with an immediate open/close.

This has been marked as 'fixed' in the Android Issue Tracker:

• https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/110237673
• https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/113122354

Presumably the fix will be released in one of the Android Q releases.

According to the Googler who closed the issue,

There is a workaround to avoid application crash. Applications can get the process state in Activity.onResume() by calling ActivityManager.getRunningAppProcesses() and avoid starting Service if the importance level is lower than ActivityManager.RunningAppProcessInfo.IMPORTANCE_FOREGROUND. If the device hasn’t fully awake, activities would be paused immediately and eventually be resumed again after its fully awake.