Android: "BadTokenException: Unable to add window; is your activity running?" at showing dialog in PreferenceActivity

I'd like to ask for some help: In my app, I have only one activity, a PreferenceActivity (don't need other, it's just a simple background-sync app, so the PrefsActivity is the Main/Launcher). After the user setup preferences, checks a checkBoxPreference, and that starts (or stops) a service. At starting, a dialog shows. But here is the problem: if the user press back (leave the activity), start it again, and than tries to check the checkBoxPref., the prefsactivity crashes. Dialog doesn't shows. I have no idea why, and how to fix it.

This code is exactly same with that part, what gives me the problem:

PrefsActivity.java:

   package is.it.works;

   // imports .....

   public class PrefsActivity extends PreferenceActivity implements OnSharedPreferenceChangeListener {
SharedPreferences prefs;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.prefs);
    prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
    prefs.registerOnSharedPreferenceChangeListener(this);
}// onCreate

@Override
public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences preferences, String key) {
    if (key.equals("checkTest")) {
        showDialog(1);
    }
    if (key.equals("cancel")) {
        dismissDialog(1);
    }
}// onSPC

@Override
protected Dialog onCreateDialog(int id) {
    switch (id) {
    case 1: {
        ProgressDialog dialog = new ProgressDialog(this);
        dialog.setMessage("press back twice, start the app again, and click checkbox...");
        dialog.setIndeterminate(true);
        dialog.setCancelable(true);
        dialog.setOnCancelListener(new OnCancelListener() {

            @Override
            public void onCancel(DialogInterface dialog) {
                prefs.edit().putBoolean("cancel", false).commit();
            }
        });
        return dialog;
    }// case
    }// switch
    return null;
}// onCreateDialog
}// PrefsActivity

prefs.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <CheckBoxPreference android:key="checkTest" android:title="test" />

</PreferenceScreen>

and the manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="is.it.works" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0">
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" />

<application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name">
    <activity android:name=".PrefsActivity" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

</application>
</manifest>

LogCat error:

09-14 10:34:34.472: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281): Uncaught handler: thread main exiting due to uncaught exception
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281): android.view.WindowManager$BadTokenException: Unable to add window -- token android.os.BinderProxy@43756de8 is not valid; is your activity running?
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.view.ViewRoot.setView(ViewRoot.java:456)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:177)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.view.WindowManagerImpl.addView(WindowManagerImpl.java:91)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.view.Window$LocalWindowManager.addView(Window.java:409)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.app.Dialog.show(Dialog.java:238)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.app.Activity.showDialog(Activity.java:2413)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at is.it.works.PrefsActivity.onSharedPreferenceChanged(PrefsActivity.java:27)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.app.ApplicationContext$SharedPreferencesImpl$EditorImpl.commit(ApplicationContext.java:2727)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.preference.Preference.tryCommit(Preference.java:1199)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.preference.Preference.persistBoolean(Preference.java:1404)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.preference.CheckBoxPreference.setChecked(CheckBoxPreference.java:155)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.preference.CheckBoxPreference.onClick(CheckBoxPreference.java:143)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.preference.Preference.performClick(Preference.java:811)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.preference.PreferenceScreen.onItemClick(PreferenceScreen.java:190)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.widget.AdapterView.performItemClick(AdapterView.java:284)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.widget.ListView.performItemClick(ListView.java:3246)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.widget.AbsListView$PerformClick.run(AbsListView.java:1635)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:587)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4203)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:791)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:549)
09-14 10:34:34.502: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(281):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
09-14 10:34:34.522: INFO/Process(52): Sending signal. PID: 281 SIG: 3
09-14 10:34:34.532: INFO/dalvikvm(281): threadid=7: reacting to signal 3
09-14 10:34:34.592: INFO/dalvikvm(281): Wrote stack trace to '/data/anr/traces.txt'
09-14 10:34:38.533: DEBUG/dalvikvm(107): GC freed 437 objects / 21560 bytes in 136ms
09-14 10:34:39.183: INFO/global(175): Default buffer size used in BufferedReader constructor. It would be better to be explicit if an 8k-char buffer is required.
09-14 10:34:44.632: INFO/global(175): Default buffer size used in BufferedReader constructor. It would be better to be explicit if an 8k-char buffer is required.
09-14 10:34:47.412: INFO/Process(281): Sending signal. PID: 281 SIG: 9
09-14 10:34:47.472: INFO/ActivityManager(52): Process is.it.works (pid 281) has died.
09-14 10:34:47.492: INFO/WindowManager(52): WIN DEATH: Window{4394f638 is.it.works/is.it.works.PrefsActivity paused=false} 

After googleing a lot, I think, the wrong part is the ProgressDialog dialog = new ProgressDialog(this);. Cause this changes. But changing it to getApplicationContext(), or PrefsActivity.this doesn't help, the problem is still there. Please, tell me why is this happening, and what could be the solution! Thank You! I'm stuck, and now I have no idea...

I had a very similar issue (which landed me here) and found a very simple fix for it. While my code is different, it should be easy to adapt. Here is my fix:

public void showBox() {
    mActive = true;
    if (! ((Activity) mContext).isFinishing()) {
        mDialogBox.show();
    }
} 

So, in the sample code in the question, the fix would have been (at a guess):

@Override
public void onSharedPreferenceChanged(SharedPreferences preferences, String key) {
    if (key.equals("checkTest")) {
        if (! this.isFinishing()) {
            showDialog(1);
        }
    }
    if (key.equals("cancel")) {
        dismissDialog(1);
    }
}// onSPC

Maybe you didn't close or unregister something in your activity. In that case, try unregistering the broadcastreceiver on onDestroy.

This is usually caused by your app trying to display a dialog using a previously-finished Activity as a context. Then check that the activity is not closed by some other apps or other triggers before showing the dialog

if (!isFinishing()) {
    //showdialog here
    }

After introducing crash tracking to a project, I noticed this issue popping up quite frequently and found the same fix worked throughout the project to eliminate the crash:

• Never declare/instantiate Dialogs as local variables.
• Make all Dialogs instance variables of the Activity.
• Override onDestroy and call if(dialog != null) dialog.dismiss();

Example:

MyActivity extends Activity {
  ProgressDialog mProgressDialog;
  AlertDialog mAlertDialog;


  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    mProgressDialog = new ProgressDialog(MyActivity.this);
    mAlertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(MyActivity.this).show();
  }

  @Override
  public void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    if(mProgressDialog != null) {
      mProgressDialog.dismiss();
    }
    if(mAlertDialog != null) {
      mAlertDialog.dismiss();
    }
  }

It is misleading that the error message says "unable to add window" as I've found the error happens when you are leaving an Activity and the context that was passed to your Dialog is dead.