Android : onRetainNonConfigurationInstance is not called on Screen orientation change

Question

I have implemented onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() on one of my Activity to handle android screen orientation. Here is the code :

  @Override
  public Object onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() {
    Log.d("[DEBUG]", "onRetainNonConfigurationInstance : "
        + this.getClass().getName());
    MyState state = new MyState();

    return state;
  }

I then installed the app on an android device. Here is the configuration :

Device : Samsung Nexus S
Android version : 4.0.4
Kernel version : 3.0.8-g6656123android-build@vpbs1 #1

When I debug the app on the phone by changing screen orientation, my onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() method is not called.

Even weird, I have added a log line in the onCreate() method of my Activity. According to the documentation, Android is supposed to re-create the activity when screen orientation happens. So I have something like the following :

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.mylist);
    Log.d(Constants.LOG_TAG, "Oncreate : " + this.getClass().getName());
}

But here, the onCreate() method is not called when I change screen orientation on the device.

Have you guyz already experienced this issue ?

In the documentation, they also say that this method is deprecated and that instead I should use something related to Fragments etc. Can it be the reason why I don't have the method called ?

actually, I am implementing for 2.3.3 to 3.0 devices but my test device is 4.0.4 : Can it be the problem ? I thought there were some kind of backward compatibility between Android OS versions.

thanks in advance,

Answer 1

You probably have a android:configChanges declared for orientation in your manifest file for the activity, which says that you will handle the orientation change yourself, hence the onCreate method is not called.