onPostExecute not being called in AsyncTask (Handler runtime exception)

Question

I have an AsyncTask that fetches some data and then updates the UI with this new data. It has been working fine for months, but I recently added a feature that displays a notification when there is new data. Now when my app is launched through the notification, sometimes I get this exception and onPostExecute is not called.

This is what happens when the app is launched:

1) Expand the UI and find views

2) Cancel the alarm (through AlarmManager) that checks for new data and reset the alarm. (This is so that if the user disables the alarm it is cancelled before the next time he/she reboots.)

3) Start the AsyncTask. If the app was launched from the notification, pass in a little bit of the data and then cancel the notification.

I'm stuck on what could be causing this exception. It seems that the exception is from the AsyncTask code, so I'm not sure how I can fix it.

Thanks!

Here is the exception:

I/My App(  501): doInBackground exiting
W/MessageQueue(  501): Handler{442ba140} sending message to a Handler on a dead thread
W/MessageQueue(  501): java.lang.RuntimeException: Handler{442ba140} sending message to a Handler on a dead thread
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at android.os.MessageQueue.enqueueMessage(MessageQueue.java:179)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at android.os.Handler.sendMessageAtTime(Handler.java:457)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at android.os.Handler.sendMessageDelayed(Handler.java:430)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at android.os.Handler.sendMessage(Handler.java:367)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at android.os.Message.sendToTarget(Message.java:348)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at android.os.AsyncTask$3.done(AsyncTask.java:214)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerSet(FutureTask.java:252)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.set(FutureTask.java:112)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:310)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:137)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1068)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:561)
W/MessageQueue(  501):  at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1096)

EDIT: Here is my onCreate method in my main activity (the one opened by the notification). There are some onClickListeners that I omitted to save space. I don't think they should have any effect, since the buttons they are attached to are not being pressed.

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); // Call the parent

    setContentView(R.layout.main); // Create the UI from the XML file

    // Find the UI elements
    controls = (SlidingDrawer) findViewById(R.id.drawer); // Contains the
    // buttons
    // comic = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.comic); // Displays the comic
    subtitle = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.subtitleTxt); // Textbox for the
    // subtitle
    prevBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.prevBtn); // The previous button
    nextBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.nextBtn); // The next button
    randomBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.randomBtn); // The random button
    fetchBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.comicFetchBtn); // The go to specific id button
    mostRecentBtn = (Button) findViewById(R.id.mostRecentBtn); // The button to go to the most recent comic
    comicNumberEdtTxt = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.comicNumberEdtTxt); // The text box to Zooming image view setup
    zoomControl = new DynamicZoomControl();

    zoomListener = new LongPressZoomListener(this);
    zoomListener.setZoomControl(zoomControl);

    zoomComic = (ImageZoomView) findViewById(R.id.zoomComic);
    zoomComic.setZoomState(zoomControl.getZoomState());
    zoomComic.setImage(BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.defaultlogo));
    zoomComic.setOnTouchListener(zoomListener);

    zoomControl.setAspectQuotient(zoomComic.getAspectQuotient());

    resetZoomState();

    // enter the new id
    imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE); // Used to hide the soft keyboard

    Log.i(LOG_TAG, "beginning loading of first comic");
    int notificationComicNumber = getIntent().getIntExtra("comic", -1);
    Log.i(LOG_TAG, "comic number from intent: " + notificationComicNumber);
    if (notificationComicNumber == -1) {
        fetch = new MyFetcher(this, zoomComic, subtitle, controls, comicNumberEdtTxt, imm, zoomControl);
        fetch.execute(MyFetcher.LAST_DISPLAYED_COMIC);
    } else {
        fetch = new MyFetcher(this, zoomComic, subtitle, controls, comicNumberEdtTxt, imm, zoomControl);
        fetch.execute(notificationComicNumber);
        ((NotificationManager) getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE)).cancelAll();
    }
    Log.i(LOG_TAG, "ending loading of new comic");

    Log.i(LOG_TAG, "first run checks beginning");
    // Get SharedPreferences
    prefs = getSharedPreferences("prefs", Context.MODE_PRIVATE);

    // Check if this is the first run of the app for this version
    if (prefs.getBoolean("firstRun-" + MAJOR_VERSION_NUMBER, true)) {
        prefs.edit().putBoolean("firstRun-" + MAJOR_VERSION_NUMBER, false).commit();
        firstRunVersionDialog();
    }

    // Check if this is the first run of the app
    if (prefs.getBoolean("firstRun", true)) {
        prefs.edit().putBoolean("firstRun", false).commit();
        firstRunDialog();
    }
    Log.i(LOG_TAG, "First run checks done");

            // OnClickListener s for the buttons omitted to save space

EDIT 2: I've been digging through Android source code tracking down where the exception is coming from. This is lines 456 and 457 of sendMessageAtTime in Handler:

msg.target = this;
sent = queue.enqueueMessage(msg, uptimeMillis);

And this is enqueueMessage from MessageQueue:

    final boolean enqueueMessage(Message msg, long when) {
        if (msg.when != 0) {
            throw new AndroidRuntimeException(msg
                    + " This message is already in use.");
        }
        if (msg.target == null && !mQuitAllowed) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Main thread not allowed to quit");
        }
        synchronized (this) {
            if (mQuiting) {
                RuntimeException e = new RuntimeException(
                    msg.target + " sending message to a Handler on a dead thread");
                Log.w("MessageQueue", e.getMessage(), e);
                return false;
            } else if (msg.target == null) {
                mQuiting = true;
            }

            msg.when = when;
            //Log.d("MessageQueue", "Enqueing: " + msg);
            Message p = mMessages;
            if (p == null || when == 0 || when < p.when) {
                msg.next = p;
                mMessages = msg;
                this.notify();
            } else {
                Message prev = null;
                while (p != null && p.when <= when) {
                    prev = p;
                    p = p.next;
                }
                msg.next = prev.next;
                prev.next = msg;
                this.notify();
            }
        }
        return true;
    }

I'm a little confused about what mQuiting is, but it looks like the previous time enqueueMessage was called msg.target was null.

Answer 1

To generalize Jonathan Perlow's solution to the bug he identified specifically, I use the following in any class that uses AsyncTask. The looper/handler/post is how you can run something on the UI thread anywhere in an Android app without passing down a handle to an activity or other context. Add this static initialization block inside the class:

{ // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4280330/onpostexecute-not-being-called-in-asynctask-handler-runtime-exception
    Looper looper = Looper.getMainLooper();
    Handler handler = new Handler(looper);
    handler.post(new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        try {
          Class.forName("android.os.AsyncTask");
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
        }
      }
    });
}

We had run into the problem when trying to get unit tests to run. I found a workaround for that, but hadn't specifically identified the problem. We only knew that trying to use AsyncTask<> in Android JUnit test caused onPostExecute() not to be called. Now we know why.

This post shows how to run multithreaded async code in an Android JUnit test:

Using CountDownLatch in Android AsyncTask-based JUnit tests

For use with non-UI unit tests, I created a simple subclass of android.test.InstrumentationTestCase. It has an "ok" flag and a CountDownLatch. reset() or reset(count) creates a new CountDownLatch({1,count}). good() sets ok=true, count--, and calls.countDown() on the latch. bad() sets ok=false, and counts down all the way. waitForIt(seconds) waits for timeout or the coundown latch to zero. Then it calls assertTrue(ok).

Then tests are like:

someTest() {
  reset();
  asyncCall(args, new someListener() {
    public void success(args) { good(); }
    public void fail(args) { bad(); }
  });
  waitForIt();
}

Because of the AsyncTask static initialization bug, we had to run our actual tests inside a Runnable passed to runTestOnUiThread(). With proper static initialization as above, this shouldn't be necessary, unless the call being tested needs to run on the UI thread.

The other idiom I now use is to test whether the current thread is the UI thread and then run the requested action on the proper thread regardless. Sometimes, it makes sense to allow the caller to request sync vs. async, overriding when necessary. For instance, network requests should always be run on a background thread. In most cases, AsyncTask thread pooling is perfect for this. Just realize that only a certain number will run at once, blocking additional requests. To test whether the current thread is the UI thread:

boolean onUiThread = Looper.getMainLooper().getThread() == Thread.currentThread();

Then use a simple subclass (just doInBackground() and onPostExecute() are needed) of AsyncTask<> to run on a non-UI thread or handler.post() or postDelayed() to run on the UI thread.

Giving the caller the option to run sync or async looks like (getting a locally valid onUiThread value not shown here; add local booleans as above):

void method(final args, sync, listener, callbakOnUi) {
  Runnable run = new Runnable() { public void run() {
    // method's code... using args or class members.
    if (listener != null) listener(results);
    // Or, if the calling code expects listener to run on the UI thread:
    if (callbackOnUi && !onUiThread)
      handler.post(new Runnable() { public void run() {listener()}});
    else listener();
  };
  if (sync) run.run(); else new MyAsync().execute(run);
  // Or for networking code:
  if (sync && !onUiThread) run.run(); else new MyAsync().execute(run);
  // Or, for something that has to be run on the UI thread:
  if (sync && onUiThread) run.run() else handler.post(run);
}

Also, using AsyncTask can be made very simple and concise. Use the definition of RunAsyncTask.java below, then write code like this:

    RunAsyncTask rat = new RunAsyncTask("");
    rat.execute(new Runnable() { public void run() {
        doSomethingInBackground();
        post(new Runnable() { public void run() { somethingOnUIThread(); }});
        postDelayed(new Runnable() { public void run() { somethingOnUIThreadInABit(); }}, 100);
    }});

Or simply:new RunAsyncTask("").execute(new Runnable(){public void run(){ doSomethingInBackground(); }});

RunAsyncTask.java:

package st.sdw;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.util.Log;
import android.os.Debug;

public class RunAsyncTask extends AsyncTask<Runnable, String, Long> {
    String TAG = "RunAsyncTask";
    Object context = null;
    boolean isDebug = false;
    public RunAsyncTask(Object context, String tag, boolean debug) {
      this.context = context;
      TAG = tag;
      isDebug = debug;
    }
    protected Long doInBackground(Runnable... runs) {
      Long result = 0L;
      long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
      for (Runnable run : runs) {
        run.run();
      }
      return System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
    }
    protected void onProgressUpdate(String... values) {        }
    protected void onPostExecute(Long time) {
      if (isDebug && time > 1) Log.d(TAG, "RunAsyncTask ran in:" + time + " ms");
      v = null;
    }
    protected void onPreExecute() {        }
    /** Walk heap, reliably triggering crash on native heap corruption.  Call as needed. */  
    public static void memoryProbe() {
      System.gc();
      Runtime runtime = Runtime.getRuntime();
      Double allocated = new Double(Debug.getNativeHeapAllocatedSize()) / 1048576.0;
      Double available = new Double(Debug.getNativeHeapSize()) / 1048576.0;
      Double free = new Double(Debug.getNativeHeapFreeSize()) / 1048576.0;
      long maxMemory = runtime.maxMemory();
      long totalMemory = runtime.totalMemory();
      long freeMemory = runtime.freeMemory();
     }
 }

Answer 2

This is due to a bug in AsyncTask in the Android framework. AsyncTask.java has the following code:

private static final InternalHandler sHandler = new InternalHandler();

It expects this to be initialized on the main thread, but that is not guaranteed since it will be initialized on whichever thread happens to cause the class to run its static initializers. I reproduced this issue where the Handler references a worker thread.

A common pattern that causes this to happen is using the class IntentService. The C2DM sample code does this.

A simple workaround is to add the following code to the application's onCreate method:

Class.forName("android.os.AsyncTask");

This will force AsyncTask to be initialized in the main thread. I filed a bug on this in the android bug database. See http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=20915.

Answer 3

I had the same problem on a device with Android 4.0.4 with the IntentService and solved it as sdw said with the Class.forName("android.os.AsyncTask"). The same didn't happen on Android 4.1.2, 4.4.4 or 5.0. I wonder if this Google resolved Martin West issue from 2011.

I added this code on my Application onCreate and it worked:

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
        try {
            Class.forName("android.os.AsyncTask");
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

It would be nice to know if the version of Android need to be changed to something else.

Answer 4

AsyncTask.execute() must be executed on UI thread, i.e. inside Activity.

Answer 5

I have the same problem, it seems to happen when the AsyncTask is running during a suspend/resume.

EDIT: Yeah, didnt think I had but I used this http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/faq/commontasks.html#threading to always start the AsyncTask on the UI thread and the problem has gone. The problem appeared after I added the licensing function, siggghhhhh

Thanks

Answer 6

Even though this doesn't directly answer the OP's question, I think it will be useful for people searching for the solution of the same problem when running tests.

Overall, Peter Knego's answer sums it up well.

My problem was specifically with running a test on a class outside an Activity that made use of Android's AsyncTask for an API call. The class works in the application, since it is used by an Activity, but I wanted to run a test making an actual API call from the test.

While Jonathan Perlow's answer worked, I didn't like introducing changes to my application due solely to a test.

So, in the case of a test runTestOnUiThread can be used (@UiThreadTest cannot be used, since you cannot wait for a result in a test that uses that annotation).

public void testAPICall() throws Throwable {
    this.runTestOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            underTest.thisMethodWillMakeUseOfAnAsyncTaskSomehow();
        }           
    }); 

    // Wait for result here *
    // Asserts here
}

Sometimes though, especially in functional tests, Jonathan Perlow's answer seems to be the only one that works.

---

* Take a look here to see how to pause a test waiting for a result.