Android; Geocoder, Why Do I Get "The Service Is Not Available"

Service not available while calling geoCoder.getFromLocation()

The actual reason why Geocoder was not working is because the NetworkLocator was killed in action. Probably due to less memory or maybe you used the Task Manager to kill all services?

I'm not sure but this is a guess. I've seen this before. Last year I wrote a reconnect mechanism to load the NetworkLocator.apk and bind to the GeocoderService. I think this change has not merged into JellyBean so this problem persists.

It can be only solved by reboot. (The NetworkLocationService is loaded at boot)

Edit: You won't see this problem in JBP or KK, this service is moved into the playstore app .

Android; Geocoder, why do I get the service is not available?

It's a bug in the emulator for 2.2
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=8816

Service not available in geoCoder

Here is my way to get the address even if Geocoder failed... but first let me explain my own experience with Geocoder:

For some unknown reason, Geocoder works fine then, suddenly break!.

What I observed is that, after a while (can be days), Geocoder start to throw "Service not available" exception.

EDIT-> As mentioned by Christian, the exception is thrown even is isPresent() returns true.<-EDIT END

Really weird since it was working fine before and no configuration changed occurred:

• same device
• same Android version
• same app
• same manifest
• WIFI up and running, Device location feature enabled in settings

Of course, something changed, but, for the time being, we don't know exactly what.
There is a bug opened about that: Issue 38009: 4.1.1 Geocoder throwing exception: IOException: Service not Available

Last post on this thread (ATTOW) "Probably it's periodically reproducible in android 4.0.x + target API x"

As a workaround, you can use Google Map

Here is my GeocoderHelper class that provides a 'Google Map' B Plan in case Geocoder start to fails.
In my case, I am just interested in CityName, but you can basically get any data availalbe in google map JSON output

Usage:

new GeocoderHelper().fetchCityName(context, location);
Then do somthing in onPostExecute() of example code (send broadcast, invoke listener method, set a textView text, whatever)

GeocoderHelper Class:

package com.<your_package>.location;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Locale;

import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.BasicResponseHandler;
import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import android.content.Context;
import android.location.Address;
import android.location.Geocoder;
import android.location.Location;
import android.net.http.AndroidHttpClient;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.util.Log;

public class GeocoderHelper
{
    private static final AndroidHttpClient ANDROID_HTTP_CLIENT = AndroidHttpClient.newInstance(GeocoderHelper.class.getName());

    private boolean running = false;

    public void fetchCityName(final Context contex, final Location location)
    {
        if (running)
            return;

        new AsyncTask<Void, Void, String>()
        {
            protected void onPreExecute()
            {
                running = true;
            };

            @Override
            protected String doInBackground(Void... params)
            {
                String cityName = null;

                if (Geocoder.isPresent())
                {
                    try
                    {
                        Geocoder geocoder = new Geocoder(contex, Locale.getDefault());
                        List<Address> addresses = geocoder.getFromLocation(location.getLatitude(), location.getLongitude(), 1);
                        if (addresses.size() > 0)
                        {
                            cityName = addresses.get(0).getLocality();
                        }
                    }
                    catch (Exception ignored)
                    {
                        // after a while, Geocoder start to trhow "Service not availalbe" exception. really weird since it was working before (same device, same Android version etc..
                    }
                }

                if (cityName != null) // i.e., Geocoder succeed
                {
                    return cityName;
                }
                else // i.e., Geocoder failed
                {
                    return fetchCityNameUsingGoogleMap();
                }
            }

            // Geocoder failed :-(
            // Our B Plan : Google Map
            private String fetchCityNameUsingGoogleMap()
            {
                String googleMapUrl = "http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?latlng=" + location.getLatitude() + ","
                        + location.getLongitude() + "&sensor=false&language=fr";

                try
                {
                    JSONObject googleMapResponse = new JSONObject(ANDROID_HTTP_CLIENT.execute(new HttpGet(googleMapUrl),
                            new BasicResponseHandler()));

                    // many nested loops.. not great -> use expression instead
                    // loop among all results
                    JSONArray results = (JSONArray) googleMapResponse.get("results");
                    for (int i = 0; i < results.length(); i++)
                    {
                        // loop among all addresses within this result
                        JSONObject result = results.getJSONObject(i);
                        if (result.has("address_components"))
                        {
                            JSONArray addressComponents = result.getJSONArray("address_components");
                            // loop among all address component to find a 'locality' or 'sublocality'
                            for (int j = 0; j < addressComponents.length(); j++)
                            {
                                JSONObject addressComponent = addressComponents.getJSONObject(j);
                                if (result.has("types"))
                                {
                                    JSONArray types = addressComponent.getJSONArray("types");

                                    // search for locality and sublocality
                                    String cityName = null;

                                    for (int k = 0; k < types.length(); k++)
                                    {
                                        if ("locality".equals(types.getString(k)) && cityName == null)
                                        {
                                            if (addressComponent.has("long_name"))
                                            {
                                                cityName = addressComponent.getString("long_name");
                                            }
                                            else if (addressComponent.has("short_name"))
                                            {
                                                cityName = addressComponent.getString("short_name");
                                            }
                                        }
                                        if ("sublocality".equals(types.getString(k)))
                                        {
                                            if (addressComponent.has("long_name"))
                                            {
                                                cityName = addressComponent.getString("long_name");
                                            }
                                            else if (addressComponent.has("short_name"))
                                            {
                                                cityName = addressComponent.getString("short_name");
                                            }
                                        }
                                    }
                                    if (cityName != null)
                                    {
                                        return cityName;
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception ignored)
                {
                    ignored.printStackTrace();
                }
                return null;
            }

            protected void onPostExecute(String cityName)
            {
                running = false;
                if (cityName != null)
                {
                    // Do something with cityName
                    Log.i("GeocoderHelper", cityName);
                }
            };
        }.execute();
    }
}

Hope this will help.

Why is Android Geocoder throwing a Service not Available exception?

I asked Google's Reto Meier to confirm my theory was correct and he said "Correct. The Geocoder is part of the Google API add-on that isn't part of the AOSP."

So any device that doesn't come with the Play Store, GMail apps etc… will also be missing the Geocoder back-end.

android Geocoder throws IOException: Service not Available

Seems to be a problem with my phone. I will implement this.
I'm going to close this thread.

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