Context.Startforegroundservice() Did Not Then Call Service.Startforeground()

service crash with Context.startForegroundService() did not then call Service.startForeground()

Android O you can set the background limitation as below;

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        context!!.startForegroundService(Intent(context, MyService::class.java))
    } else {
        context!!.startService(Intent(context, MyService::class.java))
    }

Android 9 (Pie), Context.startForegroundService() did not then call Service.startForeground(): ServiceRecord

I was waiting my crash report to share the solution. I didn't get any crash or ANR almost 20 days. I want to share my solution. It can help those who encounter this problem.

In onCreate() method

First of all, my app is a media application. I didn't implement the mediasession yet. I'm creating a notification channel in the top of onCreate(). Official doc
I'm calling Service.startForeground() method after Context.startForegroundService() method. In my prepareAndStartForeground() method.

Note: I don't know why but ContextCompat.startForegroundService() doesn't work properly.

For this reason, I've added manually same function to my service class instead of calling ContextCompat.startForegroundService()

private fun startForegroundService(intent: Intent) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 26) {
        context.startForegroundService(intent)
    } else {
        // Pre-O behavior.
        context.startService(intent)
    }
}

prepareAndStartForeground() method

private fun prepareAndStartForeground() {
    try {
        val intent = Intent(ctx, MusicService::class.java)
        startForegroundService(intent)

        val n = mNotificationBuilder.build()
        // do sth
        startForeground(Define.NOTIFICATION_ID, n)
    } catch (e: Exception) {
        Log.e(TAG, "startForegroundNotification: " + e.message)
    }
}

It's my onCreate()

override fun onCreate() {
    super.onCreate()
    createNotificationChannel()
    prepareAndStartForeground()
}

My onStartCommand()

override fun onStartCommand(intent: Intent?, flags: Int, startId: Int): Int {
    if (intent == null) {
        return START_STICKY_COMPATIBILITY
    } else {
        //....
        //...
    }
    return START_STICKY
}

onRebind, onBind, onUnbind methods like these

internal var binder: IBinder? = null

override fun onRebind(intent: Intent) {
    stopForeground(true) // <- remove notification
}

override fun onBind(intent: Intent): IBinder? {
    stopForeground(true) // <- remove notification
    return binder
}

override fun onUnbind(intent: Intent): Boolean {
    prepareAndStartForeground() // <- show notification again
    return true
}

We need to clear something when onDestroy() calling

   override fun onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy()
    releaseService()
   }

private fun releaseService() {
    stopMedia()
    stopTimer()
    // sth like these
    player = null
    mContext = null
    afChangeListener = null
    mAudioBecomingNoisy = null
    handler = null
    mNotificationBuilder = null
    mNotificationManager = null
    mInstance = null
}

I hope this solution works properly for you.

Android RemoteServiceExeption: Context.startForegroundService() did not then call Service.startForeground()

So I've almost fixed the problem and no longer get hundreds of crashes every week, but only about one every two days.

Solution is this, when starting the foreground service: Just wait for the main looper in the main thread and then start it. It is much more common, that the 5s until the service needs to be started are enough now.

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
    Handler(Looper.getMainLooper()).post{
        MyContext.getContext().startForegroundService(Intent(this, NotificationUtil::class.java))
    }
} else {
            startService(Intent(this, NotificationUtil::class.java))
}