onServiceConnected() not called

Question

I have a problem with using a background service.
I am using the service from 2 activities.

The first activity starts the Service with startService(intent) and the binds to it with bindService(intent, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);

This works perfectly and I can send a Message in onServiceConnected().

The second activity only binds to the Service (since it's already started), again using bindService(intent, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);

Now here is my problem:
In the second activity I have a Button which should use the service when I press it.
However, the onServiceConnected() is never called in this activity, so I can not get the binder to create a Messenger to send a Message to the server.

Does anyone know when onServiceConnected() is called exactly, or what it is possibly waiting for?
Or maybe something else to fix this problem?

EDIT: bindService returns false, what could cause this?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

After some more research, I discovered this is a known issue in Android.

The second activity I was talking about was an activity which is used as content within a TabActivity.

The way to fix this was to call bindService(...) on the application context, instead of on the activity context using getApplicationContext().bindService(...)

Answer 2

You need to add:

<service android:name="package.path.to.your.service.class" android:enabled="true"></service>

in the Android manifest file.

Answer 3

This is what worked for me

Instead of

public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
    return null;
}

I used

public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
    return mMessenger.getBinder();
}

Answer 4

Add bind in manifest..

 <service
            android:name=".MyAccessibilityService"
            android:permission="android.permission.BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.accessibilityservice.AccessibilityService" />
            </intent-filter>

</service>

MyAccessibilityService your service name.

Answer 5

I was xmarian and had the same problem and later found that i have not given proper name to that service . So the service name should be given name attribute. Which I suppose the xmarian compiler does the same thing make that entry in Android XML.

Answer 6

It happened to me just now.
Don't forget to instantiate your binder class before the onbind return. Silly mistake, but it happens. hopefully this will help someone in the future.

private YourBinder thisBinder;

oncreate
{
  thisBinder = new YourBinder(); //don't forget this.
}


public class YourBinder extends Binder
{

}

public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) 
{
  return thisBinder;
}