How to automatically restart a service even if use

Question

I want a service to run all the time in my application. So I want to restart it even if it is force closed by user. There is definitely a way to do it as apps like facebook are doing it.(Its not done using push notification, facebook restarts its service even if internet is off).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

The only real solution for keeping services alive ist to call Service.startForeground(...) with a provided Notification. This will be the only valid solution, every other one will be very dependent on how Google will change the behaviour of it's system. With every API update, Google could prevent every other hack.

This also keeps the user aware, that your app is performing some background task which will keep the app alive and the user has to stop this. If you provide the user the ability to stop it is part of your application, though.

See the Documentation:

void startForeground (int id, Notification notification)

Make this service run in the foreground, supplying the ongoing notification to be shown to the user while in this state. By default services are background, meaning that if the system needs to kill them to reclaim more memory (such as to display a large page in a web browser), they can be killed without too much harm. You can set this flag if killing your service would be disruptive to the user, such as if your service is performing background music playback, so the user would notice if their music stopped playing.

Answer 2

There is a very hacky solution to keep service running even you force stop it. I do not recommend that because it is against user willingness. You can define a broadcast receiver to receive intent with action X. onStartCommand handler of your service, broadcast X (if the service is not started yet). on broadcast receiver upon receipt of X, first start the service, then, sleep for some minutes, and finally re-broadcast X.

Answer 3

on the service's startCommand method return START_STICKY. generally it tell the OS to start the service when it is killed.

Answer 4

If the situation allows to use 'root' it's usually possible to implement Humpty-Dumpty paradigm.

Your application (1st) installs another application (2nd, taking APK from assets) and runs the service of the 2nd app. 2nd app's service bind to the 1st app service and rebinds when disconnected. The 1st app does the same.

Sure it will not help when all apps are killed by some Free RAM or similar application but when Android kills either of those two, the other one will restart its counterpart.

Answer 5

Whenever a service is killed, its onDestroy method is always called. Its better to use a BroadcastReceiver to start your service when it is killed.

Here is a sample code illustrating its implementation:-

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
Intent in = new Intent();
in.setAction("StartkilledService");
sendBroadcast(in);
Log.d("debug", "Service Killed");
}

Then register a receiver in AndroidManifest.xml:-

<receiver android:name=".app.ServiceDestroyReceiver" >
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="StartKilledService" >
        </action>
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

Finally,create a BroadcastReceiver,and start your service in the onReceive method:-

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Log.d("debug", "ServeiceDestroy onReceive...");
Log.d("debug", "action:" + intent.getAction());
Log.d("debug", "Starting Service");
ServiceManager.startService();
}

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

You have to create a sticky service with overriding onTaskRemoved method, where you can set an alarm service to trigger your code again.

public class BackgroundService extends Service {

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

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        return START_STICKY;
    }

    @Override
    public void onTaskRemoved(Intent rootIntent) {
        //create an intent that you want to start again.
        Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), BackgroundService.class);
        PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getService(this, 1, intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_ONE_SHOT);
        AlarmManager alarmManager = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
        alarmManager.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() + 5000, pendingIntent);
        super.onTaskRemoved(rootIntent);
    }
}

Also in some devices like Xiaomi, Huwaei the app gets force closed once it's removed from recent apps. This is because the manufacturers have task manager features which improve ram/battery performance.

You can check this link for more information: https://stackoverflow.com/a/41360159/2798289