IllegalStateException: Can not perform this action

Question

I'm getting user reports from my app in the market, delivering the following exception:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Can not perform this action after onSaveInstanceState
at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.checkStateLoss(FragmentManager.java:1109)
at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.popBackStackImmediate(FragmentManager.java:399)
at android.app.Activity.onBackPressed(Activity.java:2066)
at android.app.Activity.onKeyUp(Activity.java:2044)
at android.view.KeyEvent.dispatch(KeyEvent.java:2529)
at android.app.Activity.dispatchKeyEvent(Activity.java:2274)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1803)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1855)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1277)
at android.app.Activity.dispatchKeyEvent(Activity.java:2269)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1803)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.widget.TabHost.dispatchKeyEvent(TabHost.java:297)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1855)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1277)
at android.app.Activity.dispatchKeyEvent(Activity.java:2269)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1803)
at android.view.ViewRoot.deliverKeyEventPostIme(ViewRoot.java:2880)
at android.view.ViewRoot.handleFinishedEvent(ViewRoot.java:2853)
at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:2028)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:132)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4028)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:491)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:844)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:602)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Apparently it has something to do with a FragmentManager, which I don't use. The stacktrace doesn't show any of my own classes, so I have no idea where this exception occurs and how to prevent it.

For the record: I have a tabhost, and in each tab there is a ActivityGroup switching between Activities.

Answer 1

BEWARE, using transaction.commitAllowingStateLoss() could result in a bad experience for the user. For more information on why this exception is thrown, see this post.

Answer 2

Add this in your activity

@Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
    super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
    if (outState.isEmpty()) {
        // Work-around for a pre-Android 4.2 bug
        outState.putBoolean("bug:fix", true);
    }
}

Answer 3

The exception is threw here (In FragmentActivity):

@Override
public void onBackPressed() {
    if (!mFragments.getSupportFragmentManager().popBackStackImmediate()) {
        super.onBackPressed();
    }
}

In FragmentManager.popBackStatckImmediate()，FragmentManager.checkStateLoss() is called firstly. That's the cause of IllegalStateException. See the implementation below:

private void checkStateLoss() {
    if (mStateSaved) { // Boom!
        throw new IllegalStateException(
                "Can not perform this action after onSaveInstanceState");
    }
    if (mNoTransactionsBecause != null) {
        throw new IllegalStateException(
                "Can not perform this action inside of " + mNoTransactionsBecause);
    }
}

I solve this problem simply by using a flag to mark Activity's current status. Here's my solution:

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    /**
     * A flag that marks whether current Activity has saved its instance state
     */
    private boolean mHasSaveInstanceState;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
        mHasSaveInstanceState = true;
        super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
        super.onResume();
        mHasSaveInstanceState = false;
    }

    @Override
    public void onBackPressed() {
        if (!mHasSaveInstanceState) {
            // avoid FragmentManager.checkStateLoss()'s throwing IllegalStateException
            super.onBackPressed();
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

I was getting this exception when i was pressing back button to cancel intent chooser on my map fragment activity. I resolved this by replacing the code of onResume(where i was initializing the fragment) to onstart() and the app is working fine.Hope it helps.

Answer 5

Another possible workaround, which I'm not sure if helps in all cases (origin here) :

@Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
    super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.KITKAT) {
        final View rootView = findViewById(android.R.id.content);
        if (rootView != null) {
            rootView.cancelPendingInputEvents();
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

Courtesy: Solution for IllegalStateException

This issue had annoyed me for a lot of time but fortunately I came with a concrete solution for it. A detailed explanation of it is here.

Using commitAllowStateloss() might prevent this exception but would lead to UI irregularities.So far we have understood that IllegalStateException is encountered when we try to commit a fragment after the Activity state is lost- so we should just delay the transaction until the state is restored.It can be simply done like this

Declare two private boolean variables

 public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    //Boolean variable to mark if the transaction is safe
    private boolean isTransactionSafe;

    //Boolean variable to mark if there is any transaction pending
    private boolean isTransactionPending;

Now in onPostResume() and onPause we set and unset our boolean variable isTransactionSafe. Idea is to mark trasnsaction safe only when the activity is in foreground so there is no chance of stateloss.

/*
onPostResume is called only when the activity's state is completely restored. In this we will
set our boolean variable to true. Indicating that transaction is safe now
 */
public void onPostResume(){
    super.onPostResume();
    isTransactionSafe=true;
}
/*
onPause is called just before the activity moves to background and also before onSaveInstanceState. In this
we will mark the transaction as unsafe
 */

public void onPause(){
    super.onPause();
    isTransactionSafe=false;

}

private void commitFragment(){
    if(isTransactionSafe) {
        MyFragment myFragment = new MyFragment();
        FragmentManager fragmentManager = getFragmentManager();
        FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
        fragmentTransaction.add(R.id.frame, myFragment);
        fragmentTransaction.commit();
    }
}

-What we have done so far will save from IllegalStateException but our transactions will be lost if they are done after the activity moves to background, kind of like commitAllowStateloss(). To help with that we have isTransactionPending boolean variable

public void onPostResume(){
   super.onPostResume();
   isTransactionSafe=true;
/* Here after the activity is restored we check if there is any transaction pending from
the last restoration
*/
   if (isTransactionPending) {
      commitFragment();
   }
}


private void commitFragment(){

 if(isTransactionSafe) {
     MyFragment myFragment = new MyFragment();
     FragmentManager fragmentManager = getFragmentManager();
     FragmentTransaction fragmentTransaction = fragmentManager.beginTransaction();
     fragmentTransaction.add(R.id.frame, myFragment);
     fragmentTransaction.commit();
     isTransactionPending=false;
 }else {
     /*
     If any transaction is not done because the activity is in background. We set the
     isTransactionPending variable to true so that we can pick this up when we come back to
foreground
     */
     isTransactionPending=true;
 }
}