ActivityNotFoundException when different package's targetClass in PreferenceScreen

Question

The application's default package is "example.app".

and the target activity's package is "example.app.abc".

Calling startActivity() for "example.app.abc.TheActivity" in java code just works,

but specifying it on preference.xml doesn't work:

<PreferenceScreen android:key="key"
    android:title="@string/title"
>
    <intent android:action="android.intent.action.MAIN"
        android:targetPackage="example.app.abc"
        android:targetClass="TheActivity"
/>
</PreferenceScreen>

I tried android:targetClass="example.app.abc.TheActivity" but it doesn't work too.

Is it impossible to start an activity of non-default package, in preference?

I don know if its possible to start a non default package. Whydont u try again with a "." in front of the targetClass. like android:targetClass=".TheActivity" — Varun, Dec 05 '10 at 18:00
It should not be documented, as it's unsupported internal API. The application might be rejected by using it. — Pentium10, Dec 05 '10 at 20:03
I didn't know it's undocumented API. My friend's app actually uses the above technique and runs well with the default package's activity. — shkim, Dec 06 '10 at 04:51
@Pentium10: It is not undocumented, as you can find it in the API Demos project as an example. — Skrud, Jan 26 '11 at 19:07
@CommonsWare It is mentioned [here](http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/settings.html#Intents) — darrenp, Mar 22 '13 at 14:09

score 30 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

I just ran into the same problem when trying to use a custom preference screen from a library project for the AccountManager account settings. No matter how I tried to tweak the targetPackage and targetClass attributes, it would throw an exception (except, since it's an account, it crashes the phone).

I think we'll just have to assume this is an Android limitation. It's clumsy, but all you really need to do is declare a wrapper class for the activity within your application's namespace:

public class MyPreferences extends ActualPreferences {
}

Declare it in your AndroidManifest.xml

<activity android:name=".MyPreferences"/>

Then you can specify the class in your intent

<intent android:targetPackage="com.my.package"
        android:targetClass="com.my.package.MyPreferences" />

By the way, the syntax is extremely fussy, at least for account preferences. All these variations fail:

<!-- fails --> <intent android:targetClass="com.my.package.MyPreferences" />
<!-- fails --> <intent android:targetClass="MyPreferences" 
                       android:targetPackage="com.my.package"/>
<!-- fails --> <intent android:targetClass=".MyPreferences"
                       android:targetPackage="com.my.package"/>
<!-- fails --> <intent android:targetClass="settings.MyPreferences"
                       android:targetPackage="com.my.package"/>
<!-- fails --> <intent android:targetClass=".settings.MyPreferences"
                       android:targetPackage="com.my.package"/>
<!-- fails --> <intent android:targetClass="com.my.other.package.MyPreferences"
                       android:targetPackage="com.my.package"/>

The critical factor is apparently that the android:targetPackage attribute matches the application package. If you want, you can put the activity in a sub-package. This works:

<intent android:targetPackage="com.my.package"
        android:targetClass="com.my.package.settings.MyPreferences" />

So you declared com.mypackage.MyPreferences.java, but you wrote targetClass="com.my.package.settings.MyPreferences", and it worked? — Some Noob Student, Nov 21 '14 at 03:32

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 19 '13 at 14:53

1

as already said its not working with libraries. Do it programatically, something like this:

preference_my_pref.setOnPreferenceClickListener(new OnPreferenceClickListener() {
                public boolean onPreferenceClick(Preference preference) {
                    Intent intent = new Intent(MyActivity.this, ActivityToStart.class);
                    startActivity(intent);
                    return true;
                }
            });

answered Dec 19 '13 at 14:53

user1324936

2,187
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you might wanna copy the extras from the original intent like `newIntent.putExtras(oldIntent)` – NikkyD Sep 04 '14 at 10:59

ActivityNotFoundException when different package's targetClass in PreferenceScreen

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