The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it

Question

My code is as below

public CountryStandards()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    try
    {
        FillPageControls();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Country Standards", MessageBoxButton.OK, MessageBoxImage.Error);
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Fills the page controls.
/// </summary>
private void FillPageControls()
{
    popUpProgressBar.IsOpen = true;
    lblProgress.Content = "Loading. Please wait...";
    progress.IsIndeterminate = true;
    worker = new BackgroundWorker();
    worker.DoWork += new System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventHandler(worker_DoWork);
    worker.ProgressChanged += new System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventHandler(worker_ProgressChanged);
    worker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
    worker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
    worker.RunWorkerCompleted += new System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(worker_RunWorkerCompleted);
    worker.RunWorkerAsync();                    
}

private void worker_DoWork(object sender, System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    GetGridData(null, 0); // filling grid
}

private void worker_ProgressChanged(object sender, System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    progress.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
}

private void worker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    worker = null;
    popUpProgressBar.IsOpen = false;
    //filling Region dropdown
    Standards.UDMCountryStandards objUDMCountryStandards = new Standards.UDMCountryStandards();
    objUDMCountryStandards.Operation = "SELECT_REGION";
    DataSet dsRegionStandards = objStandardsBusinessLayer.GetCountryStandards(objUDMCountryStandards);
    if (!StandardsDefault.IsNullOrEmptyDataTable(dsRegionStandards, 0))
        StandardsDefault.FillComboBox(cmbRegion, dsRegionStandards.Tables[0], "Region", "RegionId");

    //filling Currency dropdown
    objUDMCountryStandards = new Standards.UDMCountryStandards();
    objUDMCountryStandards.Operation = "SELECT_CURRENCY";
    DataSet dsCurrencyStandards = objStandardsBusinessLayer.GetCountryStandards(objUDMCountryStandards);
    if (!StandardsDefault.IsNullOrEmptyDataTable(dsCurrencyStandards, 0))
        StandardsDefault.FillComboBox(cmbCurrency, dsCurrencyStandards.Tables[0], "CurrencyName", "CurrencyId");

    if (Users.UserRole != "Admin")
        btnSave.IsEnabled = false;

}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the grid data.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sender">The sender.</param>
/// <param name="pageIndex">Index of the page.( used in case of paging)   </pamam>
private void GetGridData(object sender, int pageIndex)
{
    Standards.UDMCountryStandards objUDMCountryStandards = new Standards.UDMCountryStandards();
    objUDMCountryStandards.Operation = "SELECT";
    objUDMCountryStandards.Country = txtSearchCountry.Text.Trim() != string.Empty ? txtSearchCountry.Text : null;
    DataSet dsCountryStandards = objStandardsBusinessLayer.GetCountryStandards(objUDMCountryStandards);
    if (!StandardsDefault.IsNullOrEmptyDataTable(dsCountryStandards, 0) && (chkbxMarketsSearch.IsChecked == true || chkbxBudgetsSearch.IsChecked == true || chkbxProgramsSearch.IsChecked == true))
    {
        DataTable objDataTable = StandardsDefault.FilterDatatableForModules(dsCountryStandards.Tables[0], "Country", chkbxMarketsSearch, chkbxBudgetsSearch, chkbxProgramsSearch);
        dgCountryList.ItemsSource = objDataTable.DefaultView;
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("No Records Found", "Country Standards", MessageBoxButton.OK, MessageBoxImage.Information);
        btnClear_Click(null, null);
    }
}

The step objUDMCountryStandards.Country = txtSearchCountry.Text.Trim() != string.Empty ? txtSearchCountry.Text : null; in get grid data throws exception

The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it.

What's wrong here?

Answer 1

This is a common problem with people getting started. Whenever you update your UI elements from a thread other than the main thread, you need to use:

this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
{
    ...// your code here.
});

You can also use control.Dispatcher.CheckAccess() to check whether the current thread owns the control. If it does own it, your code looks as normal. Otherwise, use above pattern.

Answer 2

To add my 2 cents, the exception can occur even if you call your code through System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke().
The point is that you have to call Invoke() of the Dispatcher of the control that you're trying to access, which in some cases may not be the same as System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher. So instead you should use YourControl.Dispatcher.Invoke() to be safe. I was banging my head for a couple of hours before I realized this.

Update

For future readers, it looks like this has changed in the newer versions of .NET (4.0 and above). Now you no longer have to worry about the correct dispatcher when updating UI-backing properties in your VM. WPF engine will marshal cross-thread calls on the correct UI thread. See more details here. Thanks to @aaronburro for the info and link. You may also want to read our conversation below in comments.

Update 2

Since this is a popular post now, I thought I'd share my experience that I had in the following years. The behavior seems to be that any property bindings will update correctly in cross-thread calls (no marshalling required; WPF will handle it for you). OTOH command bindings will need to be delegated to the UI dispatcher. I have tested it with both MVVM Light and the relatively new Community Toolkit and it seems to be the case with both the old Framework and the new .NET 5 and 6. AsyncRelayCommand fails to update the UI when invoked from non-UI thread (This happens when CanExecuteChanged is fired from a worker thread which updates, for example, button's Enabled property). The solution of course is to store UI dispatcher somewhere in the global space in your VM upon startup and then use it when updating the UI.

Answer 3

If you encounter this problem and UI Controls were created on a separate worker thread when working with BitmapSource or ImageSource in WPF, call Freeze() method first before passing the BitmapSource or ImageSource as a parameter to any method. Using Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke() does not work in such instances

Answer 4

this happened with me because I tried to access UI component in another thread insted of UI thread

like this

private void button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    new Thread(SyncProcces).Start();
}

private void SyncProcces()
{
    string val1 = null, val2 = null;
    //here is the problem 
    val1 = textBox1.Text;//access UI in another thread
    val2 = textBox2.Text;//access UI in another thread
    localStore = new LocalStore(val1);
    remoteStore = new RemoteStore(val2);
}

to solve this problem, wrap any ui call inside what Candide mentioned above in his answer

private void SyncProcces()
{
    string val1 = null, val2 = null;
    this.Dispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
    {//this refer to form in WPF application 
        val1 = textBox.Text;
        val2 = textBox_Copy.Text;
    }));
    localStore = new LocalStore(val1);
    remoteStore = new RemoteStore(val2 );
}

Answer 5

You need to do it on the UI thread. Use:

Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => {GetGridData(null, 0)})); 

Answer 6

For some reason Candide's answer didn't build. It was helpful, though, as it led me to find this, which worked perfectly:

System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
{
   //your code here...
}));

Answer 7

This works for me.

new Thread(() =>
        {

        Thread.CurrentThread.IsBackground = false;
        Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Background, (SendOrPostCallback)delegate {

          //Your Code here.

        }, null);
        }).Start();

Answer 8

As mentioned here, Dispatcher.Invoke could freeze the UI. Should use Dispatcher.BeginInvoke instead.

Here is a handy extension class to simplify the checking and calling dispatcher invocation.

Sample usage: (call from WPF window)

this Dispatcher.InvokeIfRequired(new Action(() =>
{
    logTextbox.AppendText(message);
    logTextbox.ScrollToEnd();
}));

Extension class:

using System;
using System.Windows.Threading;

namespace WpfUtility
{
    public static class DispatcherExtension
    {
        public static void InvokeIfRequired(this Dispatcher dispatcher, Action action)
        {
            if (dispatcher == null)
            {
                return;
            }
            if (!dispatcher.CheckAccess())
            {
                dispatcher.BeginInvoke(action, DispatcherPriority.ContextIdle);
                return;
            }
            action();
        }
    }
}

Answer 9

I also found that System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke() is not always dispatcher of target control, just as dotNet wrote in his answer. I didn't had access to control's own dispatcher, so I used Application.Current.Dispatcher and it solved the problem.

Answer 10

There are definitely different ways to do this depending on your needs.

One way I use a UI-updating thread (that's not the main UI thread) is to have the thread start a loop where the entire logical processing loop is invoked onto the UI thread.

Example:

public SomeFunction()
{
    bool working = true;
    Thread t = new Thread(() =>
    {
        // Don't put the working bool in here, otherwise it will 
        // belong to the new thread and not the main UI thread.
        while (working)
        {
            Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
            {
                // Put your entire logic code in here.
                // All of this code will process on the main UI thread because
                //  of the Invoke.
                // By doing it this way, you don't have to worry about Invoking individual
                //  elements as they are needed.
            });
        }
    });
}

With this, code executes entirely on main UI thread. This can be a pro for amateur programmers that have difficulty wrapping their heads around cross-threaded operations. However, it can easily become a con with more complex UIs (especially if performing animations). Really, this is only to fake a system of updating the UI and then returning to handle any events that have fired in lieu of efficient cross-threading operations.

Answer 11

The problem is that you are calling GetGridData from a background thread. This method accesses several WPF controls which are bound to the main thread. Any attempt to access them from a background thread will lead to this error.

In order to get back to the correct thread you should use SynchronizationContext.Current.Post. However in this particular case it seems like the majority of the work you are doing is UI based. Hence you would be creating a background thread just to go immediately back to the UI thread and do some work. You need to refactor your code a bit so that it can do the expensive work on the background thread and then post the new data to the UI thread afterwards

Answer 12

Sometimes it can be the object you created that throws the exception, not the target where I was obviously looking at.

In my code here:

xaml file:

<Grid Margin="0,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" >
    <TextBlock x:Name="tbScreenLog" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="Black" FontSize="12" Foreground="#FF919191" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"/>
</Grid>

xaml.cs file:

System.Windows.Documents.Run rnLine = new System.Windows.Documents.Run(Message.Item2 + "\r\n");
rnLine.Foreground = LineAlternate ? Brushes.Green : Brushes.Orange;

Dispatcher.Invoke(()=> {
    tbScreenLog.Inlines.Add(rnLine);
});
LineAlternate = !LineAlternate;

I got the exception about accessing an object from a different thread but I was invoking it on the UI thread??

After a while it daunted on me that it was not about the TextBlock object but about the Run object I created before invoking.

Changing the code to this solved my problem:

Dispatcher.Invoke(()=> {
    Run rnLine = new Run(Message.Item2 + "\r\n");
    rnLine.Foreground = LineAlternate ? Brushes.Green : Brushes.Orange;
    tbScreenLog.Inlines.Add(rnLine);
});
LineAlternate = !LineAlternate;

Answer 13

Also, another solution is ensuring your controls are created in UI thread, not by a background worker thread for example.

Answer 14

I kept getting the error when I added cascading comboboxes to my WPF application, and resolved the error by using this API:

    using System.Windows.Data;

    private readonly object _lock = new object();
    private CustomObservableCollection<string> _myUiBoundProperty;
    public CustomObservableCollection<string> MyUiBoundProperty
    {
        get { return _myUiBoundProperty; }
        set
        {
            if (value == _myUiBoundProperty) return;
            _myUiBoundProperty = value;
            NotifyPropertyChanged(nameof(MyUiBoundProperty));
        }
    }

    public MyViewModelCtor(INavigationService navigationService) 
    {
       // Other code...
       BindingOperations.EnableCollectionSynchronization(AvailableDefectSubCategories, _lock );

    }

For details, please see https://msdn.microsoft.com/query/dev14.query?appId=Dev14IDEF1&l=EN-US&k=k(System.Windows.Data.BindingOperations.EnableCollectionSynchronization);k(TargetFrameworkMoniker-.NETFramework,Version%3Dv4.7);k(DevLang-csharp)&rd=true

Answer 15

I encountered this error strangely on the second item selected from a WPF Control.

The reason was that I loaded the data into a RX SourceCache, and the loaded elements had ObservableCollections as Navigation Properties wrapped into a CollectionView. The ObservableCollections are connected to the UIThread and the data was loaded by the WorkerThread. As the CollectionView was only populated on displaying the first element, the issue with the different thread only occured on the second item being selected.

Solution would be to move the sublists to the ViewModel as ReadOnlyObservableCollections and filter the full list of the sub element table by the currently selected main element.