Prevent Android activity dialog from closing on outside touch

Question

I have an activity that is using the Theme.Dialog style such that it is a floating window over another activity. However, when I click outside the dialog window (on the background activity), the dialog closes. How can I stop this behaviour?

Why would you do that btw. IF the behaviour you want is of a dialog, why not use a dialog? Coming to your question, I don't think there's a solution to that. — Kumar Bibek, Aug 24 '12 at 04:19
@KumarBibek dialogs are limited when it comes to layout customizations...that's why an activity. Even the developer docs recommends this approach for a flexible customisation — Leo, Aug 28 '14 at 12:47
And what the OP wants is a **Modal** dialog, ie a dialog that forces the user to respond, such as OK, or Yes/No. The user should not be able to just click away. — SMBiggs, Aug 16 '16 at 14:57

score 548 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 30 '16 at 08:40

548

To prevent dialog box from getting dismissed on back key pressed use this

dialog.setCancelable(false);

And to prevent dialog box from getting dismissed on outside touch use this

 dialog.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false);

edited Nov 30 '16 at 08:40

Rick

1,177
1
19
27

answered Sep 28 '13 at 08:28

Singhak

8,508
2
31
34

7

This answer is helpful but this question is about activity using Theme.Dialog attribute. – Paresh Mayani Apr 26 '14 at 08:28
19

I know when I realize it is too late since it help many people so did not delete it. – Singhak Apr 28 '14 at 05:09
13

I know this didn't really pertain to the question, but this helped me. Thanks! – dennisdrew Oct 14 '14 at 20:53
https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Dialog.html#setCanceledOnTouchOutside(boolean) thanks for being concise – CrandellWS May 26 '16 at 21:26
7

This is the best answer. I suspect _most_ of the people who find this question are looking for a way to prevent the standard `AlertDialog` from closing on touch outside, and that's what this answer provides. – aroth Aug 09 '16 at 02:34
AlertDialog was exactly what I was trying to not close, thanks guys – Saik Caskey Dec 14 '16 at 14:58
31

On newer versions of AlertDialog, you only need to use `setCancelable(false)` – Kobi Tate Aug 15 '17 at 19:18
1

This method also worked for my custom `DialogFragment`, thanks. As @KobiTate mentioned, you only need to use `fragment.setCancelable(false)`. My search query: android stop click outside dialog box – Randall Arms Apr 25 '18 at 07:15

artex · Answer 2 · 2013-04-24T14:55:07.453

131

What you actually have is an Activity (even if it looks like a Dialog), therefore you should call setFinishOnTouchOutside(false) from your activity if you want to keep it open when the background activity is clicked.

EDIT: This only works with android API level 11 or greater

edited Apr 24 '13 at 14:55

answered Apr 03 '13 at 15:18

artex

1,776
2
11
16

5

This doesn't prevent you from pressing "back" button in your activity. So you also need to override `onBackPressed()` doing nothing in it's body – Alex Bonel Nov 20 '13 at 13:23
It is not preventing "back" button in that dialog Activity without onBackPressed(). Works perfect with this.setFinishOnTouchOutside(false). – Kunalxigxag Mar 05 '14 at 09:25

score 87 · Answer 3 · edited May 07 '18 at 12:18

87

What worked for me was to create DialogFragment an set it to not be cancelable:

dialog.setCancelable(false);

edited May 07 '18 at 12:18

JJD

50,076
60
203
339

answered Aug 01 '13 at 19:45

Petr

1,389
10
15

2

Not helpful. This question is about Activities, not Dialogs. – SMBiggs Aug 16 '16 at 14:59
All Dialogs belong to Dialog class, in the case of AlertDialog just set this flag to false and should work for outside touching and back button. – Giovanny Piñeros Feb 16 '22 at 18:16

score 34 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

34

This could help you. It is a way to handle the touch outside event:

How to cancel an Dialog themed like Activity when touched outside the window?

By catching the event and doing nothing, I think you can prevent the closing. But what is strange though, is that the default behavior of your activity dialog should be not to close itself when you touch outside.

(PS: the code uses WindowManager.LayoutParams)

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

1
1

answered Aug 24 '12 at 03:32

Michel-F. Portzert

1,785
13
16

1

The object isn't a dialog though, it's an Activity that uses the dialog style. Activity doesn't have this method, and can't be cast to Dialog. – Fergusmac Aug 24 '12 at 03:47
ur post is the exact opposite of what was asked . he asked how to prevent closing not how to cause it . – ChuckKelly Sep 22 '13 at 21:11
4

Which is what he explained with "By catching the event and doing nothing, I think you can prevent the closing". – metter Oct 17 '13 at 15:23
4

for some reason, after doing the whole FLAG_NOT_MODAL, WATCH_OUTSIDE_TOUCH, the outside touch does it fact not close the activities, but the button behind the activity is clicked. any idea for that ? – njzk2 Nov 07 '13 at 21:22
Note that Dialogs have a shadow (at least till now (8.0)): if you click on the shadow Android will interpret that click just like it was inside the dialog. Just wanted to share this with the world, it took me 10 minutes to get it. – Lorenzo Von Matterhorn Feb 22 '18 at 15:53
This shouldn't be the accepted answer. See below answer by @Singhak – Code Wiget Jan 02 '20 at 02:56

score 22 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 01 '17 at 10:05

22

When using dialog as an activity in the onCreate add this

setFinishOnTouchOutside(false);

answered Apr 01 '17 at 10:05

Ronny Shibley

2,030
22
25

ilw · Answer 6 · 2014-04-20T23:35:34.257

19

For higher API 10, the Dialog disappears when on touched outside, whereas in lower than API 11, the Dialog doesn't disappear. For prevent this, you need to do:

In styles.xml: <item name="android:windowCloseOnTouchOutside">false</item>

OR

In onCreate() method, use: this.setFinishOnTouchOutside(false);

Note: for API 10 and lower, this method doesn't have effect, and is not needed.

edited Apr 20 '14 at 23:35

answered Apr 20 '14 at 22:00

ilw

2,499
5
30
54

score 18 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 12 '17 at 07:01

Setting the dialog cancelable to be false is enough, and either you touch outside of the alert dialog or click the back button will make the alert dialog disappear. So use this one:

setCancelable(false)

And the other function is not necessary anymore: dialog.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false);

If you are creating a temporary dialog and wondering there to put this line of code, here is an example:

new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
                        .setTitle("Trial Version")
                        .setCancelable(false)
                        .setMessage("You are using trial version!")
                        .setIcon(R.drawable.time_left)
                        .setPositiveButton(android.R.string.yes, null).show();

score 16 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 05 '19 at 08:29

16

Alert Dialog is deprecated so use Dialog dialog = new Dialog(this);

For prevent close on outside touch

dialog.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false);

answered Oct 05 '19 at 08:29

Muhammed Fasil

7,909
2
19
28

score 15 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 02 '16 at 09:51

15

Use This Code it's Working For me

 AlertDialog.Builder alertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
 alertDialog.setCancelable(false);

answered Jan 02 '16 at 09:51

Aslam Patel

874
6
19

this should be the correct answer, if he could does the correct question! – alijunior Feb 28 '16 at 07:49
2

This would be the correct answer, if the OP was asking about *dialogs*! But the question is about Activities--quite a different case. – SMBiggs Aug 16 '16 at 15:00
So `.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false)` is only accessible after `.create()` – francis Jul 09 '21 at 09:52

anand krish · Answer 10 · 2018-03-27T06:17:46.070

14

Dialog dialog = new Dialog(context)
dialog.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(true); 
//use this to dismiss the dialog on outside click of dialog

dialog.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false);
//use this for not to dismiss the dialog on outside click of dialog.

Watch this link for more details about dialog.

dialog.setCancelable(false);
//used to prevent the dismiss of dialog on backpress of that activity

dialog.setCancelable(true);
//used to dismiss the dialog on onbackpressed of that activity

edited Mar 27 '18 at 06:17

answered Feb 06 '15 at 09:20

anand krish

4,281
4
44
47

Please note that the question pertains to Activities used as dialogs, NOT the Dialog class. – SMBiggs Aug 16 '16 at 15:01

score 11 · Answer 11 · answered May 19 '17 at 18:45

11

Simply,

alertDialog.setCancelable(false);

prevent user from click outside of Dialog Box.

answered May 19 '17 at 18:45

3c71 · Answer 12 · 2014-12-17T16:10:21.460

6

I use this in onCreate(), seems to work on any version of Android; tested on 5.0 and 4.4.x, can't test on Gingerbread, Samsung devices (Note 1 running GB) have it this way by default:

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB)
    {
        setFinishOnTouchOutside(false);
    }
    else
    {
        getWindow().clearFlags(LayoutParams.FLAG_WATCH_OUTSIDE_TOUCH);
    }

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

edited Dec 17 '14 at 16:10

answered Dec 16 '14 at 19:34

3c71

4,313
31
43

The perfect answer for Activities used as dialogs, NOT for Alert Dialog class. – Himani Dec 08 '21 at 09:28
OP's question is about activities, not alert dialog. – 3c71 Dec 09 '21 at 16:24

score 5 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 25 '14 at 03:45

5

Use setFinishOnTouchOutside(false) for API > 11 and don't worry because its android's default behavior that activity themed dialog won't get finished on outside touch for API < 11 :) !!Cheerss!!

answered Aug 25 '14 at 03:45

Vishal Pandey

696
8
7

score 5 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 14 '15 at 02:38

5

        alert.setCancelable(false);
        alert.setCanceledOnTouchOutside(false);

I guess this will help you.It Worked For me

answered Sep 14 '15 at 02:38

user2532065

59
1
1

2

Please also try to explain why this will work... Just a code dump is not a good answer. – Codebender Sep 14 '15 at 05:06

score 3 · Answer 15 · answered Apr 12 '16 at 04:37

3

Here is my solution:

AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
builder.setTitle("Select The Difficulty Level");
builder.setCancelable(false);

answered Apr 12 '16 at 04:37

Akhter Al Amin

852
1
11
25

score 2 · Answer 16 · answered Sep 21 '15 at 14:33

2

Also is possible to assign different action implementing onCancelListener:

alertDialog.setOnCancelListener(new DialogInterface.OnCancelListener(){                   
    @Override
    public void onCancel(DialogInterface dialogInterface) {
        //Your custom logic
    } 
});

answered Sep 21 '15 at 14:33

Adae Rodríguez

183
1
18

How can I identify if the cancel is called because of tapping outside the alert dialog? – cegprakash May 13 '16 at 13:37
Very helpful to create custom actions on tapping outside an alert dialog! – Adam S. Mar 29 '19 at 03:27

score 1 · Answer 17 · edited Feb 06 '14 at 16:18

I was facing the same problem. To handle it I set a OntouchListener to the dialog and do nothing inside. But Dialog dismiss when rotating screen too. To fix it I set a variable to tell me if the dialog has normally dismissed. Then I set a OnDismissListener to my dialog and inside I check the variable. If the dialog has dismmiss normally I do nothin, or else I run the dialog again (and setting his state as when dismissing in my case).

score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Jul 12 '16 at 23:24

1

builder.setCancelable(false);

public void Mensaje(View v){

    AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
    builder.setTitle("¿Quieres ir a el Menú principal?");
    builder.setMessage("Al presionar SI iras a el menú y saldras de la materia.");
    builder.setPositiveButton("SI", null);
    builder.setNegativeButton("NO", null);
    builder.setCancelable(false);
    builder.show();
}

answered Jul 12 '16 at 23:24

Alex Skriivordemgentschenfelde

21
1

1

Hi Alex. Welcome to StackOverflow and thank you for your answer. Could you please edit your answer to describe what your code does and how this solves the OP's problem? Code only answers are discouraged as they don't teach or explain the _why_. Thank you! – Tim Malone Jul 12 '16 at 23:42

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Apr 23 '22 at 16:08

In jetpack compose, use dismissOnClickOutside = false property to prevent from closing.

    AlertDialog(
        title = {
            Text("Title")
        },
        text = {
            Text(text = name)
        },
        onDismissRequest = onDismiss,
        confirmButton = {
            TextButton(onClick = onDismiss ) {
                Text("Yes")
            }
        },
        dismissButton = {
            TextButton(onClick = onDismiss ) {
                Text("Cancel")
            }
        },
        properties = DialogProperties(
            dismissOnClickOutside = false
        )
    )

}

score -2 · Answer 20 · answered Apr 22 '18 at 07:30

-2

This is the perfect answer to all your questions.... Hope you enjoy coding in Android

new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
            .setTitle("Akshat Rastogi Is Great")
            .setCancelable(false)
            .setMessage("I am the best Android Programmer")
            .setPositiveButton("I agree", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                    dialog.dismiss();

                }
            })
            .create().show();

answered Apr 22 '18 at 07:30

Akshat Rasogi

41
9

1

Thank you for this code snippet, which might provide some limited, immediate help. A proper explanation would greatly improve its long-term value by showing why this is a good solution to the problem and would make it more useful to future readers with other, similar questions. Please edit your answer to add some explanation, including the assumptions you’ve made. – Maximilian Peters Apr 22 '18 at 08:58

Prevent Android activity dialog from closing on outside touch

20 Answers20

Linked

Related