SharedPreferences obtained in BroadcastReceiver are stale

Question

I'm having trouble accessing my preferences from a BroadcastReceiver. I'm using the following code:

public class MyReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver
{
    private static final String TAG = MyReceiver.class.getSimpleName();

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent)
    {
        SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = 
            PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(
                context.getApplicationContext());
        Log.d(TAG, sharedPreferences.getAll().toString());
    }
}

This code always prints stale preferences. When I go to my PreferenceActivity, change settings and then fire an event that triggers the above BroadcastReceiver it always prints old values for the preferences.

I also added the same code to my main activity and it always prints the correct settings.

What is going on here? Are the settings being cached? Is there a way to force a reload from my BroadcastReceiver ?

What happens when you try to print just one preference? Does it change when you change it? — iTurki, Aug 27 '12 at 02:36
the same question (and answer) has been posted here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10098981/sharedpreferences-in-broadcastreceiver-seems-to-not-update — Thomas, Jan 22 '13 at 10:31

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:12

It seems my problem is described in SharedPreferences in BroadcastReceiver seems to not update?

My BroadcastReceiver is started from a Service that looks like:

<service android:name=".MyService" android:process=":remote">
  <intent-filter>
    <action android:name="com.example.MyService"/>
  </intent-filter>
</service>

Removing the android:process=":remote" made my problem go away. Though I am not sure if this is the right thing to do for my application. I kind of depend on this service being detached from the main app as it needs to be started at boot time.

SharedPreferences obtained in BroadcastReceiver are stale

1 Answers1