Camera or Gallery intent destroys old activity on some devices

Question

I am working on app which uses WebView to display its content. However, it needs to open camera or gallery in order to choose picture:

    Intent cameraIntent = new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
    startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, 1);

    Intent galleryIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_PICK, android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI);
    startActivityForResult(galleryIntent, 2);

It's working fine on most devices, but on HTC One and few others both intents destroys my activity, so webview is being reloaded while going back. I don't have noHistory flag in AndroidManifest.xml. What might be causing that issue? Can I avoid destroying my activity here?

You could try increasing the heap size on the emulator as a test. — lokoko, Jan 31 '13 at 11:55
If android wants to destroy your activity, you should cope: this does not mean `it's NOT working fine`! — Sherif elKhatib, Jun 21 '13 at 23:26
possible duplicate of [Android: Activity getting Destroyed after calling Camera Intent](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16014930/android-activity-getting-destroyed-after-calling-camera-intent) — Alex Cohn, Sep 29 '15 at 20:21

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 21 '13 at 11:12

7

It is normally, that Android kills your Activity when other app runs.

You must save Activity state in onSaveInstanceState and when activity will be recreated restore state in onRestoreInstanceState or in onCreate.

To restore state of WebView you may use cookies and sessions and save last opened url. When activity will be recreated just navigate WebView last saved url and process result from camera.

answered Jun 21 '13 at 11:12

Nik

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My problem is that WebView is loading a huge webpage and I don't want to reload it for few seconds after picking photo, opening browser etc. – Piotr Jun 21 '13 at 11:35

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

Intent cameraIntent = new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, 1);

By seeing your code I can judge that your motto is to capture the image and use it later on.

This is a known bug, The solution is that you need to create a separate folder for your application and before capturing you need to be sure that file is created and the same path you are giving to camera intent

Uri uriSavedImage=Uri.fromFile(new File("/sdcard/seperate/newImage.png"));
Intent cameraIntent = new Intent(android.provider.MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE);
cameraIntent.putExtra("output", uriSavedImage);
startActivityForResult(cameraIntent, 1);

Reference: image from camera intent issue in android

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 31 '13 at 09:32

0

Maybe a stupid sugestion. But since it's destroyed, it means the device was low on memory.

If the only annoyance is that the webview reloads, maybe you can solve this by caching the content?

For example in the onStop() method of you activity get the content of the webview and store it somewhere. temporary file, sqlite,... . and in onCreate check if there is a cache (and maybe how old it is) and if needed put that in the webview.

Tutorial to get html code from webview: http://lexandera.com/2009/01/extracting-html-from-a-webview/

answered Jan 31 '13 at 09:32

Stephan Celis

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I made simple app without WebView (only one button) and it's happening as well. – Piotr Jan 31 '13 at 09:34
Yes but in that case does it really matter that Android recreates the Activity? It might as wel be that Android OS needed memory to open up Camera application. – Stephan Celis Jan 31 '13 at 09:38
Actually it's happening after EVERY new Intent - I can't imagine it doesn't have enough memory to open simple new Activity without destroying old one. – Piotr Jan 31 '13 at 12:09
do you call finish() after you startActivity(intent). When you call finish() it destroys the activity. – Stephan Celis Jan 31 '13 at 12:11
No, I don't call finish method. As I said, it's happening only on specific devices. – Piotr Jan 31 '13 at 13:29
If it happens for every intent then check settings on the device: Settings > Developer options > Don't keep activities. – pawelzieba Jun 24 '13 at 20:25

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 27 '13 at 12:44

If i m not wrong you are opening camera from device.Have you check that other app is not aquired the camera? you must acquire camera before starting camera activity may be some other app using camera instance.You must release the camera instance in on destroy or onstop method of activity so that next time it will available fr other app to use it or for your app to use.

Camera or Gallery intent destroys old activity on some devices

4 Answers4

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