Android: How to auto-restart an application after it has been "force closed"?

Question

In an Android application, we usually got the "Force Closed" error if we didn't handle the exceptions properly.

How can I restart my application automatically if it is force closed?

Is there any specific permission used for this?

Answer 1

To accomplish this you have to do two things:

1. Avoid the "Force close" - standard way of application crash.
2. Setup a restart mechanism when the crash happens anyway.

See below how to do these:

1. Call Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler() in order to catch all uncaught exception, in which case uncaughtException() method will be called. "Force close" will not appear and the application will be unresponsive, which is not a quite good thing. In order to restart your application when it crashed you should do the following :

2. In the onCreate method, in your main activity initialize a PendingIntent member:

   Intent intent = PendingIntent.getActivity(
       YourApplication.getInstance().getBaseContext(),
       0,
       new Intent(getIntent()),
       getIntent().getFlags());
   

Then put the following in your uncaughtException() method:

AlarmManager mgr = (AlarmManager) getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);
mgr.set(AlarmManager.RTC, System.currentTimeMillis() + 2000, intent);
System.exit(2);

You also must call System.exit(), otherwise will not work. In this way your application will restart after 2 seconds.

Eventually you can set some flag in your intent that the application crashed and in your onCreate() method you can show a dialog "I'm sorry, the application crashed, hope never again :)".

Answer 2

The trick is make sure it doesn't Force Close in the first place.

If you use the Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler() method you can catch the Exceptions that are causing your application to Force Close.

Have a look at this question for an example of using an UncaughtExceptionHandler to log the Exceptions raised by an application.

Answer 3

If you use Crittercism or some other error report service, accepted answer is almost right..

final UncaughtExceptionHandler defaultHandler = Thread.getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler();
Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(new UncaughtExceptionHandler() {
            public void uncaughtException(Thread thread, Throwable ex) {
              Intent launchIntent = new Intent(activity().getIntent());
              PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getActivity(CSApplication.getContext(), 0,
                    launchIntent, activity().getIntent().getFlags());
              getAlarmManager().set(AlarmManager.RTC, System.currentTimeMillis() + 2000, pending);
              defaultHandler.uncaughtException(thread, ex);
            }
});

Answer 4

Just add this class in your package

public class MyExceptionHandler implements
    java.lang.Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler {
private final Context myContext;
private final Class<?> myActivityClass;

public MyExceptionHandler(Context context, Class<?> c) {
    myContext = context;
    myActivityClass = c;
}

public void uncaughtException(Thread thread, Throwable exception) {
    StringWriter stackTrace = new StringWriter();
    exception.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(stackTrace));
    System.err.println(stackTrace);// You can use LogCat too
    Intent intent = new Intent(myContext, myActivityClass);
    String s = stackTrace.toString();
    //you can use this String to know what caused the exception and in which Activity
    intent.putExtra("uncaughtException", "Exception is: " + stackTrace.toString());
    intent.putExtra("stacktrace", s);
    myContext.startActivity(intent);
    //for restarting the Activity
    Process.killProcess(Process.myPid());
    System.exit(0);
}}

In your application or in every activity class, inside the onCreate() method then simply call:

Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(new MyExceptionHandler(this,
            SplashScreenActivity.class));

Answer 5

public class ForceCloseExceptionHandalingActivity extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        setContentView(MyLayout());
        Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(new Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler() {
            @Override
            public void uncaughtException(Thread paramThread, Throwable paramThrowable) {
                myHandaling(paramThread, paramThrowable);
            }
        });
    }

    private ViewGroup MyLayout(){
        LinearLayout mainLayout = new LinearLayout(this);
        mainLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);  
        Button btnHello =new Button(this);
        btnHello.setText("Show all button");
        btnHello.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {         
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {                   
                setContentView(MyLayout2());            
            }
        });             
        mainLayout.addView(btnHello);       
        return mainLayout;
    }

    private ViewGroup MyLayout2(){
        LinearLayout mainLayout = new LinearLayout(this);
        mainLayout.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);  
        Button btnHello =new Button(this);
        btnHello.setText("I am a EEROR uncaughtException");
        btnHello.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {         
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {                   
                Log.e("Alert","btn  uncaughtException::");
                Toast.makeText(ForceCloseExceptionHandalingActivity.this, "Alert uncaughtException222",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                View buttone = null;
                setContentView(buttone);            
            }
        });     
        Button btnHello2 =new Button(this);
        btnHello2.setText("I am a EEROR Try n catch");
        btnHello2.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {            
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {   

                try{
                    View buttone = null;
                    setContentView(buttone);
                }
                catch (Exception e) {
                    Log.e("Alert","Try n catch:::");
                    Toast.makeText(ForceCloseExceptionHandalingActivity.this, "Alert Try n catch",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                    setContentView(MyLayout());
                }

            }
        });     
        mainLayout.addView(btnHello);
        mainLayout.addView(btnHello2);
        return mainLayout;
    }
    public void myHandaling(Thread paramThread, Throwable paramThrowable){
        Log.e("Alert","Lets See if it Works !!!" +"paramThread:::" +paramThread +"paramThrowable:::" +paramThrowable);
        Toast.makeText(ForceCloseExceptionHandalingActivity.this, "Alert uncaughtException111",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        Intent in =new Intent(ForceCloseExceptionHandalingActivity.this,com.satya.ForceCloseExceptionHandaling.ForceCloseExceptionHandalingActivity.class);
        startActivity(in);
        finish();
        android.os.Process.killProcess(android.os.Process.myPid()); 
    }
    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        Log.e("Alert","onDestroy:::");
        Toast.makeText(ForceCloseExceptionHandalingActivity.this, "Alert onDestroy",Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        super.onDestroy();  
    }

Answer 6

For Kotlin'ers, call these two extension extension functions inside your MainActivity's onCreate() method, right after the super call and preferably before any other code you'd normally write inside onCreate().

fun Activity.handleUncaughtException() {
    Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler { _, throwable ->
       // here you can report the throwable exception to Sentry or Crashlytics or whatever crash reporting service you're using, otherwise you may set the throwable variable to _ if it'll remain unused
        val intent = Intent(this, MainActivity::class.java).apply {
            putExtra("isCrashed", true)
            addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK or Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)
        }
        startActivity(intent)
        finish()
        Process.killProcess(Process.myPid())
        exitProcess(2)
    }
}


fun Activity.showUncaughtExceptionDialog() {
if (intent.getBooleanExtra("isCrashed", false)) {
    AlertDialog.Builder(this).apply {
        setTitle("Something went wrong.")
        setMessage("Something went wrong.\nWe'll work on fixing it.")
        setPositiveButton("OK") { _, _ -> }
    }.show()
}
}

We call Process.killProcess(Process.myPid()) and exitProcess(2) because if we look at the Android's open-source code, that's actually the default and proper handling that gets called by Thread. getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(), it's what causes our applications to crash and the infamous ANR dialog brought up, and we want to be good Android citizens by following the original implementation rather than doing anything funky at the end of uncaughtException(), like not crashing at all or displaying another activity (never do this).

Note that Kotlin's exitProcess() method is just a wrapper around Java's System.exit(), whatever status code you pass in the constructor doesn't matter, I set it to 2 in my code.

Notice that in the intent we put a boolean flag "isCrashed" set to true, we'll use this to detect whether an unexpected exception caused the app to restart, and display a dialog to the user accordingly to inform them about the crash.

The showUncaughtExceptionDialog() extension function is optional, but if you're going to restart the app due to a crash, it's good manners to inform the user about it.

Answer 7

Below is the code that worked for me. You should call appInitialization() in onCreate() method of MainActivity

    /*
    * App Restart on crash logic
    * */

    public void triggerRestart(Activity context) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(context, MainActivity.class);
        intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
        context.startActivity(intent);
        if (context instanceof Activity) {
            finish();
        }
        Runtime.getRuntime().exit(0);
    }

    private void appInitialization() {
        defaultUEH = Thread.getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler();
        Thread.setDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler(_unCaughtExceptionHandler);
    }

    //make crash report on ex.stackreport
    private Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler defaultUEH;
    // handler listener
    private Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler _unCaughtExceptionHandler = new Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler() {
        @Override
        public void uncaughtException(Thread thread, Throwable ex) {
            // You can code here to send crash analytics
            ex.printStackTrace();
            triggerRestart(currentActivity);
        }
    };

Answer 8

you can use app_watchdogd.sh to watch and restart your APP with rooted Android device