How to make foreground Services work in MIUI?

Question

I've been messing around with android services and facing a problem while running foreground Services in MIUI 10(Testing Device: Redmi note 5 pro)

Basically Service runs as long as the user is interacting with activity but as soon as user kills activity, foreground service also gets killed.

I read some other answers regarding the same issues,

which state that in devices like Xaomi, Oppo, lenovo, LG, honor etc. You need to enable "AutoRun" permission for the app

Which I tried with no success. I also tried the following with no success at all:

1. Disabled MIUI optimization
2. Disabled Power saving
3. Removed Battery restrictions for the app
4. Freed the memory (Total: 3GB, Available: 2GB)

---

What worked for me was enabling the: "Don't keep activites" in the Developer options but in real world application you probably wouldn't ask users to enable this option since it affects user experience.

By the way, I tested my app in other devices such as pixel, nexus etc(Android studio emulators) And They all worked fine. It's only my device which is causing this issue.

Download link for the app for debugging purposes: https://anonfile.com/d4k511p1bd/app-debug_apk

Source Code

File: MainActivity.java

package com.myname.foregroundserviceexample;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.support.v4.content.ContextCompat;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.EditText;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    private EditText editTextInput;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        editTextInput = findViewById(R.id.edit_text_input);
    }

    public void startService(View v) {
        String input = editTextInput.getText().toString();

        Intent serviceIntent = new Intent(this, ExampleService.class);
        serviceIntent.putExtra("inputExtra", input);

        ContextCompat.startForegroundService(this, serviceIntent);
    }

    public void stopService(View v) {
        Intent serviceIntent = new Intent(this, ExampleService.class);
        stopService(serviceIntent);
    }

}

File: ExampleService.java

package com.myname.foregroundserviceexample;

import android.app.Notification;
import android.app.PendingIntent;
import android.app.Service;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.IBinder;
import android.support.annotation.Nullable;
import android.support.v4.app.NotificationCompat;

import static com.myname.foregroundserviceexample.App.CHANNEL_ID;


public class ExampleService extends Service {

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
    }

    @Override
    public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
        String input = intent.getStringExtra("inputExtra");

        Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(this, MainActivity.class);
        PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(this,
                0, notificationIntent, 0);

        Notification notification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(this, CHANNEL_ID)
            .setContentTitle("Example Service")
            .setContentText(input)
            .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_android)
            .setContentIntent(pendingIntent)
            .build();
        // Starting Foreground Service
        startForeground(1, notification);

        return START_NOT_STICKY;
    }

    @Override
    public void onDestroy() {
        super.onDestroy();
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
        return null;
    }
}

File: App.java

package com.myname.foregroundserviceexample;

import android.app.Application;
import android.app.NotificationChannel;
import android.app.NotificationManager;
import android.os.Build;


public class App extends Application {
    public static final String CHANNEL_ID = "exampleServiceChannel";

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();

        createNotificationChannel();
    }

    private void createNotificationChannel() {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
            NotificationChannel serviceChannel = new NotificationChannel(
                CHANNEL_ID,
                "Example Service Channel",
                NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_DEFAULT
            );

            NotificationManager manager = getSystemService(NotificationManager.class);
            manager.createNotificationChannel(serviceChannel);
        }
    }
}

I know there's a way around this by enabling "Don't keep activities" in Developing options but I genuinely don't want the user to enable this in their device, Also I would gladly accept any alternative or code improvements to make the foreground Service work in MIUI 10.

Thankyou

EDIT:

Here's the project link: https://anonfile.com/y5Rd4bp3b9/ForegroundServiceExample_zip

And this is the tutorial I was following on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbpD5RZtbCc

Answer 1

Maybe you should try to call Service#startForeground at the begining of your service creation in the onCreate/onStartIntent

See this post Context.startForegroundService() did not then call Service.startForeground() for more information.

Answer 2

If you are facing an error like this.

Permission Denial: startForeground requires android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE

Then you have to add this in your manifest file.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE"></uses-permission>

Hope it's work for you.