Android - startActivityForResult immediately triggering onActivityResult

Question

I am launching activities from the main activity in my app using the call startActivityForResult(intent, ACTIVITY_TYPE), and they are all working but one.

This one, when called, launches the activity as desired, but in the log I can see that onActivityResult() is immediately being triggered. The activity shows up but RESULT_CANCELED is immediately returned to onActivityResult().

I then interact with the activity, press a button which calls finish(), and onActivityResult() is not called this time (because apparently a result has already been returned).

Does this make sense to anyone? Has anyone seen this behavior before?

stkent · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-16 17:07:24Z

324

You can't use startActivityForResult() if your activity is being launched as a singleInstance or singleTask. standard or singleTop launch mode will fix the problem.

edited Mar 16, 2017 at 17:07

stkent

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answered Oct 27, 2011 at 1:50

Falmarri

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3 Comments

darnmason Over a year ago

singleTop seems fine for me, singleTask however was causing this issue and hence singleInstance would definitely do too

CoDe Over a year ago

In my case, did not defined any class as an singleInstance or singleTop, but still it is happening...any suggestion ?

Alex Jordan Over a year ago

Note that if the intent-filter on the target activity marks it as category LAUNCHER, the activity is launched in a new task by default. This can cause the immediately-canceled behavior, even if it is not marked singleTask or singleInstance.

Vadim Kotov · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-14 11:37:45Z

125

Additionally make sure the intent does not have the Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK set.

From the docs:

This flag can not be used when the caller is requesting a result from the activity being launched.

edited Jan 14, 2019 at 11:37

Vadim Kotov

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answered Jan 31, 2013 at 22:59

James Zhang

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5 Comments

Diana Over a year ago

This fixed the problem in my case. The problem was not caused by singleInstance, singleTop nor singleTask.

Keselme Over a year ago

@Diana, do you remember what you used instead of Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK ?

Diana Over a year ago

@Keselme Sorry, it's been a long time, I wish I could help but I don't remember and I can't access that code any more.

hanilozmen Over a year ago

Yes, fixed it. startActivityForResult should not be used with Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK

SVG Over a year ago

@hanilozmen what is the intent flag you used. I am having the same issue with gps launcher

giannileuani · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-19 17:06:06Z

I'd also like to add that you could call an external app with:
Intent in = caller.getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage("com.your.package.here");
Which would create an intent with Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK added by default, so call:
in.setFlags(0);
Which will clear that flag, and then you can proceed to: startActivityForResult(in, action);

Reason I'm doing this is that I have a utility app that has common functionality between a few other apps and I can keep the code changes to one location instead of worrying about multiple updates.

I know this is old, but this was so absolutely invaluable to me that I wanted to say thanks to the user, and point out for anyone jumping between activities that this is freaking gold! Saved my ass during a hackathon ;)
This is what needs more attention. It is the best solution and works perfectly for me. You saved me a lot of time, thank you so much.
Up-voting this answer as this was the exact issue I was having this morning! Thanks for the solution!
Thanks. intent.setFlags(0) solved the problem. Now the second app starts ok and returns result to the calling app

naXa stands with Ukraine · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-15 19:10:40Z

I have seen this behavior before, please make sure your destnation activity (that special activity) is not singleInstance in AndroidManifest file. If the Activity is singleInstance, then it will return RESULT_CANCELED before launched!

noelicus · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-21 19:28:50Z

startActivityForResult() doesn't work with a singleInstance or singleTask activity in pre-lollipop version of Android. Since Android 5 it works (see this answer for more details).

Roger Alien · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-22 19:49:19Z

It also triggers if you have FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK in your intent.

Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyActivity.class); intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CODE);

user3829751 · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-29 22:43:06Z

My problem was with the calling activity. Its declaration in the AndroidManifest had the following property:

android:noHistory="true"

Changed it to "false" and now works fine.

adiga · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-07 12:00:19Z

Android 4.4 has a small problem about waiting for the return at the end of the actvity closure To solve this behavior it is important to set :

all activities will have the same task Affinity attribute. (TaskAffinity = "[SAME STRING]")
launchmode=singleTop,
launchIntent.SetFlags(0); // for reset default Intent flags if you launch from package manager

This solution works with all version of Android

See this for taskAffinity: https://asyoulook.com/computers%20&%20internet/android-onactivityresult-being-called-instantly/1004072

Sanju · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-26 06:35:26Z

Also, check if android:noHistory="true" on activity in Manifest, if yes, it will not work.

Kyle Falconer · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-23 13:21:30Z

For ActivityGroup or TabHost and others, maybe the xxxActivity is a subActivity of its parent. Then the startActivityForResult can not work but the parent can get the result.

call getParent().startActivityForResult() from your sub-activity
your parent (the ActivityGroup) will be able to handle the onActivityResult. So I created a subclass of ActivityGroup and handled this onActivityResult.
You can re-route that result back to the sub-activity if you need to. Just get the current activity by getLocalActivityManager().getCurrentActivity() . My sub-activities inherit from a custom activity so I added a handleActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data) in that subclass for the ActivityGroup to call.

example: http://www.cnblogs.com/relinson/archive/2012/03/25/startActivityForResult.html

What do you think about this special case when calling default web brower : codeproject.com/Questions/990063/…

naXa stands with Ukraine · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-15 19:09:14Z

0

onActivityResult() will also pass RESULT_CANCELED as the resultCode if you misspell the package or class name in the manifest file.

edited Jun 15, 2016 at 19:09

naXa stands with Ukraine

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answered May 12, 2015 at 2:09

musterjunk

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Comments

Krish · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-26 12:07:37Z

In Android Manifest set android:launchMode="singleTop" for activity you want open with result and while opening activity set flag intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);

firemaples · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-11 10:31:22Z

If you defined android:noHistory="true" in the activity in your AndroidManifest.xml, it will cause the same issue here.

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