Does Android widget stop working after a while?

Question

I have a flashlight app with widgets. The widget is used to turn the flashlight on and off and does not display the main activity or anything else. However, after a few hours, the widget does nothing. I mean, if you click on it, nothing will happen. I have two classes to accomplish this: Provider and Receiver .

Provider:

 public class WidgetProvider extends AppWidgetProvider { @ Override public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) { Intent receiver = new Intent(context, FlashlightWidgetReceiver.class); receiver.setAction("COM_FLASHLIGHT"); receiver.putExtra(AppWidgetManager.EXTRA_APPWIDGET_IDS, appWidgetIds); PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, 0, receiver, 0); RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.appwidget_layout); views.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.imageButton, pendingIntent); appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetIds, views); } } 

Receiver:

 public class FlashlightWidgetReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver { private static boolean isLightOn = false; private static Camera camera; MediaPlayer mp;@ Override public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) { RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.appwidget_layout); if (isLightOn) { views.setImageViewResource(R.id.imageButton, R.drawable.btn_switch_off); mp = MediaPlayer.create(context, R.raw.light_switch_off); } else { views.setImageViewResource(R.id.imageButton, R.drawable.btn_switch_on); mp = MediaPlayer.create(context, R.raw.light_switch_on); } mp.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() { @ Override public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub mp.release(); } }); mp.start(); AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager = AppWidgetManager.getInstance(context); appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(new ComponentName(context, WidgetProvider.class), views); if (isLightOn) { if (camera != null) { camera.stopPreview(); camera.release(); camera = null; isLightOn = false; } } else { camera = Camera.open(); if (camera == null) { Toast.makeText(context, "No Camera!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); } else { Camera.Parameters param = camera.getParameters(); param.setFlashMode(Camera.Parameters.FLASH_MODE_TORCH); try { camera.setParameters(param); camera.startPreview(); isLightOn = true; } catch (Exception e) { Toast.makeText(context, "No Flash!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); } } } } } 

Setup:

 <appwidget-provider xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:minWidth="40dp" android:minHeight="40dp" android:maxWidth="40dp" android:maxHeight="40dp" android:updatePeriodMillis="86400000" android:initialLayout="@layout/appwidget_layout" android:resizeMode="horizontal|vertical"> </appwidget-provider> 

Update:. Reducing the refresh interval causes the widget to refresh more often, so if it gets stuck, it works again after 30 minutes, and then it can freeze again.

Update 2:. Changing the date will instantly freeze the widget until it is updated.

Update 3:. Changing the date somehow restarts the launcher and whenever the launcher starts, the widget freezes for 30 minutes.

Answer 1

Ok guys, I finally managed to solve this problem once and for all :)

I created more methods for the provider, instead of doing everything in onUpdate, one important method is needed:

  public static PendingIntent buildButtonPendingIntent(Context context) { Intent intent = new Intent(); intent.setAction("COM_FLASHLIGHT"); return PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, 0, intent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT); } 

And this method is called through the receiver when the widget is clicked using the following code:

 private void turnFlash(Context context) { RemoteViews views = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(), R.layout.appwidget_layout); views.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.imageButton, WidgetProvider.buildButtonPendingIntent(context)); } 

That's all, no more hiccups!

Answer 2

Look for this post, I think this problem is explained here by the dark side of the application widget