onTaskRemoved() not getting called in HUAWEI and XIOMI devices

Question

I've been using onTaskRemoved() method in a Service to detect when an app was removed from device RECENT list by swiping it away. I preform some logging and some other operations that need to take place when this happens. It works perfectly.

Then I checked this method in an HUAWEI device running Android 6.0. The method never gets called. I also added a Log.d call and as expected, this log never appeared. The same happens on a XIOMI device.

Any ideas why this happens and how to resolve this? Or is there another way to detect app was removed from RECENT list with out relying on onTaskRemoved() ?

Thanks

David Wasser · Answer 1 · 2017-02-08 17:54:15Z

On some devices (some LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, and others) your app needs to be manually added to a list of "protected apps" or "apps that are allowed to run in the background" in order for Android to restart STICKY services. If your app has not been manually added to this list, Android just kills your processes and does not restart them and also does not call onTaskRemoved(). This is done to preserve battery life by limiting the number of apps that can have STICKY services running in the background.

On such devices you should see a page in the "Settings", sometimes under "power management", sometimes other places, where you need to explicitly add your application. You'll also need to tell your users to explicitly add your app to this list.

is there any way to do forcefully put the app in such list? Is any option to do in manifest? — Naveen Kumar M, Feb 14 at 7:03
No. The user must add the app himself. You cannot do it programatically. On some devices, the app may be automatically added if it is installed from the Play store (instead of being installed via ADB), but I'm not sure which devices do this. Not all do. — David Wasser, Feb 14 at 7:12
Some Lenovo phones have a "background app management" setting. However, it looks like lots of folks have this problem with Lenovo phones. It is possible that Lenovoa has broken something. See forums.lenovo.com/t5/P1-P1m-P70-P90-Series/… — David Wasser, Feb 14 at 14:36

W4R10CK · Answer 2 · 2017-02-14 12:33:55Z

I've been using onTaskRemoved() method in a Service to detect when an app was removed from device RECENT list by swiping it away.

With giving more light to the answer provided by David Wasser

It doesn't new on Xiaomi because Xiaomi has a feature called app permission, where a user has to allow the app to start automatically (Service). In your case the Service is not called, once its terminated from stack.

Go like this and allow your app to autostart:

Settings > permissions > Autostart

How to enable autistart programmatic way, Is it possible in manifest at the time of installation time itself? — Naveen Kumar M, Feb 14 at 14:49
First of all, this only happens on Xiaomi and some other Japanese and Chinese handset. This is not possible to enable programmatic because this is not a global handset issue. Preferred way is to add a message at onDeatroy to notify user. I'm still finding solutions to it. — W4R10CK, Feb 14 at 15:08

score 0 · Answer 3

When user has installed your app on xiaomi device, redirect user to auto start activity and tell user to switch on:

if (Build.BRAND.equalsIgnoreCase("xiaomi")) {
                Intent intent = new Intent();
                intent.setComponent(new ComponentName("com.miui.securitycenter", "com.miui.permcenter.autostart.AutoStartManagementActivity"));
                startActivity(intent);
            }

Use the above code to launch autostart activity page on xiaomi

David Wasser · Answer 4 · 2017-02-08 17:54:15Z

On some devices (some LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, and others) your app needs to be manually added to a list of "protected apps" or "apps that are allowed to run in the background" in order for Android to restart STICKY services. If your app has not been manually added to this list, Android just kills your processes and does not restart them and also does not call onTaskRemoved(). This is done to preserve battery life by limiting the number of apps that can have STICKY services running in the background.