Android: Clear the back stack

by

In Android I have some activities, let’s say A, B, C.

In A, I use this code to open B:

Intent intent = new Intent(this, B.class);
startActivity(intent);

In B, I use this code to open C:

Intent intent = new Intent(this, C.class);
startActivity(intent);

When the user taps a button in C, I want to go back to A and clear the back stack (close both B and C). So when the user use the back button B and C will not show up, I’ve been trying the following:

Intent intent = new Intent(this, A.class);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP); 
startActivity(intent);

But B and C are still showing up if I use the back button when I’m back in activity A. How can I avoid this?

39 Answers
39

Try adding FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK as described in the docs for FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP:

This launch mode can also be used to
good effect in conjunction with
FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK: if used to
start the root activity of a task, it
will bring any currently running
instance of that task to the
foreground, and then clear it to its
root state. This is especially useful,
for example, when launching an
activity from the notification
manager.

So your code to launch A would be:

Intent intent = new Intent(this, A.class);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK); 
startActivity(intent);
CurrentActivity.this.finish(); // if the activity running has it's own context


// view.getContext().finish() for fragments etc.

Leave a Comment