getting exception “IllegalStateException: Can not perform this action after onSaveInstanceState”

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I have a Live Android application, and from market i have received following stack trace and i have no idea why its happening as its not happening in application code but its getting caused by some or the other event from the application (assumption)

I am not using Fragments, still there is a reference of FragmentManager.
If any body can throw some light on some hidden facts to avoid this type of issue:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: Can not perform this action after onSaveInstanceState
at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.checkStateLoss(FragmentManager.java:1109)
at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.popBackStackImmediate(FragmentManager.java:399)
at android.app.Activity.onBackPressed(Activity.java:2066)
at android.app.Activity.onKeyDown(Activity.java:1962)
at android.view.KeyEvent.dispatch(KeyEvent.java:2482)
at android.app.Activity.dispatchKeyEvent(Activity.java:2274)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1668)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchKeyEvent(ViewGroup.java:1112)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1720)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1258)
at android.app.Activity.dispatchKeyEvent(Activity.java:2269)
at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchKeyEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1668)
at android.view.ViewRoot.deliverKeyEventPostIme(ViewRoot.java:2851)
at android.view.ViewRoot.handleFinishedEvent(ViewRoot.java:2824)
at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:2011)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:132)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4025)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:491)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:841)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:599)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

32 Answers
32

This is the most stupid bug I have encountered so far. I had a Fragment application working perfectly for API < 11, and Force Closing on API > 11.

I really couldn’t figure out what they changed inside the Activity lifecycle in the call to saveInstance, but I here is how I solved this :

@Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
    //No call for super(). Bug on API Level > 11.
}

I just do not make the call to .super() and everything works great. I hope this will save you some time.

EDIT: after some more research, this is a known bug in the support package.

If you need to save the instance, and add something to your outState Bundle you can use the following :

@Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
    outState.putString("WORKAROUND_FOR_BUG_19917_KEY", "WORKAROUND_FOR_BUG_19917_VALUE");
    super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
}

EDIT2: this may also occur if you are trying to perform a transaction after your Activity is gone in background. To avoid this you should use commitAllowingStateLoss()

EDIT3: The above solutions were fixing issues in the early support.v4 libraries from what I can remember. But if you still have issues with this you MUST also read @AlexLockwood ‘s blog : Fragment Transactions & Activity State Loss

Summary from the blog post (but I strongly recommend you to read it) :

  • NEVER commit() transactions after onPause() on pre-Honeycomb, and onStop() on post-Honeycomb
  • Be careful when committing transactions inside Activity lifecycle methods. Use onCreate(), onResumeFragments() and onPostResume()
  • Avoid performing transactions inside asynchronous callback methods
  • Use commitAllowingStateLoss() only as a last resort

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