Is there any way to not stop service even if app is stopped through the multitasking screen? - android-service

Question

My service gets stopped when app is closed.
Code already provided.
My Service code is:
public class MusicService extends Service {
MediaPlayer myPlayer;
#Nullable
#Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
return null;
}
#Override
public void onCreate() {
Toast.makeText(this, "Service Created", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
myPlayer = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.nokiatune);
myPlayer.setLooping(false); // Set looping
}
#Override
public void onStart(Intent intent, int startid) {
Toast.makeText(this, "Service Started", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
myPlayer.start();
}
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
Toast.makeText(this, "Service Stopped", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
myPlayer.stop();
}
}
I have developed a Service in android. It is working fine. The only thing is that service stops when app is closed through the multitasking screen. Is there any way to not stop the service even if the app is closed through the multitasking screen ?

Answer 1

You could try the approach discussed here. Basically, you register a BroadcastReceiver that restarts your Service if it is destroyed. On your AndroidManifest.xml:
<receiver
android:name="yourpackagename.RestartServiceBroadcastReceiver"
android:enabled="true"
android:exported="true"
android:label="RestartServiceWhenStopped">
</receiver
Your BroadcastReceiver:
public class RestartServiceBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
context.startService(new Intent(context, MusicService.class));
}
}
Then on your Service's onDestroy, you send a Broadcast so that the BroadcastReceiver can restart your service.
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
Intent broadcastIntent = new Intent(this,RestartServiceBroadcastReceiver .class);
sendBroadcast(broadcastIntent);
myPlayer.stop();
}
Also, you have to move your logic inside the onStart to your Service's onStartCommand and have it return START_STICKY, like this:
#Override
public int onStartCommand() {
myPlayer.start();
return START_STICKY;
}
Returning this tells Android not to kill your service--however, there's no guarantee that Android will honor this and can still kill your service.
Finally in the Activity where you start the Service, you need to make sure that you check first if the service is already existing before starting the service, and stop the service during onDestroy, so that the BroadcastReceiver can restart the service.
A warning though: this approach will not work above Android O, please see this for more details.