Android.app.RemoteServiceException: at android.app.ActivityThread $ H.handleMessage when sending notifications

Question

I use the service to display notifications. On some rare devices (3 users out of 50,000 every day) I have the following crash (which can be seen on the Google Play Developer Console, only on Android 4.x devices):

android.app.RemoteServiceException: at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1509) at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:110) at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:193) at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5327) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method:0) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515) at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:824) at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:640) at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method:0) 

My notifications are made with this code (old styles, deprecated in Android 6+, but still work, error on Android 4.x, where the code is not outdated):

 Notification notification = new Notification(icon, "Custom Notification", when); NotificationManager mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager) getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE); RemoteViews contentView = new RemoteViews(getPackageName(), R.layout.custom_notification); contentView.setImageViewResource(R.id.notifWeatherImageView, WeatherRowTools.getImageForWeatherCode(weatherCodeString)); ....some stuff here... notification.contentView = contentView; notification.contentIntent = contentIntent; notification.flags |= Notification.FLAG_AUTO_CANCEL; notification.defaults = 0; mNotificationManager.notify(1, notification); 

Any idea on how to solve this problem?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I saw similar problems in my builds - only Kitkat Devices throw them in large numbers - Android OS version: 4.4.4, 4.4.2, 4.2.2, 4.0.4

We fixed a similar issue by changing the value used in the notification.

 .addAction(R.drawable.ic_forward_black_24dp, VIEW_ACTION, pendingIntentView); 

We stopped using Vector Assets and started using Image Assets.

R.drawable.ic_forward_black_24dp no longer uses the xml (Vector Object) file, and instead we now use the png (Image Asset) file.

Answer 2

Check this one . Even if you are not using the same SDK as in the linked answer, your problem may still have the same cause.