Foreground Coroutine Worker causing android.app.RemoteServiceException: Context.startForegroundService() did not then call Service.startForeground()

Question

Getting the following crash on coroutine worker, the crash is happening on only some Samsung, Vivo and Oppo devices specifically and only on Android 10

Fatal Exception: android.app.RemoteServiceException: Context.startForegroundService() did not then call Service.startForeground(): ServiceRecord{2dcabaa u0 `app_id_hidden`/androidx.work.impl.foreground.SystemForegroundService}
       at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2159)
       at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:107)
       at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:230)
       at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7752)
       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
       at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:526)
       at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1034)

The doWork function on the worker is implemented as, where the init() function does my job.

override suspend fun doWork(): Result {
    setForeground(createForegroundInfo())
    return init()
}

private fun init() {
    //implementation hidden
}

private fun createForegroundInfo(): ForegroundInfo {
    val notificationId = 1
    return ForegroundInfo(notificationId, createNotification())
}

private fun createNotification(): Notification {
    val context = applicationContext

    val builder = NotificationCompat.Builder(context, ChannelType.NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_GENERAL)
                .setContentTitle("Message")
                .setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_notif_small)
                .setOngoing(true)
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        createNotificationChannel(
                    ChannelType.NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_GENERAL,
                    ChannelType.NOTIFICATION_CHANNEL_GENERAL
        ).also {
            builder.setChannelId(it.id)
        }
    }
    return builder.build()
}

@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.O)
private fun createNotificationChannel(
         channelId: String,
         name: String
    ): NotificationChannel {
        return NotificationChannel(
                channelId, name, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_LOW
        ).also { channel ->
            notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel)
    }
}

I am not using any location or microphone or any default foreground service types. It's a plain worker which does some job.

Legend

hi, @Akash Amin did you find an answer to this? I'm facing the same issue. – Callicrates

There are a few reports in the Android issue tracker, but they are all closed as Won't Fix, e.g. issuetracker.google.com/issues/190412030. They always say it is because something is blocking the main thread too much. In my case I also have reports in crashlytics almost entirely on Samsung devices. If there is a problem in my app code then why does it happen only on Samsung devices? Furthermore I see the crash only once per user, which is also weird. Could be that it happens only when the app is being updated? – Suffix

Answer 1

In the latest Workmanager API, you can use "setExpedited" along with "getForegroundInfo" instead of "setForeground" in your Worker. It will mark your work as starting immediately (meeting the constraints).

Steps :

• Override the getForegroundInfo method and return the ForegroundInfo.
• While building the workrequest, use setExpedited(OutOfQuotaPolicy.RUN_AS_NON_EXPEDITED_WORK_REQUEST) (for more quota policy, checkout the link below)
• And done.

Note: setExpedited would only work with OneTimeRequest and not with PeriodicWorkRequest

For more info : setExpedited

Kape

Important answer this if you are trying to use setExpedited and not overriding the getForegroundInfo method you will receive an error: Java.lang.IllegalStateException: Not implemented at androidx.work.CoroutineWorker.getForegroundInfo. Thank you for the steps. – Xenolith

I don't think setExpedited will fix the issue on devices using Android 11 and below unfortunately since as the doc states: "To maintain backwards compatibility for expedited jobs, WorkManager might run a foreground service on platform versions older than Android 12. Foreground services can display a notification to the user." – Petrapetracca