Why would Activity.getPackageManager() return null

Question

I have method that resolves an Intent to a ComponentName:

private static ComponentName resolveViewExternalIntent(Context context)
{
    Intent intent = createIntent();
    return intent.resolveActivity(context.getPackageManager());
}

Rarely, I get the following ACRA crash report:

java.lang.NullPointerException
    at android.content.Intent.resolveActivity(Intent.java:4518)
    at com.mypackage.myclass.resolveViewExternalIntent(SourceFile:271)
    at om.mypackage.myActivity.onResume(SourceFile:517)

That line in the Intent class gets the NPE because PackageManager is null.

I see this infrequently, but frequently enough that made me write this question.

Does anybody have any idea, under what circumstances can Context/Activity.getPackageManager() return null? In my case, context is the Activity object itself, not the ApplicationContext. The app is executing the Activity.onResume() lifecycle method when this happens.

Karttikeya

Your context is not null for sure ? – Educated

If it were, would I get that stack trace? So, no, context cannot be null. – Karttikeya

Besides, I call this resolveViewExternalIntent(this) where 'this' is the Activity, so it's impossible it to be null. – Karttikeya

Answer 1

You did not specify the intent with an intent action or an explicit intent. You can try this:

 Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_ZZZ); // Replace ZZZ

and then call the package manager to check that those applications or features are available on your device.

Turenne