Unable to start activity ProxyBillingActivity, NullPointerException by getIntentSender()

Question

We are using the latest Google Play billing client com.android.billingclient:billing:4.1.0 as described in https://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/integrate

Sometimes we get this non-reproducible exception in the crash logs, mostly Android 10 devices.

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.my.app/com.android.billingclient.api.ProxyBillingActivity}: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.content.IntentSender android.app.PendingIntent.getIntentSender()' on a null object reference
    at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3654)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3806)
    at android.app.servertransaction.LaunchActivityItem.execute(LaunchActivityItem.java:83)
    at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135)
    at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95)
    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2267)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:107)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:237)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:8154)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:496)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1100)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.content.IntentSender android.app.PendingIntent.getIntentSender()' on a null object reference
    at com.android.billingclient.api.ProxyBillingActivity.onCreate(com.android.billingclient:billing@@4.1.0:12)
    at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:7963)
    at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:7952)
    at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1307)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3629)
    ... 11 more

Any ideas how to fix/catch?

Donative

Billing library 5.0 still has this issue. – Donative

I am using revenue cat. Same problem. Did you find a solution? – Encrata

Same issue discussed here: github.com/stripe/stripe-android/issues/777 – Bassist

When is the crash happening for you all? For me its happening while onboarding a new user where there is no billing related code at all. Also, only happening to one user on Pixel 4a. – Mime

I get that issue in Firebase Crashlytics and the devices is Nexus 5X. I am not sure, if the app crashes when this issue occurs. Because I could not reproduce by myself. – Tatiana

any fix available for this – Barathea

@MarkDelphi same here. Only seems to happen to one user with a Nexus 5X and Android 8.1.0. – Rebarbative

same here nexus 5X getting this problem. play billing version 6.1.0 – Happ

This is strange, I checked the Crashlogs & it turns out its only happening on the same Nexus 5X device with the Android 8.1.0 OS – Elfredaelfrida

How do you think, app crashes when this issue occurs or it does not and the user also does not notce that there something went wrong? – Tatiana

Playbilling 6.2 still has the same problem, which is also the nexus 5x under Android version 8.1 – Stretcher

Is there any bug report on the google issue tracker entry for this one? – Billy