Android - startActivityForResult immediately triggering onActivityResult

Question

I am launching activities from the main activity in my app using the call startActivityForResult(intent, ACTIVITY_TYPE), and they are all working but one.

This one, when called, launches the activity as desired, but in the log I can see that onActivityResult() is immediately being triggered. The activity shows up but RESULT_CANCELED is immediately returned to onActivityResult().

I then interact with the activity, press a button which calls finish(), and onActivityResult() is not called this time (because apparently a result has already been returned).

Does this make sense to anyone? Has anyone seen this behavior before?

score 323 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 16 '17 at 17:07

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You can't use startActivityForResult() if your activity is being launched as a singleInstance or singleTask. standard or singleTop launch mode will fix the problem.

edited Mar 16 '17 at 17:07

stkent

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answered Oct 27 '11 at 01:50

Falmarri

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Thank both of you, I had this in my manifest file and had totally forgotten about it – TomBomb Oct 27 '11 at 03:14
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WOW! This seems like an obvious thing to add to the javadocs! I wasted a whole evening trying to get this to work, and this SO answer reminded me that my Activity was set to singleTop. – swooby Mar 14 '13 at 15:29
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`singleTop` seems fine for me, `singleTask` however was causing this issue and hence `singleInstance` would definitely do too – darnmason Jun 18 '13 at 13:39
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holy sh**, you make my day. Thanks ! – Hrk Jul 16 '13 at 09:49
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I also spent way too long debugging this! Thanks!! – suomi35 Jul 24 '13 at 16:48
Hats off to u... I faced above problem but was confused and curious about knowing the reason. – Sandeep Aug 14 '13 at 09:08
This is exactly what I'm looking for. You guys rock! – Vaeianor Apr 08 '14 at 17:47
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In my case, did not defined any class as an singleInstance or singleTop, but still it is happening...any suggestion ? – CoDe Aug 27 '14 at 14:42
I have checked manifest for any keys like this, no result. Also checked activity for any falg, no result. In my code I am calling default web browser with URL. and it do not fire onActivtyResult, Why??? this is my code >> http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/990063/Why-onActivityResult-can-not-catch-result-from-bro?arn=1 – Ahmad Ebrahimi May 10 '15 at 12:35
@AhmadEbrahimi This question is 3 and a half years old. Ask your own question. – Falmarri May 14 '15 at 05:24
I have the same problem – sonida Oct 18 '15 at 15:49
I wasted my 2 days on it. – Anshul Tyagi Mar 03 '16 at 11:28
Note that if the `intent-filter` on the target activity marks it as category `LAUNCHER`, the activity is launched in a new task by default. This can cause the immediately-canceled behavior, even if it is not marked `singleTask` or `singleInstance`. – Alex Jordan Sep 15 '16 at 19:16

score 121 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 14 '19 at 11:37

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Additionally make sure the intent does not have the Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK set.

From the docs:

This flag can not be used when the caller is requesting a result from the activity being launched.

edited Jan 14 '19 at 11:37

Vadim Kotov

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answered Jan 31 '13 at 22:59

James Zhang

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This fixed the problem in my case. The problem was not caused by singleInstance, singleTop nor singleTask. – Diana Dec 04 '13 at 16:16
You are a mint (A life saver). This was my exact problem when I wanted the user to capture an image in a Fragment – kyay10 Feb 16 '19 at 20:12
@Diana, do you remember what you used instead of `Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK` ? – Keselme Aug 06 '19 at 09:05
@Keselme Sorry, it's been a long time, I wish I could help but I don't remember and I can't access that code any more. – Diana Aug 06 '19 at 15:33
Yes, fixed it. startActivityForResult should not be used with Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK – hanilozmen Jun 15 '20 at 08:58

score 21 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 15 '16 at 19:10

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I have seen this behavior before, please make sure your destnation activity (that special activity) is not singleInstance in AndroidManifest file. If the Activity is singleInstance, then it will return RESULT_CANCELED before launched!

edited Jun 15 '16 at 19:10

naXa stands with Ukraine

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answered Oct 27 '11 at 01:58

pangcong

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score 20 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 19 '14 at 17:06

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I'd also like to add that you could call an external app with:
Intent in = caller.getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage("com.your.package.here");
Which would create an intent with Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK added by default, so call:
in.setFlags(0);
Which will clear that flag, and then you can proceed to: startActivityForResult(in, action);

Reason I'm doing this is that I have a utility app that has common functionality between a few other apps and I can keep the code changes to one location instead of worrying about multiple updates.

answered Jun 19 '14 at 17:06

giannileuani

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I know this is old, but this was so absolutely invaluable to me that I wanted to say thanks to the user, and point out for anyone jumping between activities that this is freaking gold! Saved my ass during a hackathon ;) – Wes Winn Sep 26 '14 at 18:35
This is what needs more attention. It is the best solution and works perfectly for me. You saved me a lot of time, thank you so much. – Aritra Roy Aug 25 '15 at 05:22
Up-voting this answer as this was the exact issue I was having this morning! Thanks for the solution! – Will Johnson Apr 07 '17 at 08:43
Thanks. intent.setFlags(0) solved the problem. Now the second app starts ok and returns result to the calling app – Niaz Dec 02 '17 at 14:45

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 21 '17 at 19:28

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startActivityForResult() doesn't work with a singleInstance or singleTask activity in pre-lollipop version of Android. Since Android 5 it works (see this answer for more details).

answered Sep 21 '17 at 19:28

noelicus

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score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 22 '17 at 19:49

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It also triggers if you have FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK in your intent.

Intent intent = new Intent(this, MyActivity.class);
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CODE);

answered Sep 22 '17 at 19:49

Roger Alien

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Thanks. I added FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK in my activity. – Chirag Savsani Nov 28 '17 at 13:14

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 29 '16 at 22:43

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My problem was with the calling activity. Its declaration in the AndroidManifest had the following property:

android:noHistory="true"

Changed it to "false" and now works fine.

answered Apr 29 '16 at 22:43

user3829751

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score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Dec 07 '17 at 12:00

Android 4.4 has a small problem about waiting for the return at the end of the actvity closure To solve this behavior it is important to set :

all activities will have the same task Affinity attribute. (TaskAffinity = "[SAME STRING]")
launchmode=singleTop,
launchIntent.SetFlags(0); // for reset default Intent flags if you launch from package manager

This solution works with all version of Android

See this for taskAffinity: https://asyoulook.com/computers%20&%20internet/android-onactivityresult-being-called-instantly/1004072

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 26 '18 at 06:35

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Also, check if android:noHistory="true" on activity in Manifest, if yes, it will not work.

answered Nov 26 '18 at 06:35

Sanju

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 23 '14 at 13:21

For ActivityGroup or TabHost and others, maybe the xxxActivity is a subActivity of its parent. Then the startActivityForResult can not work but the parent can get the result.

call getParent().startActivityForResult() from your sub-activity
your parent (the ActivityGroup) will be able to handle the onActivityResult. So I created a subclass of ActivityGroup and handled this onActivityResult.
You can re-route that result back to the sub-activity if you need to. Just get the current activity by getLocalActivityManager().getCurrentActivity() . My sub-activities inherit from a custom activity so I added a handleActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data) in that subclass for the ActivityGroup to call.

example: http://www.cnblogs.com/relinson/archive/2012/03/25/startActivityForResult.html

What do you think about this special case when calling default web brower : http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/990063/Why-onActivityResult-can-not-catch-result-from-bro?arn=1 — Ahmad Ebrahimi, May 10 '15 at 12:32

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 15 '16 at 19:09

0

onActivityResult() will also pass RESULT_CANCELED as the resultCode if you misspell the package or class name in the manifest file.

edited Jun 15 '16 at 19:09

naXa stands with Ukraine

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answered May 12 '15 at 02:09

musterjunk

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 26 '16 at 12:07

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In Android Manifest set android:launchMode="singleTop" for activity you want open with result and while opening activity set flag intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_SINGLE_TOP);

answered Nov 26 '16 at 12:07

Krish

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score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 11 '18 at 10:31

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If you defined android:noHistory="true" in the activity in your AndroidManifest.xml, it will cause the same issue here.

answered Sep 11 '18 at 10:31

firemaples

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Android - startActivityForResult immediately triggering onActivityResult

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