Question

I am having trouble with telling Android to not call onCreate() when the orientation changes. I have added android:configChanges="orientation" to my manifest but still when the orientation changes onCreate() is called. Here is my code.

AndroidManifest.xml

<activity android:name="SearchMenuActivity" android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar" android:configChanges="orientation"></activity>

SearchMenuActivity.java

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    // Set the current layout to the search_menu
    setContentView(R.layout.search_menu_activity);

    Log.d(TAG, "onCreate() Called");
}
@Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
    //don't reload the current page when the orientation is changed
    Log.d(TAG, "onConfigurationChanged() Called");
    super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
}

And my LogCat Output

06-23 12:33:20.327: DEBUG/APP(2905): onCreate() Called
//Orientation Changes
06-23 12:33:23.842: DEBUG/APP(2905): onCreate() Called

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Thanks.

Answer 1

A couple of things to try:

android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize" rather than android:configChanges="orientation"

Ensure that you are not calling setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT); anywhere. This will cause onConfigurationChange() to not fire.

Check that you are not using android:screenOrientation in your manifest.

If none of that works, read through the Android doc on handling runtime changes and make sure you are doing everything correctly. There may be something somewhere else in your code that’s causing the problem. http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/runtime-changes.html

EDIT: As derrik pointed out, I assumed that you were changing the configuration with the accelerometer detecting what way the device was facing. If you want the configuration to change as the keyboard is shown/hidden the configChanges in the manifest must include keyboardHidden as well.