Question

I have an android app that a) performs an updateData() function (querying content providers and HTTP requests from internet among other things) in a thread, and b) has a home screen widget that performs the same updateData() function every 30mins (not in a thread).

a) looks like this:

public class MoodMain extends Activity{
    public void onCreate(...)
    {
        Thread t = new Thread()
        {
            public void run()
            {
                     updateData(this);
            }
        };
        t.start();
    }

b) looks like this :

public class MoodAppWidgetProvider extends AppWidgetProvider { 
    public void onUpdate(Context context, ...)
    { 
        updateData(context);
    } }

Now people are reporting ANRs where threads are stopped at same place in updateData(context), one thread for a) and one for b). Stack traces look like the following:

1st example:

“main” prio=5 tid=1 NATIVE | group=”main” sCount=1 dsCount=0 s=N
obj=0x40025ad8 self=0xcd80 | sysTid=23053 nice=0 sched=0/0
cgrp=default handle=-1345017808 | schedstat=( 5672943129 29267974835
13299 ) at android.os.BinderProxy.transact(Native Method) at
android.content.ContentProviderProxy.bulkQueryInternal(ContentProviderNative.java:370)
at
android.content.ContentProviderProxy.query(ContentProviderNative.java:408)
…

“Thread-10″ prio=5 tid=9 NATIVE | group=”main” sCount=1 dsCount=0
s=N obj=0x4629ba88 self=0x2d1750 | sysTid=23062 nice=0 sched=0/0
cgrp=default handle=2955408 | schedstat=( 53100602 8822875969 600 )
at android.os.BinderProxy.transact(Native Method) at
android.content.ContentProviderProxy.bulkQueryInternal(ContentProviderNative.java:370)
at
android.content.ContentProviderProxy.query(ContentProviderNative.java:408)
at android.content.ContentResolver.query(ContentResolver.java:245) …

2nd example:

“main” prio=5 tid=1 NATIVE | group=”main” sCount=1 dsCount=0 s=N
obj=0x40020a30 self=0xcd88 | sysTid=19319 nice=0 sched=0/0
cgrp=default handle=-1345026000 at
java.net.InetAddress.getaddrinfo(Native Method) at
java.net.InetAddress.lookupHostByName(InetAddress.java:508) at
java.net.InetAddress.getAllByNameImpl(InetAddress.java:280) at
java.net.InetAddress.getByName(InetAddress.java:310) at
java.net.InetSocketAddress.(InetSocketAddress.java:110) …

“Thread-10″ prio=5 tid=9 NATIVE | group=”main” sCount=1 dsCount=0
s=N obj=0x458842e8 self=0x245cc0 | sysTid=20153 nice=0 sched=0/0
cgrp=default handle=2388904 at
java.net.InetAddress.getaddrinfo(Native Method) at
java.net.InetAddress.lookupHostByName(InetAddress.java:508) …

“Thread-8″ prio=5 tid=7 NATIVE | group=”main” sCount=1 dsCount=0 s=N
obj=0x45867030 self=0x22c528 | sysTid=20151 nice=0 sched=0/0
cgrp=default handle=2277944 at
java.net.InetAddress.getaddrinfo(Native Method) at
java.net.InetAddress.lookupHostByName(InetAddress.java:508) … at
com.admob.android.ads.i.d(AdMobURLConnector.java:153) at
com.admob.android.ads.b.a(AdRequester.java:206) at
com.admob.android.ads.AdView$b.run(AdView.java:655)

Looks like some kind of task deadlock. Any ideas how to solve this anyone please?

Answer 1

I believe the issue is the fact I am doing a long process in the onUpdate() function of the widgetProvider. I modified my code to spawn a thread to perform the intensive functionality, and so far, no more freezes have been reported from users.