Question

I noticed that when my application encounters an error, the value of my application context variables are also reinitialized to its original value (not the updated value). Based from my understanding, this happened because the application was recreated.

How can I save and restore the values of my application context variables when an application error occurs? I’ll also be glad if you could give a more detailed explanation on how things are working on the background of my application when it encounters an error.

Note: I read that one of the solution for this is by using SharedPreferences. However, SharedPreferences saves the data even when the application is dead. I don’t want to save the data when the application is dead. I only want to save the data when the application is alive or on background.

Answer 1

How can I save and restore the values of my application context variables when an application error occurs?

First, don’t have an unhandled exception.

Second, don’t rely on static data members or custom Application subclass instances. There are many scenarios in which your process will be terminated and those values go away. They should be used for an in-memory cache of persistent content, and little else.

Sometimes, unhandled exceptions are truly unexpected, but these should be infrequent and usually tied to specific devices (e.g., ran out of storage space). Everything else represents a bug in your app, and you must fix the bugs.