Question

I received an error report with the following stack trace for an app I have in the Android Market:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start service    com.k0gappsw.skibuddy.SBService@4051f4d0 with null: java.lang.NullPointerException
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleServiceArgs(ActivityThread.java:2473)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2800(ActivityThread.java:135)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1127)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:150)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4385)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:849)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:607)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.k0gappsw.skibuddy.SBService.onStartCommand(SBService.java:316)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleServiceArgs(ActivityThread.java:2456)
... 10 more

I have two questions:
1. Is the offending code at line 316 of SBService.java?
2. The code at that line is:
Bundle bundle = intent.getExtras();
Any idea what could be going wrong with this? I have not seen the problem in my testing.

Answer 1

Don’t you love mysterious stack traces that come in with random error reports! I’ll take a stab at answering your questions:

1. Yes, line 316 is the offending code. The ‘intent’ must be null.
2. Maybe your service is being killed and recreated? This question might provide some insight into why the intent might be null.