Question

I’m doing some background work in an IntentService and trying to make it stop by clicking a notification. For stopping the work I have a static method, that sets a flag.

public static void stopService() {
    if (task != null) {
        task.setCancelFlag(true);
    }
}

The notification has a PendingIntent, that sends a Broadcast to a Receiver, that attempts to stop the service.

Intent intent = new Intent(this, AlarmReceiver.class);
intent.setAction(AlarmReceiver.STOP_SERVICE);

PendingIntent contentIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(getBaseContext(), 0,
                intent, 0);

notification.contentIntent = contentIntent;

The Receiver calls the stopService() method when it receives a broadcast.

if (intent.getAction().equals(STOP_SERVICE)) {
    UpdateCheckService.stopService();
}

Strangely enough, the stopService() method is not called properly. If I try to log it, the part with the flag setting is not executed. Even if I set a breakpoint on the Receiver and try to debug it, it doesn’t work.

However, if I call the same method from an Activity by clicking a button, everything works as intended.

Does somebody know, where this strange behavior comes from?

Answer 1

The mystery is solved: My BroadcastReceiver had the remote process flag set, which I copied from some tutorial on the web without too much thinking. Removing this tag made everything work as expected.