AdMob: "activity has leaked ServiceConnection" and "AdvertisingIdClient unbindService failed."

Question

I'm using AdMob in my app. I followed implementation guidelines, and the banner is correctly showing and loading the ads. My MainActivity is responsible of creating references, building the AdRequest and showing the banner, as well as pausing, resuming, and destroying the AdView. Everytime the AdRequest has been loaded, when the Activity's onStop() is called, the following Exception is created:

6706-6706/com.rocca.controlloSpese E/ActivityThread﹕ Activity com.rocca.controlloSpese.MainActivity has leaked ServiceConnection com.google.android.gms.common.b@52b1cc3c that was originally bound here
android.app.ServiceConnectionLeaked: Activity com.rocca.controlloSpese.MainActivity has leaked ServiceConnection com.google.android.gms.common.b@52b1cc3c that was originally bound here
        at android.app.LoadedApk$ServiceDispatcher.<init>(LoadedApk.java:970)
        at android.app.LoadedApk.getServiceDispatcher(LoadedApk.java:864)
        at android.app.ContextImpl.bindServiceCommon(ContextImpl.java:1577)
        at android.app.ContextImpl.bindService(ContextImpl.java:1560)
        at android.content.ContextWrapper.bindService(ContextWrapper.java:517)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.a.b(SourceFile:330)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.a.a(SourceFile:187)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.a.b(SourceFile:239)
        at com.google.android.a.t.f(SourceFile:132)
        at com.google.android.a.t.b(SourceFile:182)
        at com.google.android.a.q.a(SourceFile:258)
        at com.google.android.a.q.a(SourceFile:195)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.m.a(SourceFile:107)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.request.c.a(SourceFile:99)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.util.b.run(SourceFile:17)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.util.d.call(SourceFile:29)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.internal.util.e.call(SourceFile:49)
        at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:237)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1112)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:587)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:841)

followed by this info:

6706-6781/com.rocca.controlloSpese I/AdvertisingIdClient﹕ AdvertisingIdClient unbindService failed.
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Service not registered: com.google.android.gms.common.b@52b1cc3c
        at android.app.LoadedApk.forgetServiceDispatcher(LoadedApk.java:922)
        at android.app.ContextImpl.unbindService(ContextImpl.java:1611)
        at android.content.ContextWrapper.unbindService(ContextWrapper.java:529)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.a.c(SourceFile:275)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.b.c(SourceFile:100)
        at com.google.android.gms.ads.identifier.b.run(SourceFile:110)

This doesn't happen if the AdRequest is not built and loaded. I set up my IABHelper in onCreate(), and if the user didn't buy my "remove-ads" sku, ads are shown. This is the code I use to load the ads:

private void showAds() {
    int adresult = GooglePlayServicesUtil.isGooglePlayServicesAvailable(MainActivity.this);
    if (adresult == ConnectionResult.SUCCESS) {
        //if possible, show ads
        AdRequest adRequest = new AdRequest.Builder()
                .addTestDevice(AdRequest.DEVICE_ID_EMULATOR) 
                .addTestDevice("C144E9DA02EA7B26F74ED2C231F31D38") 
                .addTestDevice("93BABD84466B8C1EF529D2FB39D1ACE8") 
                .addTestDevice("BEAA738068664AE9BBF673E37A782E03") 
                .addTestDevice("E51508081F77DF84C129EE471DE67141") 
                .build();
        adView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
        adView.loadAd(adRequest);
    } else {
        //if there's a problem, show error and close app
        GooglePlayServicesUtil.getErrorDialog(adresult, MainActivity.this, 0, new DialogInterface.OnCancelListener() {
            @Override
            public void onCancel(DialogInterface dialogInterface) {
                finish();
            }
        }).show();
    }
}

adView's pause(), resume() and destroy() are called in the respective activity's methods. Practically, the app's performance isn't affected, but I'd rather avoid memory leaks. How do I avoid that exception?

EDIT: the Manifest.xml

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
package="com.rocca.controlloSpese" >

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="com.android.vending.BILLING" />
<uses-permission android:name="com.rocca.controlloSpese.BROADCAST_PERMISSION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" />

<application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
    <activity
        android:name=".MainActivity"
        android:finishOnCloseSystemDialogs="true"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:launchMode="singleTop" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

    <meta-data
        android:name="com.google.android.gms.version"
        android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version" />
    <activity
        android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.AdActivity"
        android:configChanges="keyboard|keyboardHidden|orientation|screenLayout|uiMode|screenSize|smallestScreenSize" />        
</application>

Answer 1

I'm seeing exactly the same behaviour just using the example quick start project from the AdMob website here. I'm seeing this running Lollipop on a Nexus 5.

Therefore this looks like an AdMob bug to me.

Is there anyway to get a reference to the AdMob service and unbind the service manually to see if that stops the error?

Answer 2

Below code solve my problem;

@Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        mAdView.destroy();
        super.onDestroy();
    }

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    super.onResume();
    mAdView.resume();

}


@Override
protected void onPause() {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    super.onPause();

    mAdView.pause();
}