Android alarm is cancelled after closing the application

Question

I have a problem with AlarmManager, I set the code for scheduling a repeating alarm and after I run the application, the alarm runs fine. Even if I click on Home button (and the application is paused), the alarm still runs on its interval.

The problem is if I open the Task Manager and force close the application, then the alarm stops from running.

Is this a normal behavior, is there any way to avoid this and keep the alarm running after closing the application?

The code is below - the method is called by the ApplicationContext class, onCreate().

 private void scheduleAlarm() {   if (alarmScheduled == true) { return; } // we only need to schedule once.    int alarmInterval = Def.pref(getApplicationContext()).getInt("alarmInterval", 30);    final Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), CollectorAlarmReceiver.class);   final PendingIntent pending = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(getApplicationContext(), 0, intent, 0);    AlarmManager alarmMgr = (AlarmManager) getApplicationContext().getSystemService(Context.ALARM_SERVICE);    alarmMgr.cancel(pending); // cancel others.    alarmMgr.setRepeating(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, System.currentTimeMillis()+1000,     alarmInterval*1000, pending);    Def.log(TAG,"scheduleAlarm(): alarm scheduled, interval: "+alarmInterval+" seconds");   alarmScheduled = true;  } 

Receiver code:

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {     Log.i(TAG, "CollectorAlarmReceiver invoked, starting CollectorService in background");      context.startService(new Intent(context, CollectorService.class));      Intent collectorService = new Intent(context,CollectorService.class);     collectorService.putExtra("action", CollectorService.ACTION_BACKGROUND_REQUEST_MESSAGES);      context.sendBroadcast(collectorService); } 

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is normal behaviour. If the user voluntarily force stop the applicaiton, then it should be stopped. Else, you are creating a virus like application.

If you really want, you could write another service which monitors if your other service is running and runs the service if the one is not running. But this will be another application and (you hope) the user wont kill this app using task manager.

Personally, I wouldn't worry. If the user stopped it, they wanted to stop it. Don't annoy the user.