DialogFragment disappears on rotation despite setRetainInstance(true)

Question

I have a "hello world"-ish sample app that uses the android-support-v4 fragments API. The activity consists of a button, clicking it will show a DialogFragment. However, configuration changes like rotation cause the dialog to vanish, even if setRetainInstance(true) is used.

Any idea how to fix this?

RetFragment.java

package me.local.HelloFroyo;  import android.os.Bundle; import android.support.v4.app.*; import android.util.Log; import android.view.*;  public class RetFragment extends DialogFragment {      @Override     public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         setRetainInstance(true);     }      @Override     public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,             Bundle savedInstanceState) {         return inflater.inflate(R.layout.hello_dialog_fragment, container);     }      @Override     public void onDestroy() {         super.onDestroy();         Log.e("RET", "onDestroy");     } } 

MainActivity.java

package me.local.HelloFroyo;  import android.os.Bundle; import android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity; import android.view.View;  public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity {      private static final String TAG_DLG = "myFragDlg";      public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){         super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);         this.setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);     }      public void onShowClick(View v) {         RetFragment ret = new RetFragment();         ret.show(getSupportFragmentManager(), TAG_DLG);     } } 

Answer 1

Just to comment on this:

"even if setRetainInstance(true) is used."

It's not "even if", it's "because of it." If setRetainInstance is false, the dialog is rotated just fine.

This is the work around I found here, which works fine for me: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17423

@Override public void onDestroyView() {     Dialog dialog = getDialog();      // Work around bug: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17423     if ((dialog != null) && getRetainInstance())         dialog.setDismissMessage(null);      super.onDestroyView(); } 

Answer 2

DialogFragments survive rotation changes on their own, u dont need to setRetainInstance

However if u set it, this is a reproducable bug with setRetainInstance(true) and DialogFragments

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17423&q=setRetaininstance&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars

just dont setRetainInstance, your dialog will work just fine

However if you have an AsyncTask running along in your DialogFragment and you want to persist it use LoaderManager with AsyncTaskLoader.. it also survives configuration changes