MediaRecorder crashes on start

Question

i've searched many topics but no straight answer.

I have this code :

        recorder = new MediaRecorder();
    recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
    recorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);

    recorder.setOutputFile(mFileName);
    recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
    if(!mStartRecording)
    {
        btn.setText("Stop Recording");
        try {
            recorder.prepare();

        }  catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        recorder.start();
        mStartRecording = true;
    }
    else
    {
        btn.setText("Start Recording");
        mStartRecording = false;
        recorder.stop();
        recorder.reset();
        recorder.release();

        recorder = null;
    }

And i've added :

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.STORAGE" /> 
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />

(saw somewhere that adding STORAGE solved it, no good for me)

I'm developing on API Level 7 (Android 2.1)

stack trace says "start faild" Stack trace :

    04-26 19:27:41.955: D/dalvikvm(890): GC freed 809 objects / 58272 bytes in 433ms
04-26 19:27:44.772: D/dalvikvm(890): GC freed 95 objects / 3936 bytes in 371ms
04-26 19:28:54.973: E/MediaRecorder(890): start failed: -1
04-26 19:28:54.993: D/AndroidRuntime(890): Shutting down VM
04-26 19:28:54.993: W/dalvikvm(890): threadid=3: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001b188)
04-26 19:28:54.993: E/AndroidRuntime(890): Uncaught handler: thread main exiting due to uncaught exception
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890): java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not execute method of the activity
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.View$1.onClick(View.java:2031)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:2364)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.View.onTouchEvent(View.java:4179)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.widget.TextView.onTouchEvent(TextView.java:6541)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.View.dispatchTouchEvent(View.java:3709)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:884)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:884)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:884)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:884)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1659)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1107)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.app.Activity.dispatchTouchEvent(Activity.java:2061)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1643)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:1691)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4363)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:860)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:618)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890): Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at shibby.whisper.WhisperGameActivity.recordAudio(WhisperGameActivity.java:94)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.view.View$1.onClick(View.java:2026)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  ... 21 more
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890): Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: start failed.
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  at android.media.MediaRecorder.start(Native Method)
04-26 19:28:55.105: E/AndroidRuntime(890):  ... 25 more
04-26 19:28:55.223: I/dalvikvm(890): threadid=7: reacting to signal 3
04-26 19:28:55.335: I/dalvikvm(890): Wrote stack trace to '/data/anr/traces.txt'
04-26 19:28:57.123: I/Process(890): Sending signal. PID: 890 SIG: 9

Please help.

Answer 1

Ok, I got it. I guess you initialized mStartRecording to true.

Thus your if is going into the else block. In it, you stop a brand new instance of MediaRecorder and the state diagram doesn't allow that.

Make your media recorder a field of your class. And initialize properly your mStartRecording boolean variable to false. Re instanciate your media recorder only if your field is null.

if( recorder == null ) {
   recorder = new MediaRecorder();
   recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
   recorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);

   recorder.setOutputFile(mFileName);
   recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
}//if
if(!mStartRecording) {
    btn.setText("Stop Recording");
    try {
        recorder.prepare();
        recorder.start();
        mStartRecording = true;
    }  catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }//catch
} else {
    btn.setText("Start Recording");
    mStartRecording = false;
    recorder.stop();
    recorder.reset();
    recorder.release();
    recorder = null;
}//else

Answer 2

Try putting the start function in the same block as prepare function. maybe there's an exception blocking prepare from executing and goes directly to start thus causing an IllegalStateException.

    recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
    recorder.setOutputFormat(output_formats[currentFormat]);
    recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
    recorder.setOutputFile(getFilename());


    try {
        recorder.prepare();
        recorder.start();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

Answer 3

i am using the following code,works perfectly for me..

protected void startRecording() {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    i++;
     mFileName = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath();
     mFileName += "/audiorecordtest"+i+".3gp";
    recorder = new MediaRecorder();

    recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
    recorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);
    recorder.setOutputFile(mFileName);
    recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);

      try {
        recorder.prepare();
    } catch (IllegalStateException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "IllegalStateException called", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();


    } catch (IOException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "prepare() failed", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

    }

      recorder.start();
}

 private void stopRecording() {
     recorder.stop();
     recorder.release();
     recorder = null;
    }

Answer 4

These methods must arrange the order it will run. Here:

recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
recorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);
recorder.setOutputFile(mFileName);
recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);