SharedPreferences will not save/load in PreferenceActivity

Question

EDIT: The problem described below was due to a very peculiar device issue not caused by any coding-related problem.

I have a preferenceActivity in which I have many checkBoxPreferences. The checkBoxPreference is suppose to save the the default shared preferences file, and then be called again when I open the app in order to update the UI.

This does not happen like it's suppose to. If I close the app and open it back up, my values remain like they are suppose to, but if I use task manager to end the app or if I power cycle the phone (when the app is not running) then the defaultValues are called again.

So, I created a SharedPreference in my onResume() to test it.

SharedPreferences pref = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(getApplicationContext());

I then check to see if there is a key in that sharedpreference.

pref.contains("myCheckBoxPreference");

When I close out and open it back up, it returns true. if I close with the task manager or power cycle the phone off and on, then that returns false.

So, I tried manually setting the SharedPreference

SharedPreferences.Editor editor = pref.edit();
editor.putBoolean("myCheckBoxPreference", myCheckBoxPreference.isChecked());
editor.commit();

and then I called that when the checkboxpreference value changed. I also tried calling it in onStop and onPause. Still, if I close the app and open it back up, pref.contains returns true, but if I power cycle the phone off and back on, it returns false.

So I then tried using a SharedPreferences file.

In the class declaration:

public static final String PREFS = "prefs";

And in the onResume():

SharedPreferences pref = this.getSharedPreferences(PREFS, 0);

Same behavior, pref.contains still returns true if I just close the app and open it back up, but it returns false if I power the phone off and back on.

I then tried changing the key value of myCheckBoxPreference to something that did NOT match the xml key for the CheckBoxPreference, and it still had the same effect.

And I uninstalled the application from the phone, then powered the phone off and back on, and then re-installed, and it still has the same effect.

Answer 1

I just solved it, I'm pretty sure. There's no code error on my part, and there is no issue with my app whatsoever (I don't believe, anyway.)

I created a new project called "testproj", then I copied ALL the code from my settings PreferenceActivity, pasted it into the TestprojActivity, and I copied the code from the xml it relied on, then pasted that into the main.xml of TestProj.

I then installed TestProj on the Samsung Captivate, changed the settings around, cleared the ram through RAM management (a function of the custom ROM I have), and the settings stuck. I then power cycled the phone and the settings were still there like I'd configured them.

They stayed both when I manually set them using:

PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences();

and without manually saving them to the SharedPreferences.

Since it is not my phone, I haven't tried it yet, but I assume a Factory Data reset would fix it completely EDIT: I was able to test on both a new Samsung Captivate and a Samsung infuse, and it worked.

I wasted a lot of my time trying to figure this out, and I hope it helps someone else. :)