Trying to start a service on boot on Android

Question

I've been trying to start a service when a device boots up on android, but I cannot get it to work. I've looked at a number of links online but none of the code works. Am I forgetting something?

AndroidManifest.xml

<receiver     android:name=".StartServiceAtBootReceiver"     android:enabled="true"     android:exported="false"     android:label="StartServiceAtBootReceiver" >     <intent-filter>         <action android:name="android.intent.action._BOOT_COMPLETED" />     </intent-filter> </receiver>  <service     android:name="com.test.RunService"     android:enabled="true" /> 

BroadcastReceiver

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {     if ("android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED".equals(intent.getAction())) {         Intent serviceLauncher = new Intent(context, RunService.class);         context.startService(serviceLauncher);         Log.v("TEST", "Service loaded at start");     } } 

Answer 1

The other answers look good, but I thought I'd wrap everything up into one complete answer.

You need the following in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

1. In your <manifest> element:

   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" /> 

2. In your <application> element (be sure to use a fully-qualified [or relative] class name for your BroadcastReceiver):

   <receiver android:name="com.example.MyBroadcastReceiver">       <intent-filter>           <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />       </intent-filter>   </receiver> 

   (you don't need the android:enabled, exported, etc., attributes: the Android defaults are correct)

   In MyBroadcastReceiver.java:

   package com.example;  public class MyBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {     @Override     public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {         Intent startServiceIntent = new Intent(context, MyService.class);         context.startService(startServiceIntent);     } } 

From the original question:

• it's not clear if the <receiver> element was in the <application> element
• it's not clear if the correct fully-qualified (or relative) class name for the BroadcastReceiver was specified
• there was a typo in the <intent-filter>

Answer 2

As an additional info: BOOT_COMPLETE is sent to applications before external storage is mounted. So if application is installed to external storage it won't receive BOOT_COMPLETE broadcast message.

More details here in section Broadcast Receivers listening for "boot completed"