onNewIntent override crashes sometimes when calling startService

[igor84]

Please fill in the following fields:

Unity editor version: 2019.1.14f1
Firebase Unity SDK version: 5.7.0
Firebase plugins in use (Auth, Database, etc.): Crashlytics, Messaging
Additional SDKs you are using (Facebook, AdMob, etc.): Facebook
Platform you are using the Unity editor on (Mac, Windows, or Linux): Windows
Platform you are targeting (iOS, Android, and/or desktop): Android
Scripting Runtime (Mono, and/or IL2CPP): IL2CPP

Please describe the issue here:

We followed instructions for configuring a custom entry point Activity at https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/unity/client and added this code to our Activity:

protected void onNewIntent(Intent intent) {
  Intent message = new Intent(this, MessageForwardingService.class);
  message.setAction(MessageForwardingService.ACTION_REMOTE_INTENT);
  message.putExtras(intent);
  message.setData(intent.getData());
  startService(message); // This is line 77 from the stacktrace bellow
}

We noticed on Crashlytics a number of crashes happening with following message and stack trace:
Caused by java.lang.IllegalStateException: Not allowed to start service Intent { act=com.google.android.c2dm.intent.RECEIVE cmp=com.nordeus.heroic/com.google.firebase.messaging.MessageForwardingService }: app is in background uid UidRecord{7abca70 u0a14 LAST bg:+2m48s495ms idle change:idle procs:1 seq(1760,1760,1760)}
at android.app.ContextImpl.startServiceCommon + 1720(ContextImpl.java:1720)
at android.app.ContextImpl.startService + 1675(ContextImpl.java:1675)
at android.content.ContextWrapper.startService + 669(ContextWrapper.java:669)
at eu.nordeus.common.MainPlayerNativeActivity.onNewIntent + 77(MainPlayerNativeActivity.java:77)
at android.app.Activity.performNewIntent + 8080(Activity.java:8080)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnNewIntent + 1413(Instrumentation.java:1413)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnNewIntent + 1426(Instrumentation.java:1426)
at android.app.ActivityThread.deliverNewIntents + 4002(ActivityThread.java:4002)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleNewIntent + 4014(ActivityThread.java:4014)
at android.app.servertransaction.NewIntentItem.execute + 53(NewIntentItem.java:53)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks + 149(TransactionExecutor.java:149)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute + 103(TransactionExecutor.java:103)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage + 2373(ActivityThread.java:2373)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage + 107(Handler.java:107)
at android.os.Looper.loop + 213(Looper.java:213)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main + 8147(ActivityThread.java:8147)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run + 513(RuntimeInit.java:513)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main + 1100(ZygoteInit.java:1100)

Please answer the following, if applicable:

Have you been able to reproduce this issue with just the Firebase Unity quickstarts (this GitHub project)?

We couldn't reproduce this issue, we only observed it happening in the wild.

[google-oss-bot]

This issue does not seem to follow the issue template. Make sure you provide all the required information.

[paulinon]

Hi @igor84 according to your error message, an IllegalStateException is thrown if your app targeting Android 8.0 tries to use that method in a situation when it isn't permitted to create background services. Could you try updating your Firebase SDK and Unity Editor to their latest versions and see if the issue persists?

[stewartmiles]

@igor84 since we're using an IntentService to route data to the C++ SDK I think we have a legit bug here if you're targeting Android 8 or above in this scenario as the MessageForwardingService is still an IntentService rather than a JobIntentService which would schedule the message forwarding using the Job Scheduler on Android 8 or above. I've forwarded this issue to an engineer on the team to look into migration from IntentService to JobIntentService

[igor84]

@paulinon unfortunately since this is only happening in the wild we would have to do these updates on a live project that is already on a tight schedule, so we couldn't do them any time soon.

@stewartmiles thanks for looking into this and sorry I can't be of more help :)

[igor84]

@stewartmiles is there any progress on this? Is there some workaround that we can implement while we wait for a proper fix?

[qbit86]

We have the same issue too. Calling startService(message) leads to java.lang.IllegalStateException. And changing it to ContextCompat.startForegroundService(this, message) results in

android.app.RemoteServiceException: Context.startForegroundService() did not then call Service.startForeground()

[qbit86]

I think we have a legit bug here if you're targeting Android 8 or above

@stewartmiles Then please fix the documentation, which suggests calling startService(message): https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/unity/client#configuring_a_custom_entry_point_activity