Android Application class method onCreate being called multiple times - lifecycle

Question

i've overloaded the Application class in my android app and i'm using the ACRA report system.
My app looks like ( real source code here ) :
public class MyApplication extends Application
{
#Override
public void onCreate() {
ACRA.init( this );
/*
* Initialize my singletons etc
* ...
* ...
*/
super.onCreate();
}
}
And as far as i know, the Application object should be created only once, so the onCreate method should be called only once.
The problem is, that in my crash reports ( from ACRA ) i have this:
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create service it.evilsocket.myapp.net.N ...
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create service it.evilsocket.myapp.net.NetworkMonitorService: java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create application it.evilsocket.myapp.MyApplication: **java.lang.IllegalStateException: ACRA#init called more than once**
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2283)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1600(ActivityThread.java:127)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1212)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4441)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create application it.evilsocket.myapp.MyApplication: java.lang.IllegalStateException: ACRA#init called more than once
at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:495)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2269)
... 10 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: ACRA#init called more than once
at org.acra.ACRA.init(ACRA.java:118)
at it.evilsocket.myapp.MyApplication.onCreate(MyApplication.java:46)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callApplicationOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:969)
at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:492)
... 11 more
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to create application it.evilsocket.myapp.MyApplication: java.lang.IllegalStateException: ACRA#init called more than once
at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:495)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2269)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1600(ActivityThread.java:127)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1212)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4441)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: ACRA#init called more than once
at org.acra.ACRA.init(ACRA.java:118)
at it.evilsocket.myapp.MyApplication.onCreate(MyApplication.java:46)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callApplicationOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:969)
at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:492)
... 11 more
java.lang.IllegalStateException: ACRA#init called more than once
at org.acra.ACRA.init(ACRA.java:118)
at it.evilsocket.myapp.MyApplication.onCreate(MyApplication.java:46)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callApplicationOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:969)
at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:492)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleCreateService(ActivityThread.java:2269)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1600(ActivityThread.java:127)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1212)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4441)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
So it seems like the app onCreate is being called multiple times, any idea on this ?
NOTES:
In my android xml manifest, i did NOT use the
android:process="string" attribute.
Yes, i'm sure that in my initialization routines i'm not accidentally
calling MyApplication.onCreate .

Answer 1

I think that you have additional process in your application. That is why Application.onCreate is called more than once. Look into your manifest file and try to find the activity or service with something like android:process= . This means that activity/service is starting in second Dalvik VM, and that's why another application instance is created.

Answer 2

If you look at the stack trace, it looks like ACRA.init is calling makeApplication. I suspect that there's some sort of code to check if the application has been created already and if not, create it and that it is caused by your calling ACRA.init before super.onCreate. Generally when overriding onCreate methods (whether Application or Activity) it's recommended to call super.onCreate as the first line of your implementation and do your custom stuff afterwards. I'd give that a shot and see if it fixes things.

Answer 3

I'm also seeing this with ACRA 4.4.0 in the wild.
Perhaps something as simple as this under the init method?
if (mApplication != null) {
throw new IllegalStateException("ACRA#init called more than once");
//(return or finish or gracefully exit somehow)
} else {
mApplication = app;
//and then continue with rest of acra init...
Edit: 12/27/12 As a follow up to this, it looks like Kevin has adopted these changes. Details are here: https://github.com/ACRA/acra/commit/cda06f5b803a09e9e7cc7dafae2c65c8fa69b861

Answer 4

I have been looking at ACRA source code recently and think this issue has been addressed in ACRA in two ways:
Instead of onCreate(), now ACRA's doc recommends initializing ACRA
in attachBaseContext which is called before onCreate().
ACRA does have some logic to check if there are other ACRA instances
during the initialization. If yes, ACRA will unregister the existing
reporter and bypass the current reporter by some Proxy treatment.
Check init function in ACRA.kt