I’m seeing a repetitive crash in production when starting a foreground service from the background. The issue has occurred ~177K times in the last 30 days, mostly on Samsung devices (~50%) running Android 14 (~66%), with ~90% happening when the app is in the background.
The crash: android.app.InvalidForegroundServiceTypeException: Starting FGS with type none
I’m using ContextCompat.startForegroundService() to start the service:
ContextCompat.startForegroundService(context, Intent(context, MyService::class.java))
And inside MyService.onStartCommand():
ServiceCompat.startForeground(
this,
getNotificationId(),
notification,
ServiceInfo.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_TYPE_SYSTEM_EXEMPTED
)
The service is declared in the manifest with:
<service
android:name=".MyService"
android:enabled="true"
android:exported="false"
android:foregroundServiceType="systemExempted" />
Permissions declared:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SYSTEM_EXEMPTED" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SCHEDULE_EXACT_ALARM" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS" />
App also uses DeviceAdmin, Exact alarms, and notification permissions.
Device Admin and Exact alarms permission makes my app systemExempted
I can’t reproduce this crash on physical Samsung devices or emulators. It seems like startForeground() is still considered as using type none, even though the service and call specify SYSTEM_EXEMPTED.
Is there something I’m missing about how Android 14 handles background FGS starts, especially on Samsung devices? Has anyone else faced this or found a workaround?
Complete crash logs :
Fatal Exception: android.app.InvalidForegroundServiceTypeException: Starting FGS with type none callerApp=ProcessRecord{8d44878 6376:com.app.myapp/u0a328} targetSDK=34 has been prohibited
at android.app.InvalidForegroundServiceTypeException$1.createFromParcel(InvalidForegroundServiceTypeException.java:53)
at android.app.InvalidForegroundServiceTypeException$1.createFromParcel(InvalidForegroundServiceTypeException.java:49)
at android.os.Parcel.readParcelableInternal(Parcel.java:5089)
at android.os.Parcel.readParcelable(Parcel.java:5071)
at android.os.Parcel.createExceptionOrNull(Parcel.java:3251)
at android.os.Parcel.createException(Parcel.java:3240)
at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:3223)
at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:3165)
at android.app.IActivityManager$Stub$Proxy.setServiceForeground(IActivityManager.java:7620)
at android.app.Service.startForeground(Service.java:863)
at androidx.work.impl.foreground.SystemForegroundService$Api31Impl.startForeground(SystemForegroundService.java:194)
at androidx.work.impl.foreground.SystemForegroundService$1.run(SystemForegroundService.java:130)
at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:959)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:100)
at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:249)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:337)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:9493)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:636)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1005)
I have been going through the official documentation but found nothing that makes sense to me, also I have been testing but unfortunately couldn't replicate it on any configuration on emulators or on real devices I have and I have been testing on Samsung : Note 10, and 25 Ultra, Pixel 8 and some other devices I could find.
As explained in the Support for long-running workers guide, if you are using WorkManager's support for long-running workers, as your stack trace indicates that you are using, then you need to add the foregroundServiceType to WorkManager's SystemForegroundService:
<service
android:name="androidx.work.impl.foreground.SystemForegroundService"
android:foregroundServiceType="systemExempted"
tools:node="merge" />