onActivityResult in wrong activity is being called

Question

Basically: Activity A calls startActivityForResult, which launches Activity B. At this point, Activity B SHOULD call back to Activity A's onActivityResult method. Instead, Activity B then incorrectly calls back to Activity C's onActivityResult method. Note that Activity B.getCallingActivity() returns Activity A, as expected.

In more detail:

I have three Activities:

• EditModuleActivity (Activity A)

• EditMotorActivity (Activity B)

• ConfigurationActivity (Activity C)

Inside of EditModuleActivity (Activity A), I have this code:

private void launchIntentFromHere(){
    int requestCode = 101;
    Intent editMotorIntent = new Intent(context, EditMotorActivity.class);     
    editMotorIntent.putExtra(EditMotorActivity.EDIT_MOTOR_CONTROLLER, item);
    editMotorIntent.putExtra("requestCode", requestCode);
    setResult(RESULT_OK, editMotorIntent);
    startActivityForResult(editMotorIntent, requestCode);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    DbgLog.error("*************************** why is this never getting called?");
}

Inside of EditMotorActivity (Activity B), I have this code:

private void doThisThing(Object item){
    // blah blah build intent
    DbgLog.error("calling activity: " + getCallingActivity().toString()); // this prints out Activity A, which is what I expect.
    returnIntent.putExtra(EDIT_MOTOR_CONTROLLER, item);
    setResult(RESULT_OK, returnIntent); 
    finish();
}

ConfigurationActivity (Activity C) has this in it:

private void launchIntent(Object item){
    Intent editMotorIntent = new Intent(context, EditMotorActivity.class);
    editMotorIntent.putExtra(EditMotorActivity.EDIT_MOTOR_CONTROLLER, item);
    setResult(RESULT_OK, editMotorIntent); 
    startActivityForResult(editMotorIntent, 1);
}

@Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    // deals properly with the results
}

When I am in EditModuleActivity and I launch EditMotorActivity, ConfigurationActivity.onActivityResult gets called. Instead, When I am in EditModuleActivity and I launch EditMotorActivity, EditModuleActivity.onActivityResult should get called but that's not happening.

Questions

• Why is the wrong onActivityResult getting called??

• How do I call the right onActivityResult? Is my expectation incorrect? How else does this work?

• If the wrong one gets called, how to I call the correct one?

Answers I've seen that didn't help

• My code is the same as the accepted answer here: onActivityResult() not being called in activity

• I do not have android:launchMode="singleInstance" in my Manifest

• I don't know what a "fragment" is but I don't think I have that.

• Note that I'm NOT calling two different Activities from one Activity, as in this question: Handling onActivityResult in Android app having more than one activity Instead, I'm calling the SAME activity from two different Activities.

• A comment here says "If you call activity B from class A, it will always return codes to the class A That's the same if you call D from C." But I calling Activity B from Activity B and it returns to Activity C. WHY?? WRONG onActivityResult() being called

Like this:

   B
 /  \
A    C

Not this:

X   Z
 \ /
  Y

Answer 1

I was overriding the onStop method like this:

@Override
public void onStop(){
  setResult(RESULT_CANCELED, new Intent());
  finish();
}

Basically, I didn't understand how the Android Lifecycle worked. I thought onStop() would only be called when an Activity was KILLED, and I thought it wouldn't be killed if it was waiting for a response from another Activity.

So what was happening was this: Activity C launched Activity A, which launched Activity B. When Activity B started, A.onStop() was called. Then, when Activity B finished, it (correctly) tried to return back to Activity A, but Activity A was already Stopped, so it returned all the way back to Activity C.

Answer 2

OK - most likely you have a reference to the wrong "context" or a static reference to an activity or something weird elsewhere in your code.

To directly answer your question(s):

1. Your code doesn't explain why - you need to post more code... if possible.

2. Your expectation is correct. You appear to clearly understand how it startActivityForResult works. YOur references also demonstrate that you know what you are doing. It does not "work" any other way... but that doesn't mean you don't have an error (see "1" above!)

3. If you are unable to figure out what went wrong, then you can always call the Activity that you want explicitly (startActivity) passing the intent that you want and then processing that intent. You may want to research onNewIntent if you still are getting weird results in rare cases...

Answer 3

If somebody else had a similar problem (when startActivityForResult() returns to wrong activity, not to the one which called it), take a look at this solution