my app crashes when it comes back to foreground after some time playing with others applications and I can't find out how to fix it.
My app has a splash screen activity where it loads some data from web services and put it in global static variables declared in a class extending Application, as explained in this SO question. Once all data are loaded, this activity launches a Home activity with some menu to navigate in the app. The global vars are used in most activities.
At some point, while playing with other apps, it seems that my app is killed, because I can see this in the logcat:
I/ActivityManager( 2465): Process com.mysite.myapp (pid 23538) has died.
I/WindowManager( 2465): WIN DEATH: Window{4852a678 com.mysite.myapp/com.mysite.myapp.Home paused=false}
I/WindowManager( 2465): WIN DEATH: Window{485b63a8 com.mysite.myapp/com.mysite.myapp.Home paused=false}
I/WindowManager( 2465): WIN DEATH: Window{4826fbf8 com.mysite.myapp/com.mysite.myapp.ItemList paused=false}
I/WindowManager( 2465): WIN DEATH: Window{48286f90 com.mysite.myapp/com.mysite.myapp.ItemDetail paused=false}
W/GpsLocationProvider( 2465): Unneeded remove listener for uid 1000
D/GpsLocationProvider( 2465): stopNavigating
D/gps_BRCM( 2465): [status check] on_stop() : GPS_STATUS_SESSION_END
D/gps_BRCM( 2465): gps_engine_status_update 2
D/GpsLocationProvider( 2465): send an intent to notify that the GPS has been enabled or disabled
D/gps_BRCM( 2465): gps_stop: called
V/GpsLocationProvider( 2465): hybridGpsSensorDeregister : No registered sensorManager
D/GpsLocationProvider( 2465): hybridGpsSensorDeregister
and the debugger is detached.
Now, when I open my app again, the latest activity is started if it does not use global vars (in that case it crashes as soon as I navigate to an activity which does), or crashes immediately if it does.
If my app was killed, which seems to be the case because even my location service is stopped, as seen in the logcat, why does it open the latest activity instead of launching again from the splash screen?
A dirty workaround to your problem is to check if the global variables are filled in the onResume method of your activities. If the variables are not filled start the splashscreen activity with an Intent with the CLEAR_TOP flag set. This should cause all your activities to be removed from the activity stack and your splash screen will load and is able to reload all the data needed for your app to work.
This is a dirty workaround to help a badly designed application to work. If you want your app to be nicer to you and the user go with the solution inazaruk provided. He is correct about the basic setup of an application.