Service did not call startForeground even though it does

Question

I am getting an error that does not make sense to me

The error I get is

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

I have a BroadcastReceiver that gets fore from an exact alarm and that receiver starts a service to do some short work

override fun onReceive(context: Context, intent: Intent) {
    if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O){
        context.startForegroundService(Intent(context, RestartService::class.java))
    }else{
        context.startService(Intent(context, RestartService::class.java))
    }
}

then in my service class I make sure to start foreground

override fun onStartCommand(intent: Intent?, flags: Int, startId: Int): Int {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
            // Create a new notification channel
            val channel = NotificationChannel(CHANNEL_ID, CHANNEL_NAME, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_LOW)
            val notificationManager = getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE) as NotificationManager
            notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel)
        }

        // Create a notification
        val notification = NotificationCompat.Builder(this, CHANNEL_ID)
            .setContentTitle(title)
            .setContentText(content)
            .setSmallIcon(R.mipmap.app)
            .build()

        // Start the service in the foreground
        startForeground(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification)

        return START_NOT_STICKY
    }

as you can see I am calling startForeground in my onStartCommand

I know about the background restrictions but for testing I have enabled my app to Draw over other apps which the documentation says would allow me to start a service and an activity when the app is in the background as well as having this come from an exact alarm. This error happens when app is in the foreground too

I dont know what I am missing here

Answer 1

It looks like my code in onCreate was completing too fast and the service was unable to call startForeground before I was stopping the service causing the exception