Activity still recreated with configChanges

Question

As I understand it, if you insert 'android:configChanges="orientation"' into the activity in the manifest, the activity will not be destroyed and recreated on an orientation change. To test this, I created a dead-simple app which does NOTHING. Then I inserted 'android:configChanges="orientation"' in the manifest. Then I added the following method:

@Override
public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
    Log.v(TAG,"onConfigurationChanged:");
    super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
}

However, I'm still seeing onCreate() being called. The activity is still being recreated.

As if that weren't strange enough, I don't see onConfigurationChanged() being called when I put the emulator into landscape mode (Ctrl-F11). It's only called when I go back to portrait mode. Shouldn't it be called both ways? Isn't the configuration (orientation) being changed when I go into landscape as well as portrait modes? This makes no sense.

Anyway, this whole activity and orientation thing is driving me crazy.

Answer 1

Your screen size changes from 1200x800 to 800x1200 (for instance).

Since API 13, this will also raise a screenSize config change. The fix is:

android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|oritentation|screenSize"

Answer 2

However, I'm still seeing onCreate() being called. The activity is still being recreated.

The emulator emulates a device with a side-slider keyboard. The android:configChanges value that matches your - would be keyboardHidden , generally used in conjunction with orientation to handle non-keyboard devices (eg, android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation" ).

That being said, android:configChanges is not recommended in most cases. Use dynamic fragments and setRetainInstance(true) , or use onSaveInstanceState() and onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() to allow the activity to be destroyed and recreated.