ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException stopping playback

We have many reports from Android 12 users claiming that the app crashes or the audio quality deteriorates with playback while the screen is off.

Here are the logs from 1 customer:

E 17/3 22:25:04 Playback service error
android.app.ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException: Service.startForeground() not allowed due to mAllowStartForeground false: service au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts/.core.player.PlaybackService
	at android.app.ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException$1.createFromParcel(ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException.java:54)
	at android.app.ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException$1.createFromParcel(ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException.java:50)
	at android.os.Parcel.readParcelable(Parcel.java:3333)
	at android.os.Parcel.createExceptionOrNull(Parcel.java:2420)
	at android.os.Parcel.createException(Parcel.java:2409)
	at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:2392)
	at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:2334)
	at android.app.IActivityManager$Stub$Proxy.setServiceForeground(IActivityManager.java:7096)
	at android.app.Service.startForeground(Service.java:733)
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.core.player.PlaybackService$MediaControllerCallback.onPlaybackStateChangedWithNotification(PlaybackService.kt:10)
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.core.player.PlaybackService$MediaControllerCallback.access$onPlaybackStateChangedWithNotification(PlaybackService.kt:1)
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.core.player.PlaybackService$MediaControllerCallback$4.invoke(PlaybackService.kt:3)
	at au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts.core.player.PlaybackService$MediaControllerCallback$4.invoke(PlaybackService.kt:1)
	at ek.l.b(Unknown Source:2)
	at pj.r.onNext(LambdaObserver.java:2)
	at uj.c2$a.d(ObservableObserveOn.java:8)
	at uj.c2$a.run(ObservableObserveOn.java:3)
	at ij.b$b.run(HandlerScheduler.java:1)
	at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:938)
	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
	at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:201)
	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:288)
	at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7839)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
	at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:548)
	at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1003)
Caused by: android.os.RemoteException: Remote stack trace:
	at com.android.server.am.ActiveServices.setServiceForegroundInnerLocked(ActiveServices.java:1837)
	at com.android.server.am.ActiveServices.setServiceForegroundLocked(ActiveServices.java:1350)
	at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.setServiceForeground(ActivityManagerService.java:11903)
	at android.app.IActivityManager$Stub.onTransact(IActivityManager.java:3205)
	at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.onTransact(ActivityManagerService.java:2498)

ApplicationExitInfo(timestamp=18/03/22, 9:35 pm pid=19707 realUid=10237 packageUid=10237 definingUid=10237 user=0 process=au.com.shiftyjelly.pocketcasts reason=9 (EXCESSIVE RESOURCE USAGE) subreason=7 (EXCESSIVE CPU USAGE) status=0 importance=400 pss=158MB rss=175MB description=excessive cpu 22790 during 300121 dur=1781131 limit=2 state=empty trace=null

Device info:

App version : 7.19.2 (7566)
Sync account: [e-mail]
Last Sync: 2022-03-18T10:34:59.987Z
Time: 2022-03-18 23:35:09 Local
      2022-03-18 10:35:09 Utc
Background refresh: true

Phone: Google - oriole - Pixel 6 - oriole
Kernel: 5.10.43-android12-9-00007-g9771767708df-ab8009062 - abfarm-release-rbe-64-00086
Android version: 12 SDK 31
Phone ID: 929e6fab-74fe-4a75-8b4d-2fa40c562bf9

#4871871-zen #4885182-zen

Both reported that setting the battery optimization to unrestricted for Pocket Casts resolved it. There have been users, however, who have reported that updating the battery optimization setting has not fixed the issue.

[ashiagr]

FYI

Latest Cast SDK (21.2.0) includes this release note:

Fixed ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException with the MediaNotificationService.

The SDK version is updated in v7.28 in this PR. Hopefully, we’ll stop seeing this issue while casting. 🤞

[mchowning]

🤦 I looked at the wrong PR! Sorry about that.