How to fix "process is bad" error for an Android Widget?

Question

I have developed an Android Widget, and it was working fine. I added some extra functionality and pushed an update through the Android Market. Now people are complaining that it doesn't work anymore.

The error I see in the logs is:

07-14 10:33:44.016: WARN/ActivityManager(78): Unable to launch app ... for broadcast Intent { act=android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_ENABLED cmp=... }: process is bad 07-14 10:33:44.026: WARN/ActivityManager(78): finishReceiver called but none active 07-14 10:33:44.026: WARN/ActivityManager(78): Unable to launch app ... for broadcast Intent { act=android.appwidget.action.APPWIDGET_UPDATE cmp=... (has extras) }: process is bad 07-14 10:33:44.036: WARN/ActivityManager(78): finishReceiver called but none active

I have searched, but I cannot find anywhere what the process is bad error means, so I have no clue on how to fix it. Restarting the phone (or emulator) makes the error go away, however, that is not what I want my users to do. Could someone please help me to explain what the cause of the error is and how to fix it?

Answer 1

I just experienced this myself right before packaging for the market place. I was following the guidelines and added the android:name="@string/app_name" attribute to the application element in my manifest...

1. Uninstall your app
2. Reboot phone/emulator
3. Push new app without this attribute

Viola! Works for me now!

Answer 2

I am having the same problem and my current theory is that the appWidget crashed and when it was restarted it had the same bad persistent data that made it crash each time it was restarted. When this happens too often, the appWidget is "force stopped" by the OS. My band aid is to have a touch event that is "setOnClickPending" that the user will touch (out of frustration if necessary) and that will be processed internal to the appWidget and reset the appWidget.