How to reproduce Application Not Responding (ANR) from Activity and from BroadcastReceiver

Question

I need to reproduce Application Not Responding (ANR) dialogs from Activity and from BroadCastReceiver. I tried to create a simple button click:

 public void makeANRClick(View view){
    while (true);
}

With this code I reproduced ANR on emulator with android 2.3.7. Same code doesn't work on real device with the newest android versions (4+).

Another attempt was as follows:

public void onMakeANRClick(View view){
    try {
        Thread.sleep(15000);
    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

This doesn't help also. Any suggestions?

Yes, it works. But I need options for the newest Android versions (4 an greater). — Alexander Myznikov, Jul 03 '15 at 13:53
Thanks for the point. I'll take a look at strict mode. But currently I prefer some not test way. — Alexander Myznikov, Jul 03 '15 at 14:02

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 03 '15 at 13:46

1

Keyword multi threading. Please read this topic http://developer.android.com/training/articles/perf-anr.html Also there is no way to manage UI components at Broadcast Reciever, Because it is no UI component. Also there is option in Development Options called "Show All ANR"

answered Jul 03 '15 at 13:46

Yevgen Kulik

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I want to reproduce ANR and not to avoid. – Alexander Myznikov Jul 03 '15 at 13:48
There is two options in this document. at the title: What Triggers ANR? – Yevgen Kulik Jul 03 '15 at 13:50
1) No response to an input event (such as key press or screen touch events) within 5 seconds. 2) A BroadcastReceiver hasn't finished executing within 10 seconds. – Yevgen Kulik Jul 03 '15 at 13:51
you could also cleaned your redundant code by proguard or on some pre-compilation stage – Yevgen Kulik Jul 03 '15 at 13:52
As I see on device button remain pressed. UI thread was stuck but ANR not appear. – Alexander Myznikov Jul 03 '15 at 14:32
@AlexanderMyznikov Did you solve this problem? I also need to reproduce ANR trigger – Bulma Dec 24 '20 at 09:30

galath · Answer 2 · 2015-07-03T14:04:59.653

1

Have a look at StrictMode. And this video, too.

"StrictMode is a developer tool which detects things you might be doing by accident and brings them to your attention so you can fix them. "

edited Jul 03 '15 at 14:04

answered Jul 03 '15 at 14:01

galath

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Sorry, this doesn't help me with reproducing ANR dialogs. – Alexander Myznikov Jul 06 '15 at 09:12

JARP · Answer 3 · 2015-07-03T14:29:10.653

1

Also you can check the dump state to check info about your process https://source.android.com/devices/input/diagnostics.html

I reproduce your code and then pull the 'dumpstate_app_anr.txt.gz' and this was the result

PID TID PR CPU% S VSS RSS PCY UID Thread Proc

15287 15287 0 83% R 227152K 25152K fg u0_a135 a.stackoverflow mx.syca.stackoverflow

07-03 08:46:12.454 1618 1636 I ActivityManager: Killing proc 12946:mx.syca.stackoverflow/u0a135: force stop

It took about 2 minutes to get the ANR dialog

Hope it helps

edited Jul 03 '15 at 14:29

answered Jul 03 '15 at 14:20

JARP

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Thanks for the advice. I'll check this out. – Alexander Myznikov Jul 03 '15 at 14:29
About 2 minutes to get ANR. It's weird and not acceptable. In Android docs lines about 5 seconds for activity and 10 seconds for BroadcastReceiver. – Alexander Myznikov Jul 03 '15 at 14:30
@AlexanderMyznikov i know its weird but i saw it in my phone, test how much will take on yours , let me see if i can find in the file the time in which the app started – JARP Jul 03 '15 at 14:35

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 03 '15 at 14:04

I do believe that the best way to perform ANR in java (dalvik) is to perform absurd ammount of calculations, including function calls.

Perhaps something akin to:

Integer useless = 0;
for (i=2147483648;i<2147483647;i++){
  useless = Math.random() * Math.random() * Math.random() * Math.random();
}

This will at least, trigger some delay, and ANR on weaker systems.

How to reproduce Application Not Responding (ANR) from Activity and from BroadcastReceiver

4 Answers4