"_Problem Loading Widget" message

Question

When loading a widget if it cannot find a resource or something it says Problem Loading Widget. That's all! Amazing! This message remains on the home screen and does not even say which widget it had trouble loading.

I figured it out by trial and error but I would like to know if there are any places to find the error message when this occurs. Where will Android say what problem it had loading the widget or even which widget it failed to load?

Where does it says: "Problem Loading Widget"? Did you have a look at logcat? You can open a logcat view in Eclipse or use the command "adb logcat". — Alex Jasmin, Feb 10 '11 at 01:40
I used custom text view in my widget layout. That caused the issue. — Ashokchakravarthi Nagarajan, Mar 12 '15 at 14:29
For future reference for me I was using `android:background="?selectableItemBackgroundBorderless"` `android:clickable="true"` That caused the issue — JustADev, Jul 08 '16 at 17:14
@OmarBizreh same here.. so is there a way to have the ripple working in Widget button? — strangetimes, Oct 02 '16 at 09:24
@strangetimes to be honest I don't know, I ended up removing them. — JustADev, Oct 02 '16 at 09:48
@OmarBizreh okay so it seems if you declare your own xml resource and add a , it works :) — strangetimes, Oct 02 '16 at 21:16
thanks @strangetimes for the info, I guess its time to bring back ripple to my widget — JustADev, Oct 03 '16 at 05:36

Gangnus · Answer 1 · 2018-09-15T16:29:06.163

148

Check elements you used in the view in a Widget..

Documentation link

A RemoteViews object (and, consequently, an App Widget) can support the following layout classes:

FrameLayout
LinearLayout
RelativeLayout
GridLayout

And the following widget classes:

AnalogClock
Button
Chronometer
ImageButton
ImageView
ProgressBar
TextView
ViewFlipper
ListView
GridView
StackView
AdapterViewFlipper

Using forbidden elements causes this very

Problem Loading Widget

message, without saying where did it happen.

edited Sep 15 '18 at 16:29

answered May 27 '11 at 09:11

Gangnus

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@Gangnus One thing to note is that Logcat will usually show you the error. What you may have overlooked is that it does not show it as part of your application package!! So remove the package filter from Logcat! – Radu Apr 26 '13 at 20:44
@Radu Are you sure you placed the comment correctly? I am not saying that Logcat doesn't mention the error. But whithout some additional logging it is hard or impossible to say, where the error happened. – Gangnus Apr 27 '13 at 21:42
@Gangnus You can re-read my message. I am saying your comment is right about the views that are allowd. Usually using a non-allowed view causes appwidget to break. What I am commenting upon is that you will find a trace in Logcat by default, from Android. It's just that those traces will not have your package name! – Radu Apr 28 '13 at 11:37
@Radu Yes. And a developer needs to see at least in what thread the exception happened. Better - in what method. – Gangnus Apr 29 '13 at 06:21
1

@Gangnus I only have got ImageView, Linearlayout, Textview and Relativelayout. Widget is working perfectly in Android +3.0 devices but on gingerbread, it says problem loading widget. No error or exception on logcat. Any idea why it may be like that (may be any attributes used which are not supported)? By the way, wigdet sizes are adjusted for every android version. – canova Mar 24 '14 at 10:04
@SirSC Your comment should be put as a separate question, with reference to this one and explanation of its uniqueness - as you put it here. What is +3.0? Maybe, 3.0+? Also, publish the stack, you can't do it in comment – Gangnus Mar 24 '14 at 10:08
3

Even using AppCompat elements such as `android.support.v7.widget.GridLayout` [will not work](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/appwidgets/index.html#CreatingLayout). – EricRobertBrewer Jan 09 '17 at 17:31
3

Anyone who passes by this question.. DON'T use ConstraintLayout. it doesn't work on widgets. – Oussama Haff. May 23 '17 at 08:26
@user6539552 there won't be any **finally**. For the message appears due to several main reasons and each of these reasons can be caused by many details, changing from version to version. The question with answers is more or less actual - that is what we should value – Gangnus Jan 16 '18 at 14:03
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I was trying to use a ConstraintLayout in my widget, this explains why I was getting an error. Thank you! – Dymas May 17 '19 at 18:49
In my case I was trying to use theme attributes without specifying which theme. adding `android:theme="@style/myTheme"` to layout solved it – Mustafa Berkay Mutlu Jan 21 '21 at 18:46

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 03 '11 at 16:03

31

As said in comments, check logcat. What you will see is a NullPointerException. I have had this before too.

answered Mar 03 '11 at 16:03

Unconn

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I would add that sometimes its a warning message if its a resource. Not always a error is shown I think. – Androider Mar 08 '11 at 22:19
Usually it is trying to access a resource like R.id.? or something that is not there. – Androider Mar 08 '11 at 22:20
So once you see the error, how do you correct it? I've tried uninstalling the app, but the widget warning remains. – mmrobins Jun 01 '12 at 23:53
It may be caused by another reason.Not only NullPointerException`.In logcat you can see message as `warning`. – hasanghaforian Oct 17 '12 at 07:26
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I have this problem now and logcat stays quiet. – Maarten Dec 18 '12 at 11:20
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@Maarten One thing to note is that Logcat will usually show you the error. What you may have overlooked is that it does not show it as part of your application package!! So remove the package filter from Logcat! – Radu Apr 26 '13 at 20:44
for me, it was caused by setting the property applicationIdSuffix ".debug" in my build.gradle file. Make sure the resources are located under the correct appId. – wooldridgetm Feb 22 '18 at 22:41
On logcat tab (Android Studio), select 'No filter' because this error is not shown when an application is selected. Then, add a widget on the screen, you will probably see the issue. – Túlio Calazans Feb 21 '20 at 00:28

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered May 17 '15 at 10:07

14

Yet another possible cause of this:

I saw this in the log:

Failed to resolve attribute

The issue was that I was attempting to use a colour from the current theme as the background to one of my layouts.

e.g

android:background="?themeColor"

Changing this to a specific colour resolved the issue.

android:background="@color/White"

answered May 17 '15 at 10:07

Kuffs

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Although not as comfortable as using themed attributes, you can still have changing colors in widgets by using calls like `remoteViews.setInt(R.id.xxx, "setBackgroundColor", color)` or `remoteViews.setTextColor(R.id.xxx, color)`. – Gábor Sep 25 '15 at 12:07
1

I didn't see the "resolved attribute" error anywhere, but this was the cause in my case as well! – RedBassett Jan 28 '17 at 04:34

score 8 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 19 '17 at 11:37

8

Basically Widgets swallow exceptions. Just set an appropriate filter in your logcat, and you'll be able to see what the problem is...

Above, I am just searching for the Word "Widget" and setting no filter on any specific application. It essentially gives me the Throwable.getMessage() without the full stack trace.

answered Mar 19 '17 at 11:37

Eurig Jones

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Seeing the error is 99% of the solution. Thank you. – Slawa Dec 17 '18 at 21:14

score 4 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 24 '15 at 11:25

Problem Loading the widget results from problem/s in your widget layout!

There are only limited amount of resource you can use in the widget.Make sure you use the proper elements and their fields.

A RemoteViews object (and, consequently, an App Widget) can support the following ... widget classes:
AnalogClock
Button
...

Developer docs

My problem was: I had this Button's field which was not supported

android:onClick="onClick"

Deleting this enabled the widget to appear where placed (if placed previously) and in the menu of available widgets.

In fact setting android:onClick= for any View results in this error.

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 07 '14 at 12:19

3

I also face this problem but only due to heavy widget layout. Widget Layout should be light as much you can create. Now my widget working perfect.

answered Mar 07 '14 at 12:19

ParikshitSinghTomar

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As @PKTomar mentioned you can face with this issue if you use too many inner layouts. Do not increase the depth of the layouts. – Murat Aug 18 '14 at 01:01
I was absolutely not able to figure out what was going on and this was the issue. The Layout was very deep and Android didn't like it. It simply said "Problem Loading Widget" or "Loading..." in the Collection widgets like StackView and ListView. Simplify the layout and all back to work again. – sivag1 Jul 19 '15 at 18:46

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 26 '16 at 11:19

A RemoteViews object (and, consequently, an App Widget) can support the following layout classes:

FrameLayout
LinearLayout
RelativeLayout
GridLayout

And the following widget classes:

AnalogClock
Button
Chronometer
ImageButton
ImageView
ProgressBar
TextView
ViewFlipper
ListView
GridView
StackView
AdapterViewFlipper

Anything using other than above causes this so called "Problem Loading widget".

Moreover, check logs (without any filter) to see exact line of this problem.

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 02 '11 at 05:03

There is of course the use-case where there was a widget loaded on the home page and the user then uninstalls the application that contains the widget and widget config app.

When that happens, all you see is the "Problem Loading Widget" in a toast-like box on the home screen. As far as I can tell, the widget gets no indicatation that the package is being uninstalled and I guess then the home screen AppWidgetManager thows up a default message.

Not well thought out behaviour on the part of the OS team. I suggest that it would be better to call the widget's onDisbled() and onDestroy() methods before the package is removed so they can tidy up if need be and the user (non-geek phone user) gets a clean experience.

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 17 '12 at 07:35

2

It may be caused by Moving of the specific (Widget) Application from Internal Memory to SD card.(Android – Fixing “Problem Loading Widget” Error)

answered Oct 17 '12 at 07:35

hasanghaforian

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score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 21 '19 at 19:55

2

The problem on my side was that I used androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView instead of TextView. So no AppCompat widgets in Widget layout. It seems that the Android Widget is so limited.

answered Dec 21 '19 at 19:55

sunlover3

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score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 07 '12 at 17:56

1

I faced this problem because I was trying to use Check-box!

So,just remove checkbox.

it will work fine.

edited Jun 07 '12 at 17:56

swiftBoy

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answered Jun 06 '12 at 17:52

Armsuntech

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 18 '13 at 03:49

Just fixed another variant of this error not mentioned in the other answers.

Symptoms were: 1) "Problem loading widget" error on Gingerbread and below 2) The exact same build ran fine on ICS and Jellybean 3) No errors in logcat

The problem was caused by manipulating a view that was never inflated in the remoteviews. Specifically:

remoteviews.setViewVisibility(viewId, View.GONE);

Where viewId was a valid resource, but it was in a layout that was never added to the remote views. No errors were thrown, and the widget displayed 'Problem loading widget' after the call to .updateAppWidget()

score 1 · Answer 13 · edited Apr 17 '18 at 11:56

1

In my case error was caused by changed provider class name. So if you have changed the name of Widget Provider class, try to change it back. Also, if you have changed the names of xml files (ex. widget_info.xml, widget_layout.xml), you might want to change those back as well.

This happened only when user updated app and "old" widget was currently visible.

edited Apr 17 '18 at 11:56

IKavanagh

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answered Apr 17 '18 at 11:36

nsko

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This fixed it for me. I'm surprised no one else upvoted this even though 4 years old! https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/224824097 – Mark Mar 16 '22 at 02:17

score 0 · Answer 14 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

0

I had the same issue but the logcat did not show anything suspicious, neither an error nor a warning. Basically, I was calling a wrong method to change the color of the textview's text.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered Oct 03 '13 at 07:48

AntonSack

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score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Nov 07 '16 at 11:37

0

I had the same issue. Problem resolved: I used custom view in widget. In my situation it was TextView with custom typeface.

answered Nov 07 '16 at 11:37

ikosdroid

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score 0 · Answer 16 · edited Feb 04 '17 at 11:05

0

In my case I had a floating textView over other views. Removing it and thinking of a different way of showing my info to the user with the existing views that are not overlapping was the solution.

So don't overlap views with RelativeLayout, I still use it and it works, but the views are not overlapping as much as possible.

edited Feb 04 '17 at 11:05

Willem van Ketwich

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answered Feb 04 '17 at 08:52

Vlad M.

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Mar 22 '17 at 13:12

Just for the record. I have a FrameLayout with a TextView inside, all content in a LinerLayout, that would be the header of my widget. Initially I had this

<LinearLayout
[...] 

<FrameLayout
    android:id="@+id/widget"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
    android:background="@color/colorPrimary">
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:text="@string/app_name"
        android:layout_margin="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
        android:textColor="@android:color/white"/>
</FrameLayout>

[...] 
</LinearLayout>

As everyone here, I had the "Problem loading widget" message. The solution was change this

    android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"

for this:

    android:layout_height="64dp"

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered May 31 '18 at 07:13

I was also having the same problem -

I was using android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout that's why it was saying "Problem loading widget" after removing this and changing to LinearLayout problem solved as @Gangnus saying, it will work for only specific views only.

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Jan 29 '22 at 12:37

0

I had the same problem. I am using a Image in widgetUI. Reducing the image dimensions worked in my case

answered Jan 29 '22 at 12:37

bscharan

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score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Mar 19 '22 at 09:09

0

In my case, I was referring to the wrong wrong remote view id from my WidgetProvider.

answered Mar 19 '22 at 09:09

rasulfahad

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"_Problem Loading Widget" message

20 Answers20

Problem Loading Widget

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