IllegalArgumentException from creating a NotificationChannel

Question

Very occasionally, we're getting an IllegalArgumentException with an empty localized message on some devices while creating a notification channel. I found this answer, but the channel name is 100% certain not "", so not the issue in this case. It's working for almost all users, but sometimes this exception is thrown for a user. We cannot seem to link it to a device type or specific Android version either.

The code for creating the channel:

public void createNotificationChannel(String label, String description, int importance) {
    // Create the NotificationChannel only on API 26+
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        NotificationChannel channel = new NotificationChannel(label, label, importance);
        channel.setDescription(description);
        if (notificationManager != null) {
            notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(channel);
        }
    }
}

The stack trace of the exception:

android.os.Parcel.createException(Parcel.java:2078)
android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:2042)
android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1990)
android.app.INotificationManager$Stub$Proxy.createNotificationChannels(INotificationManager.java:3205)
android.app.NotificationManager.createNotificationChannels(NotificationManager.java:713)
android.app.NotificationManager.createNotificationChannel(NotificationManager.java:701)

Anyone has any ideas? I'd love to fix this issue!

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 03 '21 at 13:26

NotificationManager notificationManager = (NotificationManager) this.getSystemService(Context.NOTIFICATION_SERVICE);

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        NotificationChannel notificationChannel = new NotificationChannel(channelId, channelName, NotificationManager.IMPORTANCE_HIGH);

        // Configure the notification channel
        notificationChannel.enableLights(true);
        notificationChannel.setLightColor(Color.RED);
        notificationChannel.setVibrationPattern(new long[]{500, 500, 500, 500});
        notificationChannel.enableVibration(true);
        notificationManager.createNotificationChannel(notificationChannel);
    }

Try this piece of channel code. It is working code.

Hi Ammad, thanks for thinking along, but this is exactly what happens in my code (except for the lights, color, vibration pattern and vibration methods). The error is thrown on `createNotificationChannel` in some rare cases — Jorn Rigter, Dec 04 '21 at 14:41

IllegalArgumentException from creating a NotificationChannel

1 Answers1