Enable and disable a Broadcast Receiver

Question

I try to enable and disable a broadcast receiver by using this PackageManager method:

setComponentEnabledSetting(componentName,
        PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED,
        PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);

The broadcast receiver is registered in the manifest. The receiver works fine but when i try to disable it, it still receives the broadcast messages. When i disable the receiver in the manifest by "android:enabled="false"", the receiver does not receive anything but I can not enable it.

I call the method from inside a service.

    PackageManager pm  = getApplicationContext().getPackageManager();
    ComponentName componentName = new ComponentName("com.app",
             ".broadcast_receivers.OnNetworkChangedReceiver");
    pm.setComponentEnabledSetting(componentName,
            PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED,
            PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);

Android manifest:

    <receiver android:name=".broadcast_receivers.OnNetworkChangedReceiver"
                android:enabled="true">
            <intent-filter>
                    <action android:name="android.net.conn.CONNECTIVITY_CHANGE"/>
            </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

The Receiver

public class OnNetworkChangedReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
private static final String TAG = "OnNetworkChangedReceiver";

@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    Log.d(TAG, "in OnNetworkChanged");
    }
}

I also called the method from inside an Activity yesterday. I thought it worked but today nothing works anymore. Could it be that there is sometimes a big delay in the intent (android.net.conn.CONNECTIVITY_CHANGE) that I misinterpreted yesterday as disabling the receiver?

Is the approach with the PackageManager the right direction or is there a basic error in the idea?

Thanks a lot, Sven

Answer 1

Well, what you basically have seems OK. I have the following code in one of my projects:

boolean enabled=prefs.getBoolean(key, false);
int flag=(enabled ?
            PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_ENABLED :
            PackageManager.COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED);
ComponentName component=new ComponentName(EditPreferences.this, OnBootReceiver.class);

getPackageManager()
    .setComponentEnabledSetting(component, flag,
                                PackageManager.DONT_KILL_APP);

I use this to disable a BOOT_COMPLETED receiver when I don't have any active alarms that need to be scheduled.

My guess is that your ComponentName is not set up properly (e.g., your leading .). Try the constructor that I am using, that takes a Context and a Class as parameters.