Crash in ListView at AbsListView.obtainView for ListActivity

I'm watching content updates on a ListActivity using a ContentObserver as follows:

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedState)
   {
        super.onCreate(savedState);
      
        ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver();

        Cursor cursor = cr.query(TrackHeader.CONTENT_URI, sTrackListProjection, null, null, null);
        startManagingCursor(cursor);

        this.mAdapter = new TrackHeaderDataAdapter(this, R.layout.track_list_item, cursor, sTrackListProjection, null);
        setListAdapter(mAdapter);

        Handler handler = new Handler();
        
        mTrackHeaderObserver = new ContentObserver(handler) {

             @Override 
             public boolean deliverSelfNotifications() { 
                 return false;
             }

             @Override
             public void onChange(boolean selfChange) {
                 super.onChange(selfChange);
                 ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver();
                 mAdapter.changeCursor(cr.query(TrackHeader.CONTENT_URI, sTrackListProjection, null, null, null));
              }
         };

      getContentResolver().registerContentObserver (TrackHeader.CONTENT_URI, true, mTrackHeaderObserver);
  }

This content observer seems to be ok -- it gets called back on the UI thread but I am getting the following random crash pretty predictably on the underlying ListView:

02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739): java.lang.NullPointerException
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at  android.widget.AbsListView.obtainView(AbsListView.java:1276)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.ListView.makeAndAddView(ListView.java:1668)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.ListView.fillDown(ListView.java:637)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.ListView.fillSpecific(ListView.java:1224)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.ListView.layoutChildren(ListView.java:1499)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.AbsListView.onLayout(AbsListView.java:1113)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:333)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:333)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:333)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.setChildFrame(LinearLayout.java:1119)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.layoutVertical(LinearLayout.java:998)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.onLayout(LinearLayout.java:918)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:333)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:333)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:333)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:6830)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.ViewRoot.performTraversals(ViewRoot.java:996)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:1633)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4363)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:860)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:618)
02-21 14:06:00.440: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(739):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
02-21 14:09:56.159: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(749): ERROR: thread attach failed
02-21 14:09:59.480: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(760): ERROR: thread attach failed
02-21 14:12:19.449: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(778): ERROR: thread attach failed
02-21 14:12:22.779: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(789): ERROR: thread attach failed
02-21 14:12:26.479: ERROR/gralloc(51): [unregister] handle 0x3f13b8 still locked (state=40000001)

Anyone seen anything like this before -- been stumped on this one for a few days...

Tim

I had a similar stack trace and discovered that I was returning a null from my getView() method in certain cases.

If you have a list and extend BaseAdapter or Adapter to get a custom list, make sure that getView returns a non-null value.

If you have a tabbed view and one of your fragment is a list that override Adapter/BaseAdapter and getView returns null you will get this problem.

If you are using a static class ViewHolder to store your view items in the adapter, you may forgot to set the viewHolder object as the tag of the convertView. E.g:

if (convertView == null) {
    LayoutInflater mInflater = (LayoutInflater) context
                .getSystemService(Activity.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        convertView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.adapter_drivers_and_riders, null);
        holder = new ViewHolder();
        holder.tvDate = (TextView)convertView.findViewById(R.id.tvDate);
        holder.tvTime = (TextView)convertView.findViewById(R.id.tvTime);
        
        convertView.setTag(holder);

} else {
    holder = (ViewHolder) convertView.getTag();
}

In my case, I was not using a Cursor but having the same issue, I figured it out that i forgot to set the tag as viewHolder to convertView so when the first adapter views are created for the listview, it is ok but when you scroll and recycling mechanism works, it crashes since it can't restore the viewHolder from convertView.

Just in case, I wanted to mention.

I have not used changeCursor(). And, since the query you used to create the Cursor is the same as the query you are using to "change" the cursor, I'd dump the changeCursor() call outright and just call requery() on the Cursor you have.