Android: Parcelable exception

Question

I am getting following exception in production environment. It is related with parcelable classes. But it is not showing which class is problematic. Below is detailed log trace:

Fatal Exception: java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{in.app/in.app.activity.MainActivity}: java.lang.RuntimeException: Parcel android.os.Parcel@ae3c90f: Unmarshalling unknown type code -15962911 at offset 816
   at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2957)
   at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3032)
   at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap11(Unknown Source)
   at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1696)
   at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:105)
   at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:164)
   at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6942)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
   at com.android.internal.os.Zygote$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(Zygote.java:327)
   at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1374)

It is happening in onStart of Activity. I am not passing any parcelable object to the activity. It is launcher one. How can I find which parcelable is there at specifed
Unmarshalling unknown type code -15962911 at offset 816

Also as per Crashlytics, Device status is as follows:
100% Proximity on
3% App in background
It is happening on multiple OS versions.

MainActivity

public class MainActivity extends BaseActivity implements CleanUpDelegate,
    OnFilterAppliedListener,
    UpdatePhoneNoDialog.UpdatePhoneNoListener, GoogleApiClient.ConnectionCallbacks,
    GoogleApiClient.OnConnectionFailedListener, GenericDialogOperationListener,
    DAPopupFragment.DAPopupOperationsListener,
    OnLoginListener, HomeScreenFragmentV2.showECOOrderPopup, BottomNavigationRVAdapter.BottomNavigationItemClick

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        createBottomNavigation();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onStart() {
        super.onStart();
        if (mGoogleApiClient != null) {
            mGoogleApiClient.connect();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

The error:

Unmarshalling unknown type code XXXXX at offset XXXXX

Happens when you have an object that implements Parcelable that is malformed.

public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyClass> CREATOR = new Parcelable.Creator<MyClass>(){

    @Override
    public MyClass createFromParcel(Parcel source){
        // The most common issues are in this constructor.
        return new MyClass(source);
    }

    @Override
    public MyClass[] newArray(int size){
        return new MyClass[size];
    }
}

When you Parcelable object needs to be recreated the return new MyClass(source); (using the above example) will be called. And this is where the most common issues happen:

1. You have a variable on a certain type, and you are unmarshalling it as another type.

Example: you have a variable id that is from the type long and you are reading it like this id = source.readInt();

2. You are trying to read a value that is not available in your Parcelable.

Example: You try to id = source.readInt(); but you forgot to dest.writeInt(id);

3. Your Parcelable extends from another object that is also Parcelable and you forgot to call super in the read and write methods.

Example:

@Override
public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) {
    // This is missing
    super.writeToParcel(dest, flags);
}

4. Missing proguard rule:

This will preserve the special fields of all Parcelable implementations:

-keepclassmembers class * implements android.os.Parcelable {
     static ** CREATOR;
}

---

tl;dr This is pretty difficult to find what is the issue without all the source code. So my suggestion to you is that you check all your Parcelable objects that you are using in the activities you mention and check if they are well formed.

Answer 2

Since it is happening in production, high probability is it is because of ProGuard obfuscating Parcelable classes.

Try including this in your ProGuard config file:

-keepclassmembers class * implements android.os.Parcelable {
     static ** CREATOR;
}

For further info, there is a recommended configuration for Android applications available in the ProGuard Manual, with detailed explanation about entries.