Crashes after Foreground Service Denial

SimpMusic crashes when Android 16 denies FGS promotion

6 crashes in one day

Description

SimpMusic (com.maxrave.simpmusic, UID 10265) repeatedly crashes on Android 16 with ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException when SimpleMediaService is denied a background foreground-service (FGS) start. This appears related to #2071, which reports the same exception for SimpleMediaService on Android 16.

Six crash events were captured across one day:

• 09:32:18 — first crash

• 15:59:00 — second crash

• 17:16:05–06 — process crashes, Android restarts the service, restarted process crashes again

• 18:00:00–02 — same pattern; restarted process crashes ~360 ms after being spawned

• 18:32:01–18:33:31 — five processes crash in sequence, with Android's automatic restart backoff climbing 1s → 4s → 16s → 64s → 256s

• 19:52:15–16 — crash inside a process that had been running normally for over an hour, during a foreground-state stop/restart; the auto-restarted process crashes again almost immediately

So this isn't just one process crashing twice. In the 17:16, 18:00, and 18:32 sequences, Android spawns a new process for SimpleMediaService after the previous one dies, and the new process hits the same denial.

The 19:52 event is different: the initial crash occurred during an otherwise normal playback session, before the subsequent Android service restart.

Evidence

Every event follows the same basic pattern.

Android denies the FGS start:

Background started FGS: Disallowed [callingPackage: com.maxrave.simpmusic; callingUid: 10265;
uidState: SVC ; code:DENIED; targetSdkVersion:36; callerTargetSdkVersion:36]

The app receives this as an uncaught exception that kills the process:

FATAL EXCEPTION: main
android.app.ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException: Service.startForeground() not allowed
due to mAllowStartForeground false: service com.maxrave.simpmusic/com.maxrave.media3.service.SimpleMediaService
    at android.app.Service.startForeground(Service.java:862)

Android then reschedules the service:

Scheduling restart of crashed service com.maxrave.simpmusic/com.maxrave.media3.service.SimpleMediaService in 1000ms for start-requested

This same stack trace recurs at:

• 09:32:18.147 — PID 4567

• 15:59:00.873 — PID 27999

• 17:16:06.867 — PID 3219

• 18:00:02.409 — PID 6492

Only the PID and timestamp change.

18:00 restart sequence

The second process is denied almost immediately after Android starts it:

18:00:02.037  Start proc 6492 ... for service SimpleMediaService
18:00:02.398  Background started FGS: Disallowed
18:00:02.404  CustomActivityOnCrash: App has crashed
18:00:02.409  FATAL EXCEPTION: main [PID 6492]

That is approximately 361 ms from process creation to the FGS denial.

18:32 restart sequence

Five consecutive processes were denied and crashed, with Android's restart backoff increasing:

Representative log:

Process com.maxrave.simpmusic (pid 9178) has died: cch SVC
Scheduling restart of crashed service ... in 1000ms for start-requested
Start proc 10089:com.maxrave.simpmusic/u0a265 for service {.../SimpleMediaService}
Background started FGS: Disallowed [... code:DENIED; ...]
FATAL EXCEPTION: main
android.app.ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException: ...
Process com.maxrave.simpmusic (pid 10089) has died: svc SVC
Scheduling restart of crashed service ... in 4000ms for start-requested

The backoff continued beyond this window: PID 11016 was also denied at 18:37:47, with the next scheduled restart increasing to 1024000 ms (~17 minutes).

19:52 event — crash during normal operation

Unlike the restart loops above, this crash occurred during an otherwise normal playback session. PID 11231 had been running since approximately 18:40, with startForegroundCount reaching 9 during normal playback state changes.

At 19:52, Media3 tears down the foreground state:

19:52:14.6xx  setFgsIfNoSessionIsLinkedToNotification: record=.../SimpleMediaService/24
19:52:14.6xx  setFgsInactiveLocked: pkg=com.maxrave.simpmusic uid=10265 notification=2026
19:52:14.6xx  [...SimpleMediaService,1,PROC_STATE_TOP,...,STOP_FOREGROUND,2]

About 70 ms later, the app attempts to re-promote the service:

19:52:14.7xx  Background started FGS: Disallowed [... code:DENIED; startForegroundCount:9]
19:52:14.7xx  ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException: Service.startForeground() not allowed
19:52:15.381  Process com.maxrave.simpmusic (pid 11231) has died: cch SVC
19:52:15.4xx  Scheduling restart of crashed service ... in 1000ms

Android then starts PID 22817, which is denied and hits the same exception almost immediately:

19:52:16.469  Start proc 22817:com.maxrave.simpmusic/u0a265 for service {.../SimpleMediaService}
19:52:17.1xx  Background started FGS: Disallowed [... code:DENIED; startForegroundCount:9]
19:52:17.1xx  ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException: ... (x3)

This shows that the failure can also occur during an otherwise normal playback session, before the subsequent Android service restart.

Possible root cause / theory

The logs establish that Android is denying the FGS promotion and that the resulting ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException is uncaught and kills the process.

The setFgsIfNoSessionIsLinkedToNotification / setFgsInactiveLocked / STOP_FOREGROUND sequence immediately preceding the 19:52 failure suggests a connection to Media3's (SimpleMediaService extends MediaSessionService) internal foreground-state handling, rather than only external service restarts.

A possible sequence is:

Media3/SimpMusic
    → foreground state stopped
    → service attempts to re-promote to foreground
    → Android 16 denies the FGS start
    → uncaught ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException
    → process dies
    → Android restarts the service
    → same failure can occur again

The logs do not conclusively establish whether Media3 is missing an eligibility check, SimpMusic is invoking the service at the wrong time, or another lifecycle condition is involved. That would require source tracing.

What the logs do establish is that the FGS denial is propagating as an uncaught exception rather than being handled as a recoverable state transition.

Expected behavior

An FGS denial (ForegroundServiceStartNotAllowedException) should not be allowed to kill the process.

Possible handling could include:

• Catch/defer the failed foreground promotion.

• Wait until FGS promotion is permitted.

• Avoid immediately retrying a start that is expected to fail.

• Surface an error/state indication instead of crashing.

• Handle Media3's internal foreground-state transitions, not only system-triggered restarts after a crash.

This would also address the 19:52 case, where the failure occurred during an otherwise normal playback session.

Environment

• Android: 16

• Target SDK: 36

• SimpMusic: V2.1.0

• Package: com.maxrave.simpmusic

• UID: 10265

• Service: com.maxrave.simpmusic/com.maxrave.media3.service.SimpleMediaService

• Related issue: #2071

simpmusic-fgs-crash-logcat-trimmed.txt

Start by tracing SimpleMediaService, which extends Media3's MediaSessionService, through foreground-state transitions around the Android 16 denial shown in the attached logcat. Reproduce the denial on Android 16 with target SDK 36 and verify that failed foreground promotion no longer produces an uncaught exception or process crash during service restart or normal playback.