NullpointerException when registering a SyncStatusObserver in Application.onCreate()

[ndefeijter]

java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at org.robolectric.RobolectricTestRunner$2.evaluate(RobolectricTestRunner.java:240)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:263)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:68)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:47)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:231)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:60)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:229)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:50)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:222)
    at org.robolectric.RobolectricTestRunner$1.evaluate(RobolectricTestRunner.java:177)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:300)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestReference.run(JUnit4TestReference.java:50)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:38)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:467)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:683)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:390)
    at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:197)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at android.content.ContentResolver.addStatusChangeListener(ContentResolver.java:1797)
    at a.b.c.XyzApplication.onCreate(XyzApplication.java:45)
    at org.robolectric.internal.ParallelUniverse.setUpApplicationState(ParallelUniverse.java:164)
    at org.robolectric.RobolectricTestRunner.setUpApplicationState(RobolectricTestRunner.java:430)
    at org.robolectric.RobolectricTestRunner$2.evaluate(RobolectricTestRunner.java:236)
    ... 16 more

The MyApplication.onCreate() method is very simple and looks like this:

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        // Watch for sync state changes
        final int mask = ContentResolver.SYNC_OBSERVER_TYPE_PENDING | ContentResolver.SYNC_OBSERVER_TYPE_ACTIVE;
        this.syncObserverHandle = ContentResolver.addStatusChangeListener(mask, this.syncStatusObserver);
    }

I guess it has something to do with the getContentService() method returning null:

    public static Object addStatusChangeListener(int mask, final SyncStatusObserver callback) {
        if (callback == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("you passed in a null callback");
        }
        try {
            ISyncStatusObserver.Stub observer = new ISyncStatusObserver.Stub() {
                public void onStatusChanged(int which) throws RemoteException {
                    callback.onStatusChanged(which);
                }
            };
            getContentService().addStatusChangeListener(mask, observer);
            return observer;
        } catch (RemoteException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("the ContentService should always be reachable", e);
        }
    }

Running this code on a device or emulator is fine but running in Robolectric results in a NullPointerException.

Is the ContentService not yet available in Application.onCreate()?

[erd]

I suspect that we need to shadow addStatusChangeListener.

[Jeff-Stapleton]

Any progress on this?

[utzcoz]

Please test it with latest Robolectric again to verify whether it fixes this issue. The Robolectric version related to this issue is too old. If this issue still exits with latest Robolectric 4.9, feel free to reopen this issue and attach a minimal reproducable app that we can use to reproduce this issue and for later investigation. Thanks.