Cursor window could not be created from binder

Question

1 Cursor cursor = contentResolver.query(MY_URI, new String[] { "first" }, null, null, null);
2 if (cursor != null) {
3   if (cursor.moveToFirst()) {
4       first = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("first"));
5       cursor.close();
6   }
7 }

Then on line #3 (according to the logs), I every now and then I come across this exception (excerpt below):

android.database.CursorWindowAllocationException: Cursor window could not be created from binder.
    at android.database.CursorWindow.<init>(CursorWindow.java:134)
    at android.database.CursorWindow.<init>(CursorWindow.java:41)
    at android.database.CursorWindow$1.createFromParcel(CursorWindow.java:709)
    at android.database.CursorWindow$1.createFromParcel(CursorWindow.java:707)
    at android.database.CursorWindow.newFromParcel(CursorWindow.java:718)
    at android.database.BulkCursorProxy.getWindow(BulkCursorNative.java:196)

...

Any ideas why it is throwing this exception? Thanks!

try this [link](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5288384/android-content-resolver-query-returning-0-rows-when-it-ought-not-too) — Bhavesh Patadiya, Jan 18 '13 at 11:10
How many rows are in the database that is backing the `ContentResolver`? That exception is thrown if the cursor fails to allocate enough space to store the data it needs. Since you are not limiting the number of rows in your query via the selection args, your `cursor` will allocate space to keep a copy of all of column `first` in memory. If there are a large number of rows, potentially the process could fail to allocate that memory. — iagreen, Jan 21 '13 at 02:46
@iagreen, there's only one row that's why I didn't do a loop for it. — villager, Jan 21 '13 at 03:44
The only other thing I can think of is that it is getting a corrupt parcel back. — iagreen, Jan 21 '13 at 03:49
Can you elaborate on the "corrupt parcel". This exception is not always encountered, but there are times where it is encountered, I wonder if it is because of other things. — villager, Jan 21 '13 at 04:05
@mai. The code is failing in `CursorWindow$1.createFromParcel`, which is attempting to create a `CursorWindow` from a `Parcel` object. If it is not failing on the allocation, it could be failing because it is not getting data for the parcel correctly. I can only speculate on why that might be -- perhaps the connection to the `contentResolver` is not longer valid (like keeping a stale handle to it during device rotation, background thread, etc), the other end of the content resolver is not there some reason (no data connection, SD card mounted, etc.), or some other issue — iagreen, Jan 21 '13 at 04:29
@mai if you want single result then use order by i.e. last parameter of function and include limit for example use "id DESC limit 1" for order your result according to id with single result — Jaiprakash Soni, Jan 21 '13 at 06:16

score 28 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 31 '18 at 05:19

28

I suspect the error may be related to you not closing your cursors properly all the time. Try:

Cursor cursor = contentResolver.query(MY_URI, new String[] { "first" }, null, null, null);
if (cursor != null) {
  if (cursor.moveToFirst()) {
      first = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("first"));
  }
  cursor.close(); ///// Changed here
}

The cursor should always be closed (regardless of whether or not its empty). Make sure the rest of your app is doing this as well.

edited Oct 31 '18 at 05:19

SMR

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answered Jan 23 '13 at 16:07

Justin Breitfeller

13,290
4
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This worked for me. Using the cordova contacts plugin, started getting the exception on android 5.0.1. Raised a ticket for them to have a look: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CB-9630 – Martin Cassidy Sep 09 '15 at 09:52
3

close should always be in a finally block. if any part of the code prior to the close throws an exception the cursor won't be closed. – Jeffrey Blattman Nov 13 '15 at 23:03
1

@JeffreyBlattman Just a small tip: instead of try-finally, you can usually use try-with-resources on Java, and `use` in case you use Kotlin. – android developer Oct 12 '20 at 12:13
but I use Kotlin extension `.use()` - `public inline fun T.use(block: (T) -> R): R`, so how is it possible? – user924 Dec 02 '20 at 15:17
@androiddeveloper well even with Kotlin `use` I have a one report from Crashlytics – user924 Dec 02 '20 at 15:18
@user924 OK so maybe do use "try-catch" there too :) – android developer Dec 02 '20 at 21:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 23 '13 at 22:04

Try another thread

new Thread(new Runnable(){ public void run(){

...here all code

}});

. But by Android SDK source codes look like 4.0.2_r1

130  private CursorWindow(Parcel source) {
131      mStartPos = source.readInt();
132      mWindowPtr = nativeCreateFromParcel(source);
133      if (mWindowPtr == 0) {
134          throw new CursorWindowAllocationException("Cursor window could not be "
135                  + "created from binder.");
136      }
137      mName = nativeGetName(mWindowPtr);
138      mCloseGuard.open("close");
139  }

where mWIndowPtr is Int

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 23 '13 at 15:55

-1

Try out this way:

 if (cursor != null) {
  cursor.moveToFirst();
   do {
   first = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex("first"));
  }while(cursor.moveToNext());

}

answered Jan 23 '13 at 15:55

GrIsHu

28,433
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you need to check if the moveToFirst was true or not, if there is no results, this will not work. – Jorge Aguilar Sep 12 '14 at 19:13
you should close cursor – artman Jan 10 '20 at 12:20

Cursor window could not be created from binder

3 Answers3

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