Android lollipop shared elements transition blink / flash

Question

I see strange thing in my shared element transition on Lollipop. Shared elements are flickering just before they are starting to animate (please see video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCoyyC_S-9A)

I've no idea why it is happening. However when I add <item name="android:windowSharedElementsUseOverlay">false</item> to my theme I don't see flickering but the transition is not looking good (they look like only half of it is animating second half of animation 'hidden').

Other transition settings:

<item name="android:windowActivityTransitions">true</item>
<item name="android:windowContentTransitions">true</item>
<item name="android:windowAllowEnterTransitionOverlap">true</item>
<item name="android:windowAllowReturnTransitionOverlap">true</item>
<item name="android:windowSharedElementEnterTransition">@android:transition/move</item>
<item name="android:windowSharedElementExitTransition">@android:transition/move</item>

I am starting activity using ActivityCompat & ActivityOptionsCompat:

ActivityOptionsCompat options = ActivityOptionsCompat.makeSceneTransitionAnimation(ActivityMain.this,
                        new Pair<View, String>(playButton, getString(R.string.translation_control_button)),
                        new Pair<View, String>(findViewById(R.id.playerImage), getString(R.string.translation_artwork)));

ActivityCompat.startActivity(this, pendingIntent, options.toBundle());

1st activity:

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:id="@+id/main_container">

        <include layout="@layout/toolbar"/>

        <FrameLayout
            android:id="@+id/activity_main_fragment_container"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="0dp"
            android:layout_weight="1"></FrameLayout>

        <TableLayout
            xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="45dp"
            android:padding="7dp"
            android:stretchColumns="*"
            android:id="@+id/player_toolboxTable"
            android:background="?colorPrimary">

            <TableRow
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="fill_parent"
                android:id="@+id/player_toolbox">

                <ImageView
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:clickable="true"
                    android:id="@+id/player_fav"
                    android:src="@drawable/rating_not_important"
                    android:onClick="playerFav"
                    android:background="@drawable/button_selector_semi_white"
                    />

                <ImageView
                    android:src="@drawable/av_pause_over_video"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:clickable="true"
                    android:id="@+id/player_play"
                    android:onClick="playerPlay"
                    android:background="@drawable/button_selector_semi_white"
                    android:transitionName="@string/translation_control_button"
                    />

                <ImageView
                    android:src="@drawable/social_share"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:clickable="true"
                    android:id="@+id/player_share"
                    android:background="@drawable/button_selector_semi_white"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:onClick="playerShare"
                    />

                <ImageView
                    android:src="@drawable/content_save"
                    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                    android:clickable="true"
                    android:id="@+id/player_record"
                    android:background="@drawable/button_selector_semi_white"
                    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                    android:onClick="playerRecord"
                    />
            </TableRow>
        </TableLayout>

    </LinearLayout>

</com.heinrichreimersoftware.materialdrawer.DrawerFrameLayout>

Second activity:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
              xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
              android:layout_width="match_parent"
              android:layout_height="match_parent"
              android:orientation="vertical"
              tools:context=".activities.CommunityActivity">

    <include layout="@layout/toolbar"/>

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dp"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
        android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
        android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
        android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
        android:orientation="vertical">

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/community_google_plus_group"
            android:text="@string/community_google_plus"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:drawableLeft="@drawable/ic_action_gplus"
            android:gravity="left|center_vertical"
            style="@style/MaterialButton"
            />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/community_google_fb"
            android:text="@string/community_facebook"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:drawableLeft="@drawable/ic_action_facebook"
            android:gravity="left|center_vertical"
            style="@style/MaterialButton"
            />

        <Button
            android:id="@+id/community_mail"
            android:text="@string/community_mail"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:drawableLeft="@drawable/ic_action_gmail"
            android:gravity="left|center_vertical"
            style="@style/MaterialButton"
            />
    </LinearLayout>

    <include layout="@layout/include_mini_player"/>

</LinearLayout>

include_mini_player.xml

<fragment
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/mini_player_fragment"
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:name=".fragments.MiniPlayerFragment"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="72dp"
    tools:layout="@layout/fragment_mini_player"/>

fragment_mini_player:

<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:background="?colorPrimary"

    >

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/player_artwork"
        android:layout_width="52dp"
        android:scaleType="centerCrop"
        android:layout_height="52dp"
        android:src="@drawable/music_icon"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
        android:transitionName="@string/translation_artwork"
        />

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_marginLeft="5dp"
        android:layout_gravity="center_vertical">

        <TextView
            android:textColor="@android:color/white"
            android:text=" "
            android:textSize="8pt"
            android:id="@+id/player_song_title"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            />

        <TextView
            android:textColor="@android:color/white"
            android:text=" "
            android:textSize="7pt"
            android:id="@+id/player_song_artist"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            />
    </LinearLayout>


    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/player_play_button"
        android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"
        android:layout_width="42dp"
        android:layout_height="42dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="5dp"
        android:src="@drawable/av_pause_over_video"
        android:background="@drawable/button_selector_semi_white"
        android:transitionName="@string/translation_control_button"
        />

</LinearLayout>

Do you have any ideas why it is happening?

Solution

Hurray! I've managed to solve this problem.

Blinking screen is common problem described here: Blinking screen on image transition between activities (thx @AlexLockwood)

Blinking shared element was caused by DrawerLayout. I was starting new Activity to soon. When I've moved ActivityCompat.startActivity to DrawerLayout.DrawerListener's onDrawerClosed method everything started working like a charm.

Comments

[Alex Lockwood]

What code are you using to start the transition? What does your layout hierarchy look like?

[radzio]

@AlexLockwood I've added more code. Besides shared element blinking I see whole window blinking (described here: stackoverflow.com/questions/28364106/… )

[Alex Lockwood]

This post might be related: stackoverflow.com/q/26600263/844882

[Prachi]

For us, we were using alpha build of 24. Switching back to 23.x was the trick.

[David]

A better solution would be to use the code Google uses to start Activities from the drawer: mHandler.postDelayed(new Runnable() { @Override public void run() { ... } }, 250);