Android mediarecorder stop failed

Question

I've faced a very strange behavior: sometimes my mediarecorder crashes with an error "Stop failed" and sometimes it works fine. Is there my fault or it is a bug of the system? I cant't get what is wrong.

private void stopRecording(){
        ticker.cancel();
        ticker.purge();

        recorder.stop();

        startBtn.setText("Start");
        recordInProcess = false;

        markList = locWriteTask.getMarkArray();

    mCamera.lock();
        recorder.release();
    }

 private void startRecording(){

         startBtn.setText("Stop");

         recordInProcess = true;

             recorder = new MediaRecorder();

         mCamera.unlock();
         recorder.setCamera(mCamera);

         recorder.setPreviewDisplay(mSurfaceHolder.getSurface());
         recorder.setAudioSource(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC);
         recorder.setVideoSource(MediaRecorder.VideoSource.CAMERA);
         recorder.setOutputFormat(MediaRecorder.OutputFormat.THREE_GPP);
         recorder.setAudioEncoder(MediaRecorder.AudioEncoder.AMR_NB);
         recorder.setVideoEncoder(MediaRecorder.VideoEncoder.MPEG_4_SP);
         recorder.setMaxDuration((int) 10000000); 
         recorder.setVideoSize(320, 240); 
         recorder.setVideoFrameRate(15); 
         recorder.setOutputFile(FULL_PATH_TO_LOCAL_FILE + counter + MP4);

         try{
             recorder.prepare();
         } catch (Exception e){
             finish();
         }

         lm.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 0, ll);

         ticker = new Timer();
         locWriteTask = new WriteTimeLocationTimerTask(ll);
         ticker.schedule(locWriteTask, 0, DELAY);   

         recorder.start();
    }

Solution 1

If the recorder is not in a recording state, then the stop could fail.

See http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaRecorder.html

Solution 2

You may catch a RuntimeException at the MediaRecorder.stop() method.

Example:

MediaRecorder mRecorder = new MediaRecorder();
File mFile = new File("The output file's absolutePath");

... //config the mRecorder
mRecorder.setOutputFile(mFile.getAbsolutePath());

... //prepare() ...
mRecorder.start();

try {
    mRecorder.stop();
} catch(RuntimeException e) {
    mFile.delete();  //you must delete the outputfile when the recorder stop failed.
} finally {
    mRecorder.release();
    mRecorder = null;
}

Comments

[Kalpesh]

How i check that MediaRecorder is in a recording state ?

[Bhargav]

@Kalpesh The MediaRecorder api doesn't have provision to query its state unfortunately.

[StarShine]

what is this supposed to fix?

[StarShine]

adding this to what exactly?

[CEO tech4lifeapps]

Add it to the class or activity that contains the rest of the code for your MediaRecorder

[user924]

well it always fails on Android 6.0.1, but works fine for 7.*. I use SURFACE as input

[user924]

@StarShine it's not related, useless answer