Android Lollipop calls onCreate after finish()

Question

This is a strange behavior of Android Lollipop 5.0. I have two activities, A and B. A starts the activity B. When I click on the back button, in activity B, Android calls onCreate method on A. This behavior is observable only in Lollipop 5.0. In the other versions, onCreate is never called after finishing another activity.

What is the problem?

This is my Manifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.example"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="1" >

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="9"
    android:targetSdkVersion="21" />

<application
    android:name=".Application"
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppThemeMaterial" >
    <meta-data
        android:name="com.google.android.gms.version"
        android:value="@integer/google_play_services_version" />

    <activity
        android:name=".activities.ActivityA"
        android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>

    <activity
        android:name=".activities.ActivityB"
        android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|screenSize"
        android:label="@string/activityB" >
    </activity>
</application>

</manifest>

Answer 1

What I think is happening is that when you leave the Activity A, onStop() is being called on activity A since its completely hidden and B is on top of it.

Usually now when you resume activity A after pressing back onStart() is called and then onResume().

But, if you see the Activity LifeCycle, it is technically possible for onCreate() to be called as well, in the case where your app's process is killed by the system if other apps with higher priority need more memory.

Answer 2

please make sure that option not selected

Developer Options -> Don't keep activities