Xamarin.Forms Taking picture with Plugin.Media not working - plugins

Question

I'm using the Plugin.Media from #JamesMontemagno version 2.4.0-beta (which fixes picture orientation), it's working on Adroind 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) and Marshmallow, but NOT on my Galaxy S5 Neo with Android version 5.1.1.
Basically when I take a picture it never returns back on the page from where I started the process; always returns back to the initial home page.
On devices where it works, when I take a picture, I see that first of all the application fires OnSleep, then after taking the picture fires OnResume.
On my device where is NOT working it fires OnSleep and after taking the picture doesn't fire OnResume, it fires the initialization page and then OnStart.
For this reason it doesn't open the page where I was when taking the picture.
What should I do to make sure it fires OnResume returning to the correct page and not OnStart which returns on initial fome page ?
In addition, when I take a picture it takes almost 30 seconds to get back to the code after awaiting TakePhotoAsync process, and it's too slow!
Following my code:
MyTapGestureRecognizerEditPicture.Tapped += async (sender, e) =>
{
//Display action sheet
String MyActionResult = await DisplayActionSheet(AppLocalization.UserInterface.EditImage,
AppLocalization.UserInterface.Cancel,
AppLocalization.UserInterface.Delete,
AppLocalization.UserInterface.TakePhoto,
AppLocalization.UserInterface.PickPhoto);
//Execute action result
if (MyActionResult == AppLocalization.UserInterface.TakePhoto)
{
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Take photo
await CrossMedia.Current.Initialize();
if (!CrossMedia.Current.IsCameraAvailable || !CrossMedia.Current.IsTakePhotoSupported)
{
await DisplayAlert(AppLocalization.UserInterface.Alert, AppLocalization.UserInterface.NoCameraAvailable, AppLocalization.UserInterface.Ok);
}
else
{
var MyPhotoFile = await CrossMedia.Current.TakePhotoAsync(new Plugin.Media.Abstractions.StoreCameraMediaOptions
{
Directory = "MyApp",
Name = "MyAppProfile.jpg",
SaveToAlbum = true,
PhotoSize = Plugin.Media.Abstractions.PhotoSize.Small
});
if (MyPhotoFile != null)
{
//Render image
MyProfilePicture.Source = ImageSource.FromFile(MyPhotoFile.Path);
//Save image on database
MemoryStream MyMemoryStream = new MemoryStream();
MyPhotoFile.GetStream().CopyTo(MyMemoryStream);
byte[] MyArrBytePicture = MyMemoryStream.ToArray();
await SaveProfilePicture(MyArrBytePicture);
MyPhotoFile.Dispose();
MyMemoryStream.Dispose();
}
}
}
if (MyActionResult == AppLocalization.UserInterface.PickPhoto)
{
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Pick photo
await CrossMedia.Current.Initialize();
if (!CrossMedia.Current.IsPickPhotoSupported)
{
await DisplayAlert(AppLocalization.UserInterface.Alert, AppLocalization.UserInterface.PermissionNotGranted, AppLocalization.UserInterface.Ok);
}
else
{
var MyPhotoFile = await CrossMedia.Current.PickPhotoAsync();
if (MyPhotoFile != null)
{
//Render image
MyProfilePicture.Source = ImageSource.FromFile(MyPhotoFile.Path);
//Save image on database
MemoryStream MyMemoryStream = new MemoryStream();
MyPhotoFile.GetStream().CopyTo(MyMemoryStream);
byte[] MyArrBytePicture = MyMemoryStream.ToArray();
await SaveProfilePicture(MyArrBytePicture);
MyPhotoFile.Dispose();
MyMemoryStream.Dispose();
}
}
}
};
Please help!! We need to deploy this app but we cannot do it with this problem.
Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

It is perfectly normal to have the Android OS terminate and restart an Activity. As you are seeing, your app's Activity it will be automatically restarted when the camera app exits and the OS returns control to your app. The odds are it just needed more memory in order to take that photo with the Neo's 16MP camera, you can watch the logcat output to confirm that.
Restarted – It is possible for an activity that is anywhere from paused to stopped in the lifecycle to be removed from memory by Android. If the user navigates back to the activity it must be restarted, restored to its previously saved state, and then displayed to the user.
What to do:
So on the Xamarin.Forms OnStart lifecycle method you need to restore your application to a valid running state (initializing variables, preforming any bindings, etc...).
Plug code:
The Android platform code for the TakePhotoAsync method looks fine to me, but remember that the memory for that image that is passed back via the Task will be doubled as it is marshaled from the ART VM back the Mono VM. Calling GC.Collect() as soon as possible after the return will help (but your Activity is restarting anyway...)
public async Task<MediaFile> TakePhotoAsync(StoreCameraMediaOptions options)
{
~~~
var media = await TakeMediaAsync("image/*", MediaStore.ActionImageCapture, options);
In turn calls:
this.context.StartActivity(CreateMediaIntent(id, type, action, options));
Not much less you can really do within the Android OS to popup the Camera.
In addition, when I take a picture it takes almost 30 seconds to get back to the code after awaiting TakePhotoAsync process, and it's too slow!
Is that on your Neo? Or all devices?
I would call that very suspect (ie. a bug) as even flushing all the Java memory after the native Camera Intent/Activity and the restart time for your app's Activity should not take 30 seconds on a oct-core 1.6 GHz Cortex... but I do not have your device, app and code in front of me....