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Fixing IllegalStateException: The content of the adapter has changed but ListView did not receive a notification
By admin | November 16, 2013
Recently while working with a custom BaseAdapter in ListView, I came across this error:
E/InputEventReceiver(30380): Exception dispatching input event. E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): Exception in MessageQueue callback: handleReceiveCallback E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): java.lang.IllegalStateException: The content of the adapter has changed but ListView did not receive a notification. Make sure the content of your adapter is not modified from a background thread, but only from the UI thread. [in ListView(2131230721, class android.widget.ListView) with Adapter(class com.compdigitec.libvlcandroidsample.DirectoryAdapter)] E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.widget.ListView.layoutChildren(ListView.java:1544) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.widget.AbsListView.onTouchEvent(AbsListView.java:3403) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.View.dispatchTouchEvent(View.java:7239) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2168) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:1903) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2174) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:1917) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2174) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:1917) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2174) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:1917) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTransformedTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:2174) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchTouchEvent(ViewGroup.java:1917) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1953) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.superDispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1405) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.app.Activity.dispatchTouchEvent(Activity.java:2410) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow$DecorView.dispatchTouchEvent(PhoneWindow.java:1901) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.View.dispatchPointerEvent(View.java:7419) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewRootImpl.deliverPointerEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:3220) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewRootImpl.deliverInputEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:3165) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewRootImpl.doProcessInputEvents(ViewRootImpl.java:4292) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewRootImpl.enqueueInputEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:4271) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.ViewRootImpl$WindowInputEventReceiver.onInputEvent(ViewRootImpl.java:4363) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.view.InputEventReceiver.dispatchInputEvent(InputEventReceiver.java:179) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.os.MessageQueue.nativePollOnce(Native Method) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.os.MessageQueue.next(MessageQueue.java:125) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:124) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5191) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:795) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:562) E/MessageQueue-JNI(30380): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
this.notifyDataSetChanged() was already being called, so that couldn’t have been the problem.
The solution?
If registerDataSetObserver() and unregisterDataSetObserver() are going to be overridden, ensure that the superclass’ methods are being called too. If you forget to call them, then when Android registers the ListView dataset observer, nothing is going to happen.
@Override
public void registerDataSetObserver(DataSetObserver arg0) {
// ...stuff
super.registerDataSetObserver(arg0);
}
@Override
public void unregisterDataSetObserver(DataSetObserver arg0) {
// ...stuff
super.unregisterDataSetObserver(arg0);
}
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Topics: Mobile | 6 Comments »

July 13th, 2026 at 22:51
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August 9th, 2026 at 04:31
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