NullPointer Exception on Android Google Maps while updating Map

Question

I recently included ACRA in my application, which includes a `GoogleMapSupportFragment`. I now get some crash reports, which I cannot reproduce on my device. The app crashes, if I want to put new Markers on the Map. Every Marker is connected with one Location, which has further informations (address, name, ....). Here is my class which manages the `GoogleMap` ``` public SignManager(MainActivity activity, GoogleMap map) { mActivity = activity; this.mMap = map; initMap(); } private void initMap() { mMap.setMapType(GoogleMap.MAP_TYPE_NORMAL); mMap.setMyLocationEnabled(true); //... } ``` This is the function, which (sometimes) throws the `NullPointerException`. The function `updateSignsInView` is called from a `LocalBroadcast` from an `AsyncTasks`, which receives an update with new `Markers` from the server. ``` public void updateSignsInView(LocationWO[] mSignArray) { if(mSignArray == null){ Log.e(DEBUG_TAG,"updateSignsInView() -> mSignArray null"); return; } resetMap(); //delete some unn…

Accepted Answer

The problem here is `icon` passed is `null`.

But if the Bitmap-Icon is null, shouldn't it crash in the createMarker()method? Or will it crash later, because there is no icon tp place at the map?

Yes, it would be better if it thrown NPE directly inside `GoogleMap.addMarker` or `BitmapDescriptorFactory.fromBitmap`, but it won't happen inside your `createMapMarker` unless you call a method on `icon`.

It's not possible to tell why it is `null`, because there is no relevant code in the question, but I suspect that process is killed when user leaves the application and later recreated when they return.

NullPointer Exception on Android Google Maps while updating Map

Solution

Problem