AuthSettingsActivity crashes on launch (InflateException: Material attributes under AppCompat theme)

[julius-ds]

AuthSettingsActivity crashes on launch (InflateException: Material attributes under AppCompat theme)

Repository: ActivityWatch/aw-android
Version: v0.14.0dev20260723 (versionCode 37)
Device: Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G (SM-G990B2), Android 14, One UI

Summary

The API key settings screen cannot be opened. Selecting Settings from the options
menu launches AuthSettingsActivity, which immediately crashes with an
InflateException. The activity is killed by the system and the app returns to the
launcher.

This makes the API key unreadable, so no external client can authenticate against the
device's aw-server. It also makes the "disable authentication" toggle unreachable,
since that switch lives on the same screen — there is currently no way to either obtain
the key or opt out of authentication.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install v0.14.0dev20260723 on Android 14
2. Complete onboarding, open MainActivity
3. Open the options menu (KEYCODE_MENU; there is no visible affordance under gesture
   navigation — see note below)
4. Select Settings

Reproduces every time.

Stack trace

FATAL EXCEPTION: main
Process: net.activitywatch.android, PID: 30777
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity
  ComponentInfo{net.activitywatch.android/net.activitywatch.android.AuthSettingsActivity}:
  android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #43 in
  net.activitywatch.android:layout/activity_auth_settings: Error inflating class TextView
    at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:4164)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:4322)
    ...
Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: Failed to resolve attribute at index 5:
  TypedValue{t=0x2/d=0x7f030117 a=-1},
  theme={InheritanceMap=[... net.activitywatch.android:style/AppTheme,
  ... style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar, ...]}
    at android.content.res.TypedArray.getColorStateList(TypedArray.java:600)
    at android.widget.TextView.readTextAppearance(TextView.java:4535)
    at android.widget.TextView.<init>(TextView.java:1468)
    at androidx.appcompat.widget.AppCompatTextView.<init>(AppCompatTextView.java:115)

Root cause

res/layout/activity_auth_settings.xml uses Material Components 3 theme attributes:

<!-- lines 36-43 -->
<TextView
    android:id="@+id/tv_status"
    ...
    android:textAppearance="?attr/textAppearanceBodySmall"
    android:textColor="?attr/colorOnSurfaceVariant"
    android:text="Checking…" />

The layout additionally references ?attr/textAppearanceBodyLarge,
?attr/textAppearanceBodyMedium, ?attr/textAppearanceLabelLarge and instantiates
com.google.android.material.switchmaterial.SwitchMaterial.

None of these resolve under the app's theme, which is defined in
res/values/values.xml/styles.xml as:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">

Theme.AppCompat.* does not define the Material 3 attribute set, so attribute resolution
fails during inflation.

Why this affects all current builds

• activity_auth_settings.xml is unchanged since it was added in
  "feat(auth): add API key settings screen" (2026-06-29)
• The app theme is unchanged since 2023

Consequently every build that contains the auth screen is affected, including the current
master and the CI artifacts from 2026-07-28. I verified this before attempting an
upgrade, so upgrading is not a workaround.

Suggested fix

Either point the theme at Material Components:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.MaterialComponents.Light.NoActionBar">

(this is also required for SwitchMaterial to behave correctly), or replace the Material
attributes in activity_auth_settings.xml with AppCompat-compatible equivalents such as
?attr/textAppearanceListItemSecondary and ?android:attr/textColorSecondary.

The theme change is the smaller diff, but worth checking against the other layouts for
visual regressions.

Minor, related observation

The menu entry that launches this activity is R.id.action_settings in the options
menu. On devices using gesture navigation there is no hardware or on-screen menu button,
so the entry is unreachable through normal interaction — it can only be triggered via
adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_MENU. Moving it into the navigation drawer (next to
the existing "Settings" entry, which opens the web UI settings) would make it discoverable.

Impact

With authentication enabled by default and the settings screen unreachable, the device's
aw-server is effectively closed to external clients. GET /api/0/info and / respond,
everything under /api/0/buckets/ returns 401. Reaching the server itself is not the
problem — adb forward tcp:5601 tcp:5600 works fine — only authentication is.

Other routes to the key were checked and are dead ends: config.toml lives in internal
storage and the release APK is not debuggable (run-as refused), adb backup returns an
empty archive on Android 12+, and BackgroundService is exported="false" so it cannot
be started in isolation.

[ErikBjare]

@TimeToBuildBob Address this

[TimeToBuildBob]

On it. Root cause: activity_auth_settings.xml uses Material Components 3 attrs (textAppearanceBodySmall, colorOnSurfaceVariant, SwitchMaterial) under AppTheme (parent: Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar) — these fail to resolve because the app hasn't wired up the MaterialComponents theme path.

Fix committed, pushing PR shortly: replace all M3 attrs with their AppCompat equivalents (SwitchCompat, android:attr/textAppearanceSmall, android:attr/textColorSecondary, etc.) and switch SwitchMaterial to SwitchCompat in the Kotlin class. Also adding API Authentication to the nav drawer for discoverability on gesture-nav devices where the options menu overflow isn't reachable.

[TimeToBuildBob]

PR up: #211

Fixes both and — they had identical M3 attr issues under the AppCompat parent theme. Also adds "API Authentication" to the nav drawer for discoverability on gesture-nav devices.

[julius-ds]

Thanks for the quick turnaround — that matches exactly what I saw.

Happy to verify #211 against the original repro (Galaxy S21 FE, Android 14, gesture navigation) once there's a build. Ping me if a CI artifact is easier than waiting for a release.

Good call on moving it into the nav drawer — on gesture-nav devices the options menu is genuinely unreachable without adb.

[TimeToBuildBob]

@julius-ds FYI — PR #211 merged to master yesterday. The fix replaces all M3/Material Components attrs with their AppCompat equivalents in AuthSettingsActivity and SyncSettingsActivity, and swaps SwitchMaterial → SwitchCompat in both Kotlin files.

If you can verify against the next dev build on your Galaxy S21 FE (Android 14, gesture nav) that would be great. The next pre-release should pick up these changes.

[julius-ds]

Will do, I'll report back on the next pre-release.

One thing worth knowing if you ask others to verify: the CI artifact isn't usable for it. aw-android-apk from master installs as net.activitywatch.android.debug alongside the release package instead of upgrading it, so you can't test it against an existing install that already has data on it. Found that out the hard way.

[TimeToBuildBob]

@julius-ds The next pre-release is out: v0.14.0b2 (versionCode 40). It includes the #211 AppCompat fix.

APK: https://github.com/ActivityWatch/aw-android/releases/download/v0.14.0b2/aw-android.apk

That build is the signed release package (net.activitywatch.android), so it should upgrade your existing install — unlike the CI aw-android-apk debug artifact. Thanks for flagging that.

If AuthSettings still crashes on the S21 FE, say so here and I will reopen the investigation.