How to close activity and go back to previous activity in android

I think you are calling finish() method in MainActivity before starting SettingsActivity.

The scenario which you have described will occur in following two ways:

EITHER

You have set android:noHistory = "true" for MainActivity inside AndroidManifest.xml which causes MainActivity to finish automatically on pressing the back key.

OR

Before switching to your 'SettingsActivity', you have called finish() in your MainActivity, which kills it. When you press back button,since no other activity is preset in stack to pop, it goes back to main screen.

You can go back to the previous activity by just calling finish() in the activity you are on. Note any code after the finish() call will be run - you can just do a return after calling finish() to fix this.

If you want to return results to activity one then when starting activity two you need:

startActivityForResults(myIntent, MY_REQUEST_CODE);

Inside your called activity you can then get the Intent from the onCreate() parameter or used

getIntent();

To set return a result to activity one then in activity two do

setResult(Activity.RESULT_OK, MyIntentToReturn);

If you have no intent to return then just say

setResult(Activity.RESULT_OK);

If the the activity has bad results you can use Activity.RESULT_CANCELED (this is used by default). Then in activity one you do

onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
    // Handle the logic for the requestCode, resultCode and data returned...
}

To finish activity two use the same methods with finish() as described above with your results already set.

if you use fragment u should use

getActivity().onBackPressed();

if you use single activity u can use

finish();

When you click your button you can have it call:

super.onBackPressed();

I believe your second activity is probably not linked to your main activity as a child activity. Check your AndroidManifest.xml file and see if the <activity> entry for your child activity includes a android:parentActivityName attribute. It should look something like this:

<?xml ...?>
...
<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    ...>
</activity>
<activity
    android:name=".ChildActivity"
    android:parentActivityName=".MainActivity"
    ...>
</activity>
...

try this code instead of finish:

onBackPressed();

Button edit = (Button) view.findViewById(R.id.yourButton);
edit.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(this, YourMainActivity.class);
        startActivity(intent);
        finish();
    }
});

This closes the entire application:

this.finish();

You are making this too hard. If I understand what you are trying to do correctly, the built-in 'back' button and Android itself will do all the work for you: http://developer.android.com/guide/components/tasks-and-back-stack.html

Also, implementing a custom "back" button violates Core App Quality Guideline UX-N1: http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/quality/core.html

I don't know if this is even usefull or not but I was strugling with the same problem and I found a pretty easy way, with only a global boolean variable and onResume() action. In my case, my Activity C if clicked in a specific button it should trigger the finish() of Activity B!

Activity_A -> Activity_B -> Activity_C

Activity_A (opens normally Activity_B)

Activity_B (on some button click opens Activity_C):

// Global:
boolean its_detail = false;
// -------
SharedPreferences prefs =  getApplicationContext().getSharedPreferences("sharedpreferences", 0);
boolean v = prefs.getBoolean("select_client", false);

its_detail = v;

startActivity(C);

@Override
public void onResume(){
     super.onResume();
     if(its_detail == true){
        finish();
     }
}

So, whenever I click the button on Activity C it would do the "onResume()" function of Activity B and go back to Activity A.

 @Override
    public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
        int id = item.getItemId();

        if ( id == android.R.id.home ) {
            finish();
            return true;
        }

        return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
    }

Try this it works both on toolbar back button as hardware back button.

Finish closes the whole application, this is is something i hate in Android development not finish that is fine but that they do not keep up wit ok syntax they have

startActivity(intent)

Why not

closeActivity(intent) ?

We encountered a very similar situation.

Activity 1 (Opening) -> Activity 2 (Preview) -> Activity 3 (Detail)

Incorrect "on back press" Response

Device back press on Activity 3 will also close Activity 2.

I have checked all answers posted above and none of them worked. Java syntax for transition between Activity 2 and Activity 3 was reviewed to be correct.

Fresh from coding on calling out a 3rd party app. by an Activity. We decided to investigate the configuration angle - eventually enabling us to identify the root cause of the problem.

Scope: Configuration of Activity 2 (caller).

Root Cause:

android:launchMode="singleInstance"

Solution:

android:launchMode="singleTask"

Apparently on this "on back press" issue singleInstance considers invoked Activities in one instance with the calling Activity, whereas singleTask will allow for invoked Activities having their own identity enough for the intended on back press to function to work as it should to.

on onCreate method of your activity write the following code.

getSupportActionBar().setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(true);

Then override the onOptionsItem selected method of your activity as follows

@Override
public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) {
    switch (item.getItemId()){
        case android.R.id.home:
            finish();
    }
    return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item);
}

And you are good to go.

Just don't call finish() on your MainActivity then this eliminates the need to Override your onBackPressed() in your SecondActivity unless you are doing other things in that function. If you feel the "need" for this back button then you can simply call finish() on the SecondActivity and that will take you to your MainActivity as long as you haven't called finish() on it

it may be possible you are calling finish(); in the click button event so the main activity is closed just after you clicking the button and when you are coming back from next activity the application is exit because main activity is already closed and there is no active activity.

You have to use this in your MainActivity

 Intent intent = new Intent(context , yourActivity);

            intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK |Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_MULTIPLE_TASK);
            context.startActivity(intent);

The flag will start multiple tasks that will keep your MainActivity, when you call finish it will kill the other activity and get you back to the MainActivity

{ getApplicationContext.finish();   }

Try this method..

In case none of the above answers helped, I think this might help someone.

I was also having the same problem while pressing the built-in back button or my custom back button, the app closes without returning to the previous activity.

I was calling the second activity from the first activity's toolbar.

But in the starter activity I was calling this:

case android.R.id.home:
            if (isActionMode) {
                clearSelectingToolbar();
                adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
            } else {
                onBackPressed(); // This was making the activity to finish 
            }
            break;

And this code to start the activity

 case R.id.settings:
            context.startActivity(new Intent(ShowAllDirectoriesActivity.this, SettingsActivity.class));

After removing 'case android.R.id.home' part, my activity was able to perform in a normal flow i.e getting back to the previous activity.

So check it if you are also using the same thing!