startActivityForResult not working properly with launchMode singleInstance

Question

I\'d like Activities on my application\'s Activity stack to only have one instance. I have several screens which are ListActivities and I\'d like to not go through the pain

Answer 1

I have several screens which are ListActivities and I'd like to not go through the pain and suffering of updating the lists in a previous instance of the ListActivity when another instance of that ListActivity is changed (or is there an easy way to do this?).

Use a consistent model. For example, your data is hopefully in a database. Each ListActivity has a Cursor on the portion of the database it needs. Have that Cursor be a "managed Cursor" (via startManagingCursor()), and your ListViews will update automatically in onResume(). You then make your changes to your model via the database.

I have a menu and if I go to my Inbox screen, then I go to my QuickList screen, and then I go to my Inbox screen again, it creates a new Inbox Activity.

That's what it is supposed to do. Quoting the documentation:

The "standard" and "singleTop" modes differ from each other in just one respect: Every time there's new intent for a "standard" activity, a new instance of the class is created to respond to that intent. Each instance handles a single intent. Similarly, a new instance of a "singleTop" activity may also be created to handle a new intent. However, if the target task already has an existing instance of the activity at the top of its stack, that instance will receive the new intent (in an onNewIntent() call); a new instance is not created. In other circumstances — for example, if an existing instance of the "singleTop" activity is in the target task, but not at the top of the stack, or if it's at the top of a stack, but not in the target task — a new instance would be created and pushed on the stack.

(boldface added for emphasis)

Right now, on my ListActivities, I have launchMode set to singleInstance.

Please do not do this.