ParseUser user.saveEventually() always create new user in database

[andj207]

ParseUser was newly created every time I use user.saveEventually(). I checked in the ParseDashboard, the Installation object for my device is unique but the "user" field in Installation table always different every time I completely close the app (back pressed, wipe out recently apps) and reopen it. The User table has new row too.

My code:

ParseUser.enableAutomaticUser();
        ParseUser user = ParseUser.getCurrentUser();
        if (user != null) {
            ParseACL.setDefaultACL(new ParseACL(ParseUser.getCurrentUser()), true);
            if (user.get("appLaunch") == null) {
                user.put("appLaunch", 0);
                user.put("notifyAll", true);
            }
            user.saveEventually();  // <-- this line will create new user everytime it run
        }

ParseInstallation installation = ParseInstallation.getCurrentInstallation();
        if (installation != null) {
            String refreshedToken = FirebaseInstanceId.getInstance().getToken();
            if (refreshedToken != null) {
                installation.setDeviceToken(refreshedToken);
            }
            installation.put("user", ParseUser.getCurrentUser());
            installation.saveEventually();
        }

I use latest ParseServer and: implementation "com.parse:parse-android:1.17.3"

[Jawnnypoo]

I would remove the ParseUser.enableAutomaticUser();, as you are essentially doing what it does in the next lines. That might be the issue, but maybe not. Try that out first.

[andj207]

@Jawnnypoo If ParseUser.enableAutomaticUser(); was removed, ParseUser.getCurrentUser(); always returns null. I need to create anonymous user for use in the app.

[andj207]

Btw, If I use user.saveInBackground(); everything works as expected. There must be a bug with user.saveEventually();.

[AlejandroHCruz]

Also struggling with this, did you encounter any further issues when creating anonymous users with user.saveInBakcground() for example if you call that when there's no internet connection?

[andj207]

@AlejandroHCruz yes, I still struggle with this issue, the User collection grows very fast compare to Installation collection. For now I switch to use Installation pointer for "relation" instead.

[AlejandroHCruz]

Gotcha, thanks! user.cryInBackground()

[nisrulz]

So, the issue is that the ParseAnonymousUser is actually not getting saved properly, which results in no user being available when the app starts again. So the usual path of creating a new anon user is followed. The solution that worked for me was like below:

In my Application file

@Override 
public void onCreate() {
     ...
     // Enable automatic creation of ParseAnonymousUser 
     ParseUser.enableAutomaticUser();
    
     // Login the anonymous user so as to create an entry in the Parse's User table
     loginAnonUserIfNeeded() 
}

where loginAnonUserIfNeeded() is another method, which takes care of logging in the ParseAnonymousUser.

void loginAnonUserIfNeeded() {
        // If the current user does not have the object id then it is
        // an anon user, then go ahead and login the user into parse
        if (ParseUser.getCurrentUser() != null
                && ParseUser.getCurrentUser().getObjectId() == null) {
            // call to login only creates the anon user but does not persist it
            ParseAnonymousUtils.logIn((user, e) -> {
                if (e == null) {
                    // The user returned here is ParseUser object which is now stored in remote Parse
                    // server. If the login was not successful this will be null. So we check for the
                    // user object that si returned is not null and login was successful.
                    if (user != null) {
                        // After login, save is required so that it persists across app starts
                        // ⚠️ WARNING: Do not use saveEventually as it is buggy and creates new anon user
                        // every time app is opened
                        user.saveInBackground(e1 -> {
                            if (e1 == null) {
                                //User was saved successfully
                            } else {
                                // Print stacktrace of the error
                                e1.printStackTrace();
                            }

                        });
                    }
                } else {
                    // Print stacktrace of the error
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            });
        }
    }

How to test this: Setup OkHttpInterceptor for logging outgoing calls to Parse Server and you can validate that the create user call is made only once.

I hope this helps others who bump into this problem in the future 😄

[AlejandroHCruz]

Great solution! Please take into account that ParseAnonymousUtils.logIn((user, e) -> will return a null ParseUser object if there's no internect connection.