Why has `android:screenOrientation="behind"` no effect in android 4.1.2?

Question

As a test sample, there is an application with 2 activities: MainActivity that launches SecondActivity on button click.
It works fine on Android 4.0.4, but on Android 4.1.2 I encountered unexpected behaviour.

AutoRotation in system settings is off (or is on - it doesn't matter, "behind" option is ignored anyway).
android:screenOrientation="landscape" is set for MainActivity and android:screenOrientation="behind" is set for SecondActivity, which means that SecondActivity must be launched in landscape orientation too.
It's true for Android 4.0.4, but on Android 4.1.2 SecondActivity starts with portrait orientation.

AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="8"
    android:targetSdkVersion="16" />

<application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
    <activity
        android:name="com.my.example.testbehindorientation.MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:screenOrientation="landscape" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="com.my.example.testbehindorientation.SecondActivity"
        android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_second"
        android:screenOrientation="behind" >
    </activity>
</application>

SecondActivity.java:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_second);
    logOrientation("onCreate");
}


@Override
protected void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    logOrientation("onDestroy");
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    logOrientation("onResume");
}

private void logOrientation(String prefix) {
        int requestedOrientation = this.getRequestedOrientation();
        WindowManager lWindowManager =  (WindowManager) getSystemService(WINDOW_SERVICE);
        Configuration cfg = getResources().getConfiguration();
        int lRotation = lWindowManager.getDefaultDisplay().getRotation();   
        int orientation = cfg.orientation;
        Log.i(LOG_TAG, prefix + ", requestedOrientation is " + requestedOrientation + ", rotation is " + lRotation + ", orientation is " + orientation);
}

Log output without android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation" line in AndroidManifest.xml for SecondActivity after button click in MainActivity:

onCreate, requestedOrientation is 3, rotation is 1, orientation is 2
onResume, requestedOrientation is 3, rotation is 1, orientation is 2
onDestroy, requestedOrientation is 3, rotation is 0, orientation is 1
onCreate, requestedOrientation is 3, rotation is 0, orientation is 1
onResume, requestedOrientation is 3, rotation is 0, orientation is 1

Log with line android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation" included in AndroidManifest.xml:

onCreate, requestedOrientation is 3, rotation is 1, orientation is 2
onResume, requestedOrientation is 3, rotation is 1, orientation is 2

No activity recreation now, but the result is always the same - SecondActivity is starting with portrait orientation! :( That is, SecondActivity rotates to portrait after onResume for some reason. Why?.

Tested on:

• Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.0.4 (Ok)
• Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.1.? (Bug)
• Emulator with Android 4.1.2 with portrait home screen orientation (Bug)
• Android 4.0.3 emulator (Ok)
• Android 4.2 emulator (Bug)

Answer 1

android:targetSdkVersion="16"

Remove this statement in your manifest file, because SDKVersion=16 is only available for v4.0.

Answer 2

If you are facing problem changing orientation using manifest you change the orientation in java. Here is complete code for manifest and activities.

Manifest.xml

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="8"
    android:targetSdkVersion="16" />

<application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
    <activity
        android:name="com.my.example.testbehindorientation.MainActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity
        android:name="com.my.example.testbehindorientation.SecondActivity"
        android:configChanges="screenSize|orientation"
        android:label="@string/title_activity_second" >
    </activity>
</application>

Second activity in landscape

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_second);            
    setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);//Change according to need this is for landscape
    logOrientation("onCreate");
}


@Override
protected void onDestroy() {
    super.onDestroy();
    logOrientation("onDestroy");
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    super.onResume();
    logOrientation("onResume");
}

private void logOrientation(String prefix) {
        int requestedOrientation = this.getRequestedOrientation();
        WindowManager lWindowManager =  (WindowManager) getSystemService(WINDOW_SERVICE);
        Configuration cfg = getResources().getConfiguration();
        int lRotation = lWindowManager.getDefaultDisplay().getRotation();   
        int orientation = cfg.orientation;
        Log.i(LOG_TAG, prefix + ", requestedOrientation is " + requestedOrientation + ", rotation is " + lRotation + ", orientation is " + orientation);
}

Add the following code in onCreate() method of MainActivity

setRequestedOrientation(ActivityInfo.SCREEN_ORIENTATION_LANDSCAPE);//Change according to need this is for landscape