Trying to start a service on boot on Android

The other answers look good, but I thought I’d wrap everything up into one complete answer.

You need the following in your AndroidManifest.xml file:

1. In your <manifest> element:

   <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" />
   

2. In your <application> element (be sure to use a fully-qualified [or relative] class name for your BroadcastReceiver):

   <receiver android:name="com.example.MyBroadcastReceiver">  
       <intent-filter>  
           <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />  
       </intent-filter>  
   </receiver>
   

   (you don’t need the android:enabled, exported, etc., attributes: the Android defaults are correct)

   In MyBroadcastReceiver.java:

   package com.example;
   
   public class MyBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
       @Override
       public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
           Intent startServiceIntent = new Intent(context, MyService.class);
           context.startService(startServiceIntent);
       }
   }
   

From the original question:

• it’s not clear if the <receiver> element was in the <application> element
• it’s not clear if the correct fully-qualified (or relative) class name for the BroadcastReceiver was specified
• there was a typo in the <intent-filter>