Repair state loss after rotation or process recreation

Understand the likely causes

• An ordinary local variable is recreated; remember lasts only while its composition owner exists; a ViewModel survives appropriate configuration changes but not process death. Saved state is tied to supported task restoration and is not permanent storage. Duplicate state copies and manually recreated ViewModels can also reset values even when the chosen API would otherwise be suitable.

Classify the missing value and lifetime

Write down each value: selected record id, draft text, scroll position, confirmed record, or pending upload. Decide which should survive leaving the composition, configuration recreation, system process death, and a deliberate new session. Small transient UI values may use saveable state; screen business state belongs in an owner-managed ViewModel; important records and valuable drafts belong in durable storage. This classification prevents solving every symptom by moving all data into a singleton, which creates leaks and still disappears with the process.

Keep one owner and save small inputs

For a search query owned by a ViewModel, SavedStateHandle can preserve the small reconstruction input through supported system restoration. Obtain the ViewModel through a saved-state-aware factory or DI integration attached to the correct navigation or activity owner. Do not construct it directly inside a composable. The example below preserves a query; the resulting list should be reconstructed from a repository. Large datasets and images should not be placed in the handle merely because they are easy to serialize.

class QueryViewModel(private val saved: SavedStateHandle) : ViewModel() {
    val query: StateFlow<String> = saved.getStateFlow("query", "")
    fun editQuery(value: String) { saved["query"] = value }
}

@Composable
fun QueryRoute(viewModel: QueryViewModel) {
    val query by viewModel.query.collectAsStateWithLifecycle()
    TitleField(title = query, onTitleChange = viewModel::editQuery)
}

Reload current truth and handle absence

A restored id can point to a deleted row or a different account scope. Validate it and query current authorized storage rather than restoring an old full object as authority. Persist confirmed edits when committed, not only in onDestroy, because that callback is not guaranteed before process termination. If a valuable draft must survive task dismissal or a fresh session, save it durably with an explicit retention policy. Saved-state APIs are a recovery aid and should not be described as a universal persistence guarantee.

Keep it from recurring

• Document state lifetimes beside the feature contract. Keep values flowing from one owner, use stable list and navigation identities, and include recreation plus process-recovery scenarios when state ownership changes. Test missing records and account changes during restoration as well as the successful case.