I am using motion sensor detection in my application. My design is this: a class gets the sensor services references from the main activity and then it implements SensorEventListener. That is, the MainActivity does not listen for sensor event changes: public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { // ... code mSensorManager = (SensorManager) getSystemService(Context.SENSOR_SERVICE); mAccelerometer = mSensorManager.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER); // The following is my java class, it does not extends any android fragment/activty mShakeUtil = new ShakeUtil(mSensorManager,mAccelerometer,this); // ..more code.. } I can't redesign ShakeUtil so it is a fragment nor activity, unfortunately. Now to illustrate the problem consider: MainActivity is on its way to be destroyed/paused. I.e screen rotation ShakeUtil's onSensorChanged(SensorEvent event) gets called in the process.. One of the things that happen inside onSensorChanged is a dialog interaction, which gives the error: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Can not perform this action after onSaveInstanceState When the previous happens between MainActivity's onSaveInstanceState and onPause. I know this can be prevented if I successfully detect that MainActivity is being pause in ShakeUtil. How can I detect that MainActivity is being paused or onSaveInstanceState was called from ShakeUtil? Alternatively, how can I avoid this issue without making Shakeutil extend activity? So far I have tried with flag variables but that isn't good enough, I guess these are not atomic operations. I tried using Activity's isChangingConfigurations(), but I get an undocummented "NoSuchMethodFound" error.. I am unregistering the sensors by calling ShakeUtil when onPause in main ACtivity