microg/GmsCore · error · IllegalArgumentException

No geofence has been added to this request.

Error message

No geofence has been added to this request.

What it means

GeofencingRequest.Builder.build() throws IllegalArgumentException when no geofence was added via addGeofence()/addGeofences() before building. The initial trigger may be 0, but at least one geofence is mandatory.

Source

Thrown at play-services-location/src/main/java/com/google/android/gms/location/GeofencingRequest.java:148

         *
         * @param initialTrigger the notification behavior. It's a bit-wise of {@link GeofencingRequest#INITIAL_TRIGGER_ENTER} and/or
         *                       {@link GeofencingRequest#INITIAL_TRIGGER_EXIT} and/or {@link GeofencingRequest#INITIAL_TRIGGER_DWELL}. When
         *                       {@code initialTrigger} is set to 0 ({@code setInitialTrigger(0)}), initial trigger would be disabled.
         * @return the builder object itself for method chaining
         */
        public GeofencingRequest.Builder setInitialTrigger(@InitialTrigger int initialTrigger) {
            this.initialTrigger = initialTrigger;
            return this;
        }

        /**
         * Builds the {@link GeofencingRequest} object.
         *
         * @return a {@link GeofencingRequest} object
         * @throws IllegalArgumentException if no geofence has been added to this list
         */
        public GeofencingRequest build() {
            if (geofences.isEmpty()) throw new IllegalArgumentException("No geofence has been added to this request.");
            GeofencingRequest request = new GeofencingRequest();
            request.geofences = geofences;
            request.initialTrigger = initialTrigger;
            return request;
        }
    }

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "GeofencingRequest[geofences=" + this.geofences + ", initialTrigger=" + this.initialTrigger + ", tag=" + this.tag + ", attributionTag=" + this.contextAttributionTag + "]";
    }

    public static final Creator<GeofencingRequest> CREATOR = new AutoCreator<>(GeofencingRequest.class);
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 157c9d86ac)

Solutions

1. Ensure at least one addGeofence() succeeds before calling build()
2. Check the fence collection size and skip registration (or surface a user error) when empty
3. Fix upstream null/type errors that prevented geofences from being added

Example fix

// before
GeofencingRequest request = new GeofencingRequest.Builder().build(); // throws if empty
// after
if (fenceList.isEmpty()) {
    return; // nothing to register
}
GeofencingRequest.Builder rb = new GeofencingRequest.Builder();
for (Geofence f : fenceList) rb.addGeofence(f);
GeofencingRequest request = rb.build();

if (fenceCount == 0) { Log.w(TAG, "No geofences to register"); return; }
GeofencingRequest request = builder.build();

try { return builder.build(); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("No geofence")) { return null; // or signal empty request upstream } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling build() without any successful addGeofence()/addGeofences() call, or after all addGeofence calls were skipped due to null/type errors upstream.

Common situations: Dynamically assembling fences from user data where all entries were filtered out; exception during addGeofence silently caught, leaving the builder empty; calling build() in a code path that assumed fences existed.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• invalid radius:
• invalid latitude:
• invalid longitude:
• Transition types not set.
• Non-negative loitering delay needs to be set when transition

AI-assisted analysis of microg/GmsCore@157c9d86ac (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/87a153ad57bf2bd9. Report an issue: GitHub.