Instead of using a PreferenceActivity to directly load preferences, use an AppCompatActivity or equivalent that loads a PreferenceFragmentCompat that loads your preferences. It's part of the support library (now Android Jetpack) and provides compatibility back to API 14.
In your build.gradle, add a dependency for the preference support library:
dependencies {
// ...
implementation "androidx.preference:preference:1.0.0-alpha1"
}
Note: We're going to assume you have your preferences XML already created.
For your activity, create a new activity class. If you're using material themes, you should extend an AppCompatActivity, but you can be flexible with this:
public class MyPreferencesActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.my_preferences_activity)
if (savedInstanceState == null) {
getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction()
.replace(R.id.fragment_container, MyPreferencesFragment())
.commitNow()
}
}
}
Now for the important part: create a fragment that loads your preferences from XML:
public class MyPreferencesFragment extends PreferenceFragmentCompat {
@Override
public void onCreatePreferences(Bundle savedInstanceState, String rootKey) {
setPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.my_preferences_fragment); // Your preferences fragment
}
}
For more information, read the Android Developers docs for PreferenceFragmentCompat.