Save serializable object to persistent storage (android)

I need to store a complex custom object in persistent storage to keep the user's game progress in my application. Object and every object inside this object implementsSerializable

I am calling using load and save methods to pass the object between activities. I also call the method Save

onStop()

to save the object when the app is closed / destroyed. It works great.

 public static Game Load(Context context){
    try{
        FileInputStream fis = context.openFileInput("player1.data");
        ObjectInputStream is = new ObjectInputStream(fis);
        Game game = (Game) is.readObject();
        is.close();
        fis.close();
        return game;
    }catch (Exception e){
        Log.e("#Load", "creating new game - \n" + e.toString());
        Game newGame = new Game();
        return newGame;
    }
}


public static void Save(Context context,Game game){
    try{
        FileOutputStream fos = context.getApplicationContext().openFileOutput("player1.data", Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        ObjectOutputStream os = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);
        os.writeObject(game);
        os.close();
        fos.close();
    }catch (Exception e){
        Log.e("#Save", "Failed to save - \n" + e.toString());
    }
}

      

        
        
        
      

    

However, if the application is forcibly closed, or closed and destroyed, the object Game

gets confused. On restart, the app will load Game

which was saved onStop()

, but when the object Game

changes / interacts with the user through the app, my app force is closed by the "stopped unexpectedly" message on the phone screen. From looking at the log, I know that when the object is Game

loaded on startup after a force close / destroy, the method Load

returns Game

, not newGame

, so somehow the save / load process between Force Closes something up.

I see the following in the log:

java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'android.content.res.Resources android.content.Context.getResources()' on a null object reference

      

        
        
        
      

    

So, I am convinced that something strange is happening with the use Serializable

, or I am writing it wrong to persistent storage.

My questions are: Do you see something fundamentally wrong with my code? (keep in mind that this code does work, it just doesn't work under the Force Close circumstance)

I was told to use gson/JSON

(?) For my purposes; will this method have better results than Serializable

and how can I use it?

Update . It looks like when the Force stops happening, no methods are called, including onDestroy()

and onStop()

. If so, why isn't my application returning newGame

? Looking at the log while Force Closing, a message that said something about "onSavedInstance not called", what is it?

I have a feeling that I should completely avoid Serializable

...

onCreate snippet

Game game;
 @Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);


    game =  LoadGame.Load(this); //LoadGame is the class which contains Save,Load methods

@Override
protected void onStop() {
    LoadGame.Save(this,game);
    super.onStop();
}