expo: Android IllegalThreadStateException with SDK 44

Summary

Unfortunately I don’t know where is the problem, I got this error in Google Play Developer Console in 3 different apps, built with EAS and SDK 44. Could it be a problem with expo-updates package?

java.lang.IllegalThreadStateException: 
  at java.lang.Thread.start (Thread.java:872)
  at expo.modules.updates.UpdatesController.initializeDatabaseHandler (UpdatesController.kt:59)
  at expo.modules.updates.UpdatesController.start (UpdatesController.kt:205)
  at expo.modules.updates.UpdatesController$Companion.initialize (UpdatesController.kt:448)
  at expo.modules.updates.UpdatesPackage$createReactNativeHostHandlers$handler$1.onWillCreateReactInstanceManager (UpdatesPackage.kt:41)
  at expo.modules.ReactNativeHostWrapper.createReactInstanceManager (ReactNativeHostWrapper.kt:28)
  at com.facebook.react.ReactNativeHost.getReactInstanceManager (ReactNativeHost.java:39)
  at expo.modules.updates.UpdatesUtils.sendEventToReactNative (UpdatesUtils.kt:139)
  at expo.modules.updates.UpdatesController$start$1.onBackgroundUpdateFinished (UpdatesController.kt:254)
  at expo.modules.updates.loader.LoaderTask$launchRemoteUpdateInBackground$1$1.onFailure (LoaderTask.kt:282)
  at expo.modules.updates.loader.Loader.finishWithError (Loader.kt:142)
  at expo.modules.updates.loader.Loader.access$finishWithError (Loader.kt:18)
  at expo.modules.updates.loader.Loader$start$1.onFailure (Loader.kt:94)
  at expo.modules.updates.loader.FileDownloader$downloadManifest$1.onFailure (FileDownloader.kt:266)
  at expo.modules.updates.loader.FileDownloader$downloadData$1.onFailure (FileDownloader.kt:343)
  at okhttp3.RealCall$AsyncCall.execute (RealCall.java:211)
  at okhttp3.internal.NamedRunnable.run (NamedRunnable.java:32)
  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1167)
  at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run (ThreadPoolExecutor.java:641)
  at java.lang.Thread.run (Thread.java:923)

Managed or bare workflow? If you have ios/ or android/ directories in your project, the answer is bare!

managed

What platform(s) does this occur on?

Android

SDK Version (managed workflow only)

44

Environment

 Expo CLI 5.0.3 environment info:
    System:
      OS: Windows 10 10.0.19043
    Binaries:
      Node: 14.18.1 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
      npm: 8.1.4 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
    IDEs:
      Android Studio: Version     2020.3.0.0 AI-203.7717.56.2031.7621141
    npmPackages:
      babel-preset-expo: 9.0.1 => 9.0.1
      expo: ^44.0.0 => 44.0.0
      react: 17.0.1 => 17.0.1
      react-native: 0.64.3 => 0.64.3
    Expo Workflow: managed

Reproducible demo

This problem occurred on Android 11 and Android 10, with Samsung Galaxy A12, Galaxy A50, Galaxy A71, Galaxy S9, Galaxy S10, Galaxy S20+ 5G.

Command used to build and submit: eas build -p all --profile my-profile --auto-submit

UPDATE: I’ve deployed a new build with expo build:android --no-wait -t app-bundle and I don’t have this problem so maybe the problem is due to EAS build or specifically to expo-updates.