diff --git a/services/core/java/com/android/server/am/ActivityManagerService.java b/services/core/java/com/android/server/am/ActivityManagerService.java
index b1aea1fca0778..c27ec6f107f29 100644
--- a/services/core/java/com/android/server/am/ActivityManagerService.java
+++ b/services/core/java/com/android/server/am/ActivityManagerService.java
@@ -455,6 +455,12 @@ public class ActivityManagerService extends IActivityManager.Stub
     // before we decide it must be hung.
     static final int CONTENT_PROVIDER_PUBLISH_TIMEOUT = 10*1000;
 
+    /**
+     * How long we wait for an provider to be published. Should be longer than
+     * {@link #CONTENT_PROVIDER_PUBLISH_TIMEOUT}.
+     */
+    static final int CONTENT_PROVIDER_WAIT_TIMEOUT = 20 * 1000;
+
     // How long we wait for a launched process to attach to the activity manager
     // before we decide it's never going to come up for real, when the process was
     // started with a wrapper for instrumentation (such as Valgrind) because it
@@ -7374,6 +7380,7 @@ public class ActivityManagerService extends IActivityManager.Stub
         ContentProviderRecord cpr;
         ContentProviderConnection conn = null;
         ProviderInfo cpi = null;
+        boolean providerRunning = false;
 
         synchronized(this) {
             long startTime = SystemClock.uptimeMillis();
@@ -7413,8 +7420,6 @@ public class ActivityManagerService extends IActivityManager.Stub
                 }
             }
 
-            boolean providerRunning = false;
-
             if (cpr != null && cpr.proc != null) {
                 providerRunning = !cpr.proc.killed;
 
@@ -7739,6 +7744,7 @@ public class ActivityManagerService extends IActivityManager.Stub
         }
 
         // Wait for the provider to be published...
+        final long timeout = SystemClock.uptimeMillis() + CONTENT_PROVIDER_WAIT_TIMEOUT;
         synchronized (cpr) {
             while (cpr.provider == null) {
                 if (cpr.launchingApp == null) {
@@ -7753,13 +7759,22 @@ public class ActivityManagerService extends IActivityManager.Stub
                     return null;
                 }
                 try {
+                    final long wait = Math.max(0L, timeout - SystemClock.uptimeMillis());
                     if (DEBUG_MU) Slog.v(TAG_MU,
                             "Waiting to start provider " + cpr
-                            + " launchingApp=" + cpr.launchingApp);
+                            + " launchingApp=" + cpr.launchingApp + " for " + wait + " ms");
                     if (conn != null) {
                         conn.waiting = true;
                     }
-                    cpr.wait();
+                    cpr.wait(wait);
+                    if (cpr.provider == null) {
+                        Slog.wtf(TAG, "Timeout waiting for provider "
+                                + cpi.applicationInfo.packageName + "/"
+                                + cpi.applicationInfo.uid + " for provider "
+                                + name
+                                + " providerRunning=" + providerRunning);
+                        return null;
+                    }
                 } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                 } finally {
                     if (conn != null) {