How to stop an animation (cancel() does not work)

Call clearAnimation() on whichever View you called startAnimation().

On Android 4.4.4, it seems the only way I could stop an alpha fading animation on a View was calling View.animate().cancel() (i.e., calling .cancel() on the View's ViewPropertyAnimator).

Here's the code I'm using for compatibility before and after ICS:

public void stopAnimation(View v) {
    v.clearAnimation();
    if (canCancelAnimation()) {
        v.animate().cancel();
    }
}

... with the method:

/**
 * Returns true if the API level supports canceling existing animations via the
 * ViewPropertyAnimator, and false if it does not
 * @return true if the API level supports canceling existing animations via the
 * ViewPropertyAnimator, and false if it does not
 */
public static boolean canCancelAnimation() {
    return Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH;
}

Here's the animation that I'm stopping:

v.setAlpha(0f);
v.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
// Animate the content view to 100% opacity, and clear any animation listener set on the view.
v.animate()
    .alpha(1f)
    .setDuration(animationDuration)
    .setListener(null);