ionic framework - Clicking the device back button closes the app instead of going back to previous page

Question

If click any ion-item it open the desired page but if i click device back button it close the app rather than going back to previous page in android:

This is my ionic side menu:

<ion-side-menus enable-menu-with-back-views="false">
  <ion-side-menu-content>
    <ion-nav-bar class="bar-positive">
      <ion-nav-back-button></ion-nav-back-button>
      <ion-nav-buttons side="left">
        <button class="button button-icon icon ion-android-menu" menu-toggle="left">
        </button>
      </ion-nav-buttons>
    </ion-nav-bar>
    <ion-nav-view name="menuContent"></ion-nav-view>
  </ion-side-menu-content>

  <ion-side-menu side="left">
    <ion-header-bar class="bar-positive">
      <h1 class="title"></h1>
    </ion-header-bar>
    <ion-content>
      <ion-list>
        <ion-item menu-close ng-click="login()">
          Login
        </ion-item>
        <ion-item menu-close ui-sref="app.search">
          Search
        </ion-item>
        <ion-item menu-close href="#/app/browse">
          Browse
        </ion-item>
        <ion-item menu-close href="#/app/playlists">
          Playlists
        </ion-item>
      </ion-list>
    </ion-content>
  </ion-side-menu>
</ion-side-menus>

Here is app.js :

    .state('app', {
    url: '/app',
    abstract: true,
    templateUrl: 'templates/menu.html',
    controller: 'AppCtrl'
  })

  .state('app.search', {
    url: '/search',
    views: {
      'menuContent': {
        templateUrl: 'templates/search/default.html'
      }
    }
  })
  .state('app.search-form', {
    url: '/search-form',
    views: {
      'menuContent': {
        templateUrl: 'templates/search/search-form.html'
      }
    }
  })

One solution I found:

$ionicHistory.nextViewOptions({        
  disableBack: true,
  historyRoot: true
});      

So when you click a button and going to next page, this will will disable back button.

Answer 1

The default behaviour of the back button is as follows: Go back in history - if the history stack is empty -> exit the app.

So you should check the $state you are in, when you tap the hardware back button.

With the following code (placed in the run function of your module) you can overwrite the default behaviour. For example you can disable the app exit like this:

$ionicPlatform.registerBackButtonAction(function (event) {
  if($state.current.name=="app.home"){
    navigator.app.exitApp(); //<-- remove this line to disable the exit
  }
  else {
    navigator.app.backHistory();
  }
}, 100);

See the documentation for $ionicPlatform.