Android SharedPreferences not accessible in Main, other activities are fine?

I have some data saved to my SharedPreferences but when i try to access it in the Main of my app the SharedPreferences file is empty. If i call the same exact code from any of my other Activities i can access the data just fine. any ideas on what the issue could be???

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    SharedPreferences prefs = this.getPreferences(Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
    int test = prefs.getInt("PREF_DIFFICULTY", 0);
}

using the eclipse debugger i can see that the map backing the pref object is empty, but when i view that map from other activities it is full of data...very weird. Here is my manifest just in case it matters.

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="org.dawghouse.dd"
android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0">

<application android:label="@string/app_name" android:icon="@drawable/icon">
    <activity android:name=".activity.Main" android:label="@string/app_name">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
    <activity android:name=".activity.BlockOutgoing" android:label="@string/outgoingTitle" />
    <activity android:name=".activity.BlockIncoming" android:label="@string/incomingTitle" />
    <activity android:name=".activity.TimeManager" android:label="@string/timeManagerTitle" />
    <activity android:name=".activity.Preferences" android:label="@string/preferences" />
</application>

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS" />
</manifest&g开发者_JAVA技巧t;

thanks in advance!!

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Try:

SharedPreferences prefs = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(getBaseContext());

and see if that works better.

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I know the question was already answered correctly, but I figured that I would note for future visitors having the same problem I had: There is a sneaky little .commit() method that has to be tacked onto the end of any SharedPreference edit.

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With getPreferences(mode) you get the default preferences, are you sure you've loaded data to it? Better use getSharedPreferences(name, mode) with name will be a defined string constant.