Out of memory error when reloading activity several times

Question

I am developping an app that has a main activity showing the app title (two animated imageviews overlayed), two animated pictures, also overlayed, and three buttons. This activity also has a background image, which is the same that is used by the other activities.

The app flows from one activity to another and, eventually, this main activity is launched again (with the FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP). Everything works fine but, after reloading it several times, an Out Of Memory error happens on my Android 2.1 device.

At first, I had all the images in the drawable folder and the problem appeared after reaching the main activity 5 times. Then, I adjusted the bitmap sizes and put them in the approppriate folders depending on the density and the problem appeared after reaching the main activity 14 times. Now, I just removed the background image for test purposes and the Out Of Memory appears after more than 20 re-launches.

Also, if I press the Home button and then switch back to my app, the problem seems not to appear until much later.

Moreover, I tested the app in a Nexus 5 and the Out Of Memory never happens.

So... is that a problem with my phone? with Android 2.1?

Thanks!

[EDIT] I think that I have located the problem but, still, strange behavior.

For example, at one point, I need to recreate the activity. As the "recreate" method is not available for my min API level (7), I do it as follows:

Intent refresh = new Intent(getActivity(), getActivity().getClass());
refresh.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
startActivity(refresh);  

Which, I think, is correct. I release the onClickListeners and clear the animations in onStop(). However, if I put a breakpoint in onStop(), it is not called when I expect it to happen. Sometimes it is called as soon as the activity is recreated but sometimes it is called several seconds later.

However, if I press the Home button, onStop is properly called and when I switch back to the application everything works fine.

Answer 1

The easiest solution is to add in manifest under application tag

android:largeHeap="true" 

But this is won't solve your problem, just delay it to a few more rounds This link will help you to analyze your application and see what cause this: http://blogs.innovationm.com/android-out-of-memory-error-causes-solution-and-best-practices/

My Guess this is related to images because i had this issue also.. The android official link to this problem is: http://developer.android.com/training/displaying-bitmaps/index.html

This the link that helped me.. Try it out http://developer.android.com/training/displaying-bitmaps/load-bitmap.html

Hope that helps

Answer 2

check this outLoading Large Bitmaps Efficiently

Read Bitmap Dimensions and Type

BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
options.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.id.myimage, options);
int imageHeight = options.outHeight;
int imageWidth = options.outWidth;
String imageType = options.outMimeType;

Load a Scaled Down Version into Memory

public static int calculateInSampleSize(
            BitmapFactory.Options options, int reqWidth, int reqHeight) {
    // Raw height and width of image
    final int height = options.outHeight;
    final int width = options.outWidth;
    int inSampleSize = 1;

    if (height > reqHeight || width > reqWidth) {

        final int halfHeight = height / 2;
        final int halfWidth = width / 2;

        // Calculate the largest inSampleSize value that is a power of 2 and keeps both
        // height and width larger than the requested height and width.
        while ((halfHeight / inSampleSize) >= reqHeight
                && (halfWidth / inSampleSize) >= reqWidth) {
            inSampleSize *= 2;
        }
    }

    return inSampleSize;
}




public static Bitmap decodeSampledBitmapFromResource(Resources res, int resId,
        int reqWidth, int reqHeight) {

    // First decode with inJustDecodeBounds=true to check dimensions
    final BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();
    options.inJustDecodeBounds = true;
    BitmapFactory.decodeResource(res, resId, options);

    // Calculate inSampleSize
    options.inSampleSize = calculateInSampleSize(options, reqWidth, reqHeight);

    // Decode bitmap with inSampleSize set
    options.inJustDecodeBounds = false;
    return BitmapFactory.decodeResource(res, resId, options);
}



imageView.setImageBitmap(
    decodeSampledBitmapFromResource(getResources(), R.id.myimage, 100, 100));