Android Memory Usage Problem on possibly using Act

Question

Android Memory Usage Problem on possibly using ActivityGroup

This is a little bit long story that i ended up messing with memory problems. I developed very deep android application by using very amount of Activities and Frameworks. First of all I have to say I used ActivityGroups for main categories to handle activities easily. And I can achieve all activities via getLocalActivityManager(). And I get this error message:

02-25 11:34:13.749:
ERROR/dalvikvm-heap(3042):
2764800-byte external allocation too
large for this process.

02-25 11:34:13.749:
ERROR/GraphicsJNI(3042): VM won't let
us allocate 2764800 bytes

then my application will crash with various exceptions, eg;

02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.turkcell.seyahat/com.matriksdata.ui.schedule.MessageDetail}: android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #2: Error inflating class <unknown>
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2663)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.ActivityThread.startActivityNow(ActivityThread.java:2503)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.LocalActivityManager.moveToState(LocalActivityManager.java:127)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.LocalActivityManager.startActivity(LocalActivityManager.java:339)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.matriksdata.app.XActivityGroup.goForward(XActivityGroup.java:122)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.matriksdata.ui.parents.ScheduleActivityGroup.goForward(ScheduleActivityGroup.java:143)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.matriksdata.ui.schedule.MessageBox.onItemClick(MessageBox.java:81)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.widget.AdapterView.performItemClick(AdapterView.java:284)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.widget.ListView.performItemClick(ListView.java:3730)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.widget.AbsListView$PerformClick.run(AbsListView.java:1808)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:587)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4627)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:871)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:629)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042): Caused by: android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #2: Error inflating class <unknown>
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.createView(LayoutInflater.java:513)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneLayoutInflater.onCreateView(PhoneLayoutInflater.java:56)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.createViewFromTag(LayoutInflater.java:563)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:385)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:320)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:276)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.setContentView(PhoneWindow.java:210)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.Activity.setContentView(Activity.java:1647)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at com.matriksdata.ui.schedule.MessageDetail.onCreate(MessageDetail.java:33)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2627)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     ... 18 more
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042): Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.<init>(LinearLayout.java:115)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.constructNative(Native Method)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:446)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.createView(LayoutInflater.java:500)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     ... 28 more
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042): Caused by: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.Bitmap.nativeCreate(Native Method)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.Bitmap.createBitmap(Bitmap.java:468)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.Bitmap.createBitmap(Bitmap.java:435)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(Bitmap.java:340)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.finishDecode(BitmapFactory.java:590)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeStream(BitmapFactory.java:564)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeResourceStream(BitmapFactory.java:425)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromResourceStream(Drawable.java:697)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.content.res.Resources.loadDrawable(Resources.java:1709)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.content.res.TypedArray.getDrawable(TypedArray.java:601)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.View.<init>(View.java:1885)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.View.<init>(View.java:1834)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     at android.view.ViewGroup.<init>(ViewGroup.java:285)
02-25 11:34:13.772: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3042):     ... 32 more

Of course i don’t have 2764800 byte png image, but i think its decoded size. So i thought that i had image handling problems and i checked and fixed my project in every detail to handle images correctly. I checked everything described in android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/01/avoiding-memory-leaks.html . I checked null drawables, i follow model reusability instructions, i changed loading methods described in : stackoverflow.com/questions/477572/android-strange-out-of-memory-issue/823966#823966.

Also i have few bitmaps to load from disk. My all layouts created by android xml layout files. I have plenty of bitmaps described in xml files also.

Then i saw that i have big static classes in application with memory analyzer. i freed that static properties by loading on demand and freeing after used. So finally i got this memory leak suspects in MAT;

Problem Suspect 1

3,043 instances of "java.lang.Class", loaded by "" occupy 871,304 (17.97%) bytes.

Biggest instances:
class com.ibm.icu4jni.util.Resources$DefaultTimeZones @ 0x4014c3b0 - 166,768 (3.44%) bytes.
class android.text.Html$HtmlParser @ 0x400fe448 - 126,592 (2.61%) bytes.
class com.google.googlenav.proto.GmmMessageTypes @ 0x4835d450 - 56,944 (1.17%) bytes.
class org.apache.harmony.luni.internal.net.www.protocol.http.HttpConnectionPool @ 0x47caea20 - 51,872 (1.07%) bytes.
class org.apache.harmony.security.fortress.Services @ 0x4008c4d0 - 51,456 (1.06%) bytes.

Problem Suspect 2

8,721 instances of 'java.lang.String', loaded by 'system class loader' occupy 549,624 (11.33%) bytes. 

Keywords
java.lang.String

Problem Suspect 3

60 instances of "org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.X509CertificateObject", loaded by "system class loader" occupy 300,024 (10.76%) bytes. These instances are referenced from one instance of "java.util.Hashtable$HashtableEntry[]", loaded by "system class loader"

Keywords
org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.X509CertificateObject
java.util.Hashtable$HashtableEntry[]

This third one not occurs every time. Generally when i use memory manager in GalaxyTab.

My biggest Top-level Dominator Classes are these. http://www.matriks.mobi/arge/android/Screen%20shot%202011-02-25%20at%2012.19.08%20PM.png

I have just 2 or 3 activities live and the rest of them are suspended. I get this messages in components report. Of course this is not the explanation that i use just 1.5 MB of ram, because according to memory manager my application uses 48 MB of ram up from about 20 MB.

Possible Memory Waste * Duplicate Strings* Found 0 occurrences of char[] with at least 10 instances having identical content. Total size is 0 bytes.

i think thats not the thing that i want :) hprof file located in http://www.matriks.mobi/arge/android/android5706014442078310727.hprof.zip

I am guessing that i have problem with ActivityGroup class. At least i am keeping activities and activity ids in LocalActivityManager in stacks. But even if i don’t create new activities, and passing between loaded ones, memory increases.

I know this is not the way of searching for leaks, and possibly i have a code based problem causing this memory leaks. But any single idea that i should check will be very very welcome here, because i am kinda stuck here.

Answer 1

Do you use this layout for the rows of a ListView?

Answer 2

I was resetting background image everytime activitygroup created by;

 background.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.background); 

I removed this and left the description in xml, so problem solved. This method causes memory leaks.

Answer 3

Try tracking memory allocations while application is in use.

Also, holding references to Bitmap Drawables can produce memory leaks. When a Drawable is added to View, a circular reference is created. So when you hold a reference to Bitmap drawable, it further holds a reference to a View and this View can never be GCed.

The easiest way to avoid it is to extract a bitmap from a Bitmap Drawable and hold a reference to it, then when Activity is restarted/reloaded, you create new Bitmap Drawables from this bitmaps. This is how a Photostream example works (described at the end): Faster screen orientation change