Strange out of memory issue while loading an image

Question

I have a list view with a couple of image buttons on each row. When you click the list row, it launches a new activity. I have had to build my own tabs because of an issue with the camera layout. The activity that gets launched for the result is a map. If I click on my button to launch the image preview (load an image off the SD card) the application returns from the activity back to the listview activity to the result handler to relaunch my new activity which is nothing more than an image widget.

The image preview on the list view is being done with the cursor and ListAdapter. This makes it pretty simple, but I am not sure how I can put a resized image (I.e. Smaller bit size not pixel as the src for the image button on the fly. So I just resized the image that came off the phone camera.

The issue is that I get an out of memory error when it tries to go back and re-launch the 2nd activity.

• Is there a way I can build the list adapter easily row by row, where I can resize on the fly (bit wise)?

This would be preferable as I also need to make some changes to the properties of the widgets/elements in each row as I am unable to select a row with the touch screen because of the focus issue. (I can use roller ball.)

• I know I can do an out of band resize and save of my image, but that is not really what I want to do, but some sample code for that would be nice.

As soon as I disabled the image on the list view it worked fine again.

FYI: This is how I was doing it:

String[] from = new String[] { DBHelper.KEY_BUSINESSNAME,DBHelper.KEY_ADDRESS,DBHelper.KEY_CITY,DBHelper.KEY_GPSLONG,DBHelper.KEY_GPSLAT,DBHelper.KEY_IMAGEFILENAME  + ""};
int[] to = new int[] {R.id.businessname,R.id.address,R.id.city,R.id.gpslong,R.id.gpslat,R.id.imagefilename };
notes = new SimpleCursorAdapter(this, R.layout.notes_row, c, from, to);
setListAdapter(notes);

Where R.id.imagefilename is a ButtonImage.

Here is my LogCat:

01-25 05:05:49.877: ERROR/dalvikvm-heap(3896): 6291456-byte external allocation too large for this process.
01-25 05:05:49.877: ERROR/(3896): VM wont let us allocate 6291456 bytes
01-25 05:05:49.877: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896): Uncaught handler: thread main exiting due to uncaught exception
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896): java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.nativeDecodeStream(Native Method)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeStream(BitmapFactory.java:304)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeFile(BitmapFactory.java:149)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeFile(BitmapFactory.java:174)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromPath(Drawable.java:729)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.ImageView.resolveUri(ImageView.java:484)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.ImageView.setImageURI(ImageView.java:281)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.SimpleCursorAdapter.setViewImage(SimpleCursorAdapter.java:183)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.SimpleCursorAdapter.bindView(SimpleCursorAdapter.java:129)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.CursorAdapter.getView(CursorAdapter.java:150)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.AbsListView.obtainView(AbsListView.java:1057)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.ListView.makeAndAddView(ListView.java:1616)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.ListView.fillSpecific(ListView.java:1177)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.ListView.layoutChildren(ListView.java:1454)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.AbsListView.onLayout(AbsListView.java:937)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:5611)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.setChildFrame(LinearLayout.java:1119)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.layoutHorizontal(LinearLayout.java:1108)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.onLayout(LinearLayout.java:922)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:5611)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:294)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:5611)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.setChildFrame(LinearLayout.java:1119)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.layoutVertical(LinearLayout.java:999)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.onLayout(LinearLayout.java:920)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:5611)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.widget.FrameLayout.onLayout(FrameLayout.java:294)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.view.View.layout(View.java:5611)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.view.ViewRoot.performTraversals(ViewRoot.java:771)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.view.ViewRoot.handleMessage(ViewRoot.java:1103)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:88)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3742)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:515)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:739)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:497)
01-25 05:05:49.917: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3896):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
01-25 05:10:01.127: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3943): ERROR: thread attach failed 

I also have a new error when displaying an image:

01-25 22:13:18.594: DEBUG/skia(4204): xxxxxxxxxxx jpeg error 20 Improper call to JPEG library in state %d
01-25 22:13:18.604: INFO/System.out(4204): resolveUri failed on bad bitmap uri: 
01-25 22:13:18.694: ERROR/dalvikvm-heap(4204): 6291456-byte external allocation too large for this process.
01-25 22:13:18.694: ERROR/(4204): VM won't let us allocate 6291456 bytes
01-25 22:13:18.694: DEBUG/skia(4204): xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx allocPixelRef failed

Answer 1

None of the answers above worked for me, but I did come up with a horribly ugly workaround that solved the problem. I added a very small, 1x1 pixel image to my project as a resource, and loaded it into my ImageView before calling into garbage collection. I think it might be that the ImageView was not releasing the Bitmap, so GC never picked it up. It's ugly, but it seems to be working for now.

if (bitmap != null)
{
  bitmap.recycle();
  bitmap = null;
}
if (imageView != null)
{
  imageView.setImageResource(R.drawable.tiny); // This is my 1x1 png.
}
System.gc();

imageView.setImageBitmap(...); // Do whatever you need to do to load the image you want.

Answer 2

My 2 cents: i solved my OOM errors with bitmaps by:

a) scaling my images by a factor of 2

b) using Picasso library in my custom Adapter for a ListView, with a one-call in getView like this: Picasso.with(context).load(R.id.myImage).into(R.id.myImageView);

Answer 3

All the solutions here require setting a IMAGE_MAX_SIZE. This limits devices with more powerful hardware and if the image size is too low it looks ugly on the HD screen.

I came out with a solution that works with my Samsung Galaxy S3 and several other devices including less powerful ones, with better image quality when a more powerful device is used.

The gist of it is to calculate the maximum memory allocated for the app on a particular device, then set the scale to be lowest possible without exceeding this memory. Here's the code:

public static Bitmap decodeFile(File f)
{
    Bitmap b = null;
    try
    {
        // Decode image size
        BitmapFactory.Options o = new BitmapFactory.Options();
        o.inJustDecodeBounds = true;

        FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(f);
        try
        {
            BitmapFactory.decodeStream(fis, null, o);
        }
        finally
        {
            fis.close();
        }

        // In Samsung Galaxy S3, typically max memory is 64mb
        // Camera max resolution is 3264 x 2448, times 4 to get Bitmap memory of 30.5mb for one bitmap
        // If we use scale of 2, resolution will be halved, 1632 x 1224 and x 4 to get Bitmap memory of 7.62mb
        // We try use 25% memory which equals to 16mb maximum for one bitmap
        long maxMemory = Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory();
        int maxMemoryForImage = (int) (maxMemory / 100 * 25);

        // Refer to
        // http://developer.android.com/training/displaying-bitmaps/cache-bitmap.html
        // A full screen GridView filled with images on a device with
        // 800x480 resolution would use around 1.5MB (800*480*4 bytes)
        // When bitmap option's inSampleSize doubled, pixel height and
        // weight both reduce in half
        int scale = 1;
        while ((o.outWidth / scale) * (o.outHeight / scale) * 4 > maxMemoryForImage)
        scale *= 2;

        // Decode with inSampleSize
        BitmapFactory.Options o2 = new BitmapFactory.Options();
        o2.inSampleSize = scale;
        fis = new FileInputStream(f);
        try
        {
            b = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(fis, null, o2);
        }
        finally
        {
            fis.close();
        }
    }
    catch (IOException e)
    {
    }
    return b;
}

I set the maximum memory used by this bitmap to be 25% of maximum allocated memory, you may need to adjust this to your needs and make sure this bitmap is cleaned up and don't stay in memory when you've finished using it. Typically I use this code to perform image rotation (source and destination bitmap) so my app needs to load 2 bitmaps in memory at the same time, and 25% gives me a good buffer without running out of memory when performing image rotation.

Hope this helps someone out there..

Answer 4

Such OutofMemoryException cannot be totally resolved by calling the System.gc() and so on .

By referring to the Activity Life Cycle

The Activity States are determined by the OS itself subject to the memory usage for each process and the priority of each process.

You may consider the size and the resolution for each of the bitmap pictures used. I recommend to reduce the size ,resample to lower resolution , refer to the design of galleries (one small picture PNG , and one original picture.)

Answer 5

It's a known bug, it's not because of large files. Since Android Caches the Drawables, it's going out of memory after using few images. But I've found an alternate way for it, by skipping the android default cache system.

Solution: Move the images to "assets" folder and use the following function to get BitmapDrawable:

public static Drawable getAssetImage(Context context, String filename) throws IOException {
    AssetManager assets = context.getResources().getAssets();
    InputStream buffer = new BufferedInputStream((assets.open("drawable/" + filename + ".png")));
    Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(buffer);
    return new BitmapDrawable(context.getResources(), bitmap);
}

Answer 6

It seems that this is a very long running problem, with a lot of differing explanations. I took the advice of the two most common presented answers here, but neither one of these solved my problems of the VM claiming it couldn't afford the bytes to perform the decoding part of the process. After some digging I learned that the real problem here is the decoding process taking away from the NATIVE heap.

See here: BitmapFactory OOM driving me nuts

That lead me to another discussion thread where I found a couple more solutions to this problem. One is to callSystem.gc(); manually after your image is displayed. But that actually makes your app use MORE memory, in an effort to reduce the native heap. The better solution as of the release of 2.0 (Donut) is to use the BitmapFactory option "inPurgeable". So I simply added o2.inPurgeable=true; just after o2.inSampleSize=scale;.

More on that topic here: Is the limit of memory heap only 6M?

Now, having said all of this, I am a complete dunce with Java and Android too. So if you think this is a terrible way to solve this problem, you are probably right. ;-) But this has worked wonders for me, and I have found it impossible to run the VM out of heap cache now. The only drawback I can find is that you are trashing your cached drawn image. Which means if you go RIGHT back to that image, you are redrawing it each and every time. In the case of how my application works, that is not really a problem. Your mileage may vary.