Android Studio: GC overhead limit exceeded

Question

Error:Execution failed for task ':app:transformClassesWithDexForDebug'.
> java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded

Tried:

dexOptions {
    javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
}

That seems to be the only solution available online.

But still it exceeds the limit on 2nd build, unless I kill the studio task and restart, which makes it work for the 1st time.

Definitely not many dependencies in the build.gradle

build.grade

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 23
    buildToolsVersion "23.0.2"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.xxxxx.android"
        minSdkVersion 16
        targetSdkVersion 23
        versionCode 8
        versionName "1.3"
    }

    dexOptions {
        javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:23.1.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:design:23.1.1'
    compile 'com.jakewharton:butterknife:6.1.0'
    compile 'com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp:2.3.0'
    compile 'com.squareup.okhttp:okhttp-urlconnection:2.3.0'
    compile 'com.squareup.retrofit:retrofit:1.9.0'
    compile 'de.greenrobot:eventbus:2.4.0'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:+'
}

Answer 1

This is a problem of not enough java heap for gradle, not IDE

I increased Java Heap in gradle.properties

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xms1024m -Xmx4096m

Answer 2

Increase the IDE memory (file studio.vmoptions)

http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/configuration

My settings:

-Xms256m
-Xmx3080m
-XX:MaxPermSize=350m
-XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=225m
-XX:+UseCompressedOops

Answer 3

If anyone still facing the issue and there is no impact on increasing the IDE memory and gradle.properties than invalidate cache/restart is the last option for you. In my case it is working after invalidate cache/restart