java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget

Question

I am trying to change the layout of my application from portrait to landscape and vice-versa. But if i do it frequently or more than once then at times my application crashes.. Below is the error log. Please suggest what can be done?

 01-06 09:52:27.787: ERROR/dalvikvm-heap(17473): 1550532-byte external allocation too large for this process. 01-06 09:52:27.787: ERROR/dalvikvm(17473): Out of memory: Heap Size=6471KB, Allocated=4075KB, Bitmap Size=9564KB 
 01-06 09:52:27.787: ERROR/(17473): VM won't let us allocate 1550532 bytes 
 01-06 09:52:27.798: DEBUG/skia(17473): --- decoder->decode returned false
 01-06 09:52:27.798: DEBUG/AndroidRuntime(17473): Shutting down VM
 01-06 09:52:27.798: WARN/dalvikvm(17473): threadid=3: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4001e390)
 01-06 09:52:27.807: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473): Uncaught handler: thread main exiting due to uncaught exception
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{}: android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #2: Error inflating class <unknown
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2596) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2621) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleRelaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3812) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$2300(ActivityThread.java:126) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1936) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:123) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4595) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:521) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:860) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:618) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473): Caused by: android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #2: Error inflating class <unknown
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.createView(LayoutInflater.java:513) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneLayoutInflater.onCreateView(PhoneLayoutInflater.java:56) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.createViewFromTag(LayoutInflater.java:563) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:385) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:320) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:276) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.setContentView(PhoneWindow.java:207) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.Activity.setContentView(Activity.java:1629) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at onCreate(Game.java:98)
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1047) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2544) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     ...  12 more
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473): Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.<init>(LinearLayout.java:92) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.constructNative(Native Method)
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:446) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.LayoutInflater.createView(LayoutInflater.java:500) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     ...  22 more
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473): Caused by: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.nativeDecodeAsset(Native Method)
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeStream(BitmapFactory.java:464) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeResourceStream(BitmapFactory.java:340) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromResourceStream(Drawable.java:697) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.content.res.Resources.loadDrawable(Resources.java:1705) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.content.res.TypedArray.getDrawable(TypedArray.java:548) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.View.<init>(View.java:1850) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.View.<init>(View.java:1799) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     at android.view.ViewGroup.<init>(ViewGroup.java:296) 
 01-06 09:52:27.857: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(17473):     ...  26 more 

Answer 1

One of the most common errors that I found developing Android Apps is the

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Bitmap Size Exceeds VM Budget

error. I found this error frequently on Activities using lots of bitmaps after changing orientation: the Activity is destroyed, created again and the layouts are “inflated” from the XML consuming the VM memory available for bitmaps.

Bitmaps on the previous Activity layout are not properly deallocated by the garbage collector because they have crossed references to their activity. After many experiments I found a quite good solution for this problem.

First, set the “id” attribute on the parent view of your XML layout:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>     <RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="fill_parent"         android:id="@+id/RootView">         ... 

Then, on the onDestroy() method of your Activity, call the unbindDrawables() method passing a reference to the parent View and then do a System.gc().

    @Override     protected void onDestroy() {         super.onDestroy();          unbindDrawables(findViewById(R.id.RootView));         System.gc();     }      private void unbindDrawables(View view) {         if (view.getBackground() != null) {             view.getBackground().setCallback(null);         }         if (view instanceof ViewGroup) {             for (int i = 0; i < ((ViewGroup) view).getChildCount(); i++) {                 unbindDrawables(((ViewGroup) view).getChildAt(i));             }             ((ViewGroup) view).removeAllViews();         }     } 

This unbindDrawables() method explores the view tree recursively and:

1. Removes callbacks on all the background drawables
2. Removes childs on every viewgroup

Answer 2

I had got the java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Bitmap Size Exceeds VM Budget error at several times

1) When switching from app and back to the app some time later (Press home button and after browsing some url)

2) When login/logout to app frequently (within 10 seconds)

3) When switching the device horizontally/vertically

Finally I solved the error in following way

    public void clearAllResources() {

    // Set related variables null

    System.gc();
    Runtime.getRuntime().gc();
   }

Answer 3

This is a practical answer, what I tried to avoid this problem at Run-time

Runtime.getRuntime().gc();

Calling Garbage Collector is a good Idea.

Answer 4

Add this line of code to Android Manifest File inside "application" tag: - android:largeHeap="true"

<application
         android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar"
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:largeHeap="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
       >