Out of memory Exception, when dealing with bitmaps

Question

I am working on an application where i have images being downloaded asynchronously for SlideShows. One SlideShow contains 10 slides, hence 10 images are downloaded when slideshow is opened. After i scroll through 10-15 slideshows approximately i start getting memory warning and following Exception in the trace and app crashes.

Here is the trace:

12-23 12:23:53.124: ERROR/dalvikvm-heap(3067): 45850-byte external allocation too large for this process.
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/dalvikvm(3067): Out of memory: Heap Size=13127KB, Allocated=11913KB, Bitmap Size=11407KB
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/GraphicsJNI(3067): VM won't let us allocate 45850 bytes
12-23 12:23:53.134: DEBUG/skia(3067): --- decoder->decode returned false
12-23 12:23:53.134: WARN/dalvikvm(3067): threadid=46: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x400259f8)
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067): FATAL EXCEPTION: Thread-1016
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067): java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.nativeDecodeStream(Native Method)
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeStream(BitmapFactory.java:468)
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067):     at android.graphics.BitmapFactory.decodeResourceStream(BitmapFactory.java:332)
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067):     at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromResourceStream(Drawable.java:697)
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067):     at android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.createFromStream(Drawable.java:657)
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067):     at com.nbcu.myApp.appsupport.AsyncImageLoader.loadImageFromUrl(AsyncImageLoader.java:98)
12-23 12:23:53.134: ERROR/AndroidRuntime(3067):     at com.nbcu.myApp.appsupport.AsyncImageLoader$2.run(AsyncImageLoader.java:70)
12-23 12:23:53.154: WARN/ActivityManager(96):   Force finishing activity com.nbcu.myApp.activities/com.nbcu.myApp.controllers.StoriesListController
12-23 12:23:53.224: ERROR/dalvikvm-heap(3067): 45850-byte external allocation too large for this process.
12-23 12:23:53.234: DEBUG/SurfaceFlinger(96): Layer::setBuffers(this=0x2fabc0), pid=96, w=1, h=1
12-23 12:23:53.234: ERROR/dalvikvm(3067): Out of memory: Heap Size=13127KB, Allocated=11948KB, Bitmap Size=11407KB
12-23 12:23:53.234: ERROR/GraphicsJNI(3067): VM won't let us allocate 45850 bytes
12-23 12:23:53.234: ERROR/Error(3067): Message = java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget

The code where images are being downloaded is:

public void run() {

        Looper.prepare();
        for (int i = 0; i < slides.size(); i++) {
            try {

                final SlideShowItem story = slides.get(i);
                if (story.getImage() == null) {
                    Drawable cachedImage = Utils.database.getRSSImage(Constants.StoriesTable, story.getItemId());

                    if (cachedImage != null) {
                        story.setImage(cachedImage);

                    } else {
                        cachedImage = asyncImageLoader.loadDrawable(story.getImagePath(), new ImageCallback() {
                            public void imageLoaded(Drawable imageDrawable, String imageUrl) {


                                story.setImage(imageDrawable);
                                Utils.database.storeRSSItemImage(Constants.StoriesTable, imageDrawable, story.getItemId());
                            }
                        });
                    }
                }

                Thread.sleep(500);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        Looper.loop();
    }

Code for loadDrawable() is:

public Drawable loadDrawable(final String imageUrl, final ImageCallback imageCallback) {

    final Handler handler = new Handler() {

        public void handleMessage(Message message) {

            imageCallback.imageLoaded((Drawable) message.obj, imageUrl);
        }
    };
    new Thread() {

        public void run() {

                Drawable drawable = loadImageFromUrl(imageUrl);
                // System.out.println("image url: " + imageUrl);
                if (drawable != null)
                {
                    Message message = handler.obtainMessage(0, drawable);
                    handler.sendMessage(message);
                }
        }

    }.start();
    return null;
}

and the code for loadImageFromURL() is:

  public static Drawable loadImageFromUrl(String url) {

    Drawable image = null;

    try {
        InputStream in = (java.io.InputStream) new java.net.URL(url).getContent();
        if (in != null) {
            image = Drawable.createFromStream(in, "image");
        }
        in.close();

    } catch (Exception ex) {
        // ex.printStackTrace();
        Log.v("Exception ", "Asyn Image.In LoadImageFromURL Message: " + ex.toString());

    }
    return image;
}

Once images are downloaded they are cached. I am unable to find a workaround to avoid this exception. what could be the reason? I have also tried setting image views null when activity is destroyed but it has done nothing for me? Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Android is a Mobile OS. It has a limited memory, so, you cannot cache all the slides.size(). I assume the size > 15. For example, im running a FastCV algorithm with a HD image as markers, 250000 x 180000 pixels and if i run the program on pc, work fine, if i do it on the mobile phone dont, because the memory is not enough.

I think you can solve the problem, if only caché 10 - 15 images, depends the size of them. If scroll, then cache new one in the memory already used.