Android: out of memory exception in Gallery

Here are some advices:

1. Do you use inSampleSize option? It reduces memory consumption if you scale images. Strange out of memory issue while loading an image to a Bitmap object

2. You should call Bitmap.recycle() when you don't need images any more. I think it's important in your case. Android: OutofMemoryError: bitmap size exceeds VM budget with no reason I can see

The images are fetched from the Web, each ranging from 300K to 500K in size, and stored in an arrayList of Drawables.

The kb file size of the image you're loading from the web isn't directly relevant. Since they're converted into bitmaps you need to calculate width * height * 4 bytes per image for regular ARGB images. (width and height in px).

The bitmaps consume native heap, which usually doesn't show in a hprof. The hprof should only show you the number of objects, i.e. BitmapDrawables or Bitmaps that are left.

I use this code in my app to output the current used memory used by the app and native heap:

public static void logHeap(Class clazz) {
    Double allocated = new Double(Debug.getNativeHeapAllocatedSize())/new Double((1048576));
    Double available = new Double(Debug.getNativeHeapSize())/1048576.0);
    Double free = new Double(Debug.getNativeHeapFreeSize())/1048576.0);
    DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat();
    df.setMaximumFractionDigits(2);
    df.setMinimumFractionDigits(2);

    Log.d(APP, "debug. =================================");
    Log.d(APP, "debug.heap native: allocated " + df.format(allocated) + "MB of " + df.format(available) + "MB (" + df.format(free) + "MB free) in [" + clazz.getName().replaceAll("com.myapp.android.","") + "]");
    Log.d(APP, "debug.memory: allocated: " + df.format(new Double(Runtime.getRuntime().totalMemory()/1048576)) + "MB of " + df.format(new Double(Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory()/1048576))+ "MB (" + df.format(new Double(Runtime.getRuntime().freeMemory()/1048576)) +"MB free)");
    System.gc();
    System.gc();

    // don't need to add the following lines, it's just an app specific handling in my app        
    if (allocated>=(new Double(Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory())/new Double((1048576))-MEMORY_BUFFER_LIMIT_FOR_RESTART)) {
        android.os.Process.killProcess(android.os.Process.myPid());
    }
}

which I call when starting or finishing an activity during development.

logHeap(this.getClass());

Here are some informative links - generally there are lots of threads about this topic on here.

• Bitmaps in Android
• Android: Eclipse MAT does not appear to show all my app's objects

Here's also a useful slide by Romain Guy (Android Framework engineer) about soft references, weak references, simple caches, image handling: http://docs.huihoo.com/google/io/2009/Th_0230_TurboChargeYourUI-HowtomakeyourAndroidUIfastandefficient.pdf