java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded

@takrl: The default setting for this option is:

java -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC

which means, this option is not active by default. So when you say you used the option "+XX:UseConcMarkSweepGC" I assume you were using this syntax:

java -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC

which means you were explicitly activating this option. For the correct syntax and default settings of Java HotSpot VM Options @ this document

For the record, we had the same problem today. We fixed it by using this option:

-XX:-UseConcMarkSweepGC

Apparently, this modified the strategy used for garbage collection, which made the issue disappear.

The following worked for me. Just add the following snippet:

dexOptions {
        javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
}

To your build.gradle:

android {
    compileSdkVersion 23
    buildToolsVersion '23.0.1'

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "yourpackage"
        minSdkVersion 14
        targetSdkVersion 23
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"

        multiDexEnabled true
    }

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

    packagingOptions {

    }

    dexOptions {
        javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
    }
}

You're essentially running out of memory to run the process smoothly. Options that come to mind:

1. Specify more memory like you mentioned, try something in between like -Xmx512m first
2. Work with smaller batches of HashMap objects to process at once if possible
3. If you have a lot of duplicate strings, use String.intern() on them before putting them into the HashMap
4. Use the HashMap(int initialCapacity, float loadFactor) constructor to tune for your case