External allocation too large for this process in Android

Question

I\'m getting \"external allocation too large for this process\" errors in my app. Lots of these at once:

11-16 10:56:59.230: ERROR/dalvikvm-heap(287         


        

Answer 1

If you're using threads, then the debugger might be the source of the problem. If you run the app under the debugger, then any threads created will still be retained by the debugger, even when they're finished running. This leads to memory errors that won't occur when the app is running without the debugger.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=7979

Answer 2

adamp's comment was the answer in my particular case:

The framework will often capture views onscreen into temporary bitmaps for drawing performance. It looks like your app is pushing right up against its memory limit already and this bumps it over. Take a look at the other suggestions for limiting your app's memory usage.