SoftReferences are freed too early [36933020]

WAI

Bug

Status Update

No update yet.

Description

ca...@gmail.com

created issue #1

Sep 13, 2011 05:17PM

SoftReferences are freed too early. Technically, Android's implementation is in compliance with JVM requirements (which only state that SoftReferences must be freed before an OutOfMemory condition occurs), but it would be much better if Android behaved more like other JVMs and freed soft references only when there is memory pressure. Currently, Android clears SoftReferences with little to no memory pressure, causes SoftReference-based caching (which is very common) to not work as desired (the cache is almost always empty due to cleared SoftReferences, causing constant regeneration).

See this discussion on the Android Developers mailing list for more information, including source code references in AOSP:

https://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/ebabb0dadf38acc1

A test of SoftReferences which shows them getting freed too early can be found at:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4014033/android-the-gc-doesnt-respect-softreferences

This bug still exists as of Android 2.3.4.

Comments

je...@google.com <je...@google.com> #2Oct 19, 2011 08:48PM

Hi, I have the same error in my app. It seems the error occurs only on some LG devices with Android 4.1

ca...@gmail.com <ca...@gmail.com> #3Oct 20, 2011 06:50PM

Same here: developer console reports Android 4.1 on LG Optimus L3 II (vee3e)

li...@gmail.com <li...@gmail.com> #4Nov 25, 2011 08:05PM

Same here, Android 4.1, LG Optimus L9 (u2)

je...@google.com <je...@google.com> Nov 29, 2011 07:16PM

Status: Won't Fix (Intended Behavior)

ri...@gmail.com <ri...@gmail.com> #5Jan 20, 2012 04:04PM

Hello,
I have an LG Optimus L9 Android 4.1 and I have the same error in my app.

If I try in emulator with same version of android everything works fine!!!

The problem in on LG

m....@gmail.com <m....@gmail.com> #6Mar 23, 2012 10:42AM

See many error reports from Google Play about this issue, all are from LG devices.
Do you guy have any workarounds for this problem?
And Google, why do u ignore this issue? Many people can't use feature hidden in overflow button right now...

m....@gmail.com <m....@gmail.com> #7Mar 23, 2012 10:48AM

It seems there is a workaround here :

http://developer.lge.com/community/forums/RetrieveForumContent.dev?detailContsId=FC29190703

@Override
public boolean onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event) {
if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_MENU){
openOptionsMenu();
return true;
}
return super.onKeyDown(keyCode, event);
}

jl...@gmail.com <jl...@gmail.com> #8Mar 23, 2012 10:51AM

#6: Note that `Activity.openOptionsMenu()` might work on those affected LG devices (I haven't tried), but it generally won't work with AppCompat (it's a no-op).

A potential solution may be to catch the NPE `onKeyUp()` and then call `openOptionsMenu()` there. If going that route, no need to override `onKeyDown()` either.

m....@gmail.com <m....@gmail.com> #9Mar 23, 2012 02:23PM

@5 - it looks like this is a bug with LG's customised version of Android. There's nothing this website can do here to help if a manufacturer chooses to do something that introduces bugs on their devices only.

m....@gmail.com <m....@gmail.com> #10Mar 23, 2012 02:25PM

@8 - it looks that the bug is related to the latest appcompat library v7.
I developed an application that was working fine with older versions of the library, but after I upgraded the application source code including the revision 21 of the appcompat I started to receive lots of NPE from LG devices with hardware option button.

So the NPE was caused by the new Appcompat library, which indicates that Google did not perform any regression tests on these devices.

Why older versions of Appcompat works well with LG phones?

Note that no one from Google team has yet provided any answer, which is really unprofessional.

jl...@gmail.com <jl...@gmail.com> #11Mar 23, 2012 02:37PM

@9 The fact that only LG devices are affected is proof that it is a bug made by LG. The appcompat library is not device-specific, so how could this be considered Google's problem if their implementation works fine on thousands of other devices? Google should be allowed to alter the implementation of the appcompat library without having to worry about bugs that LG and other OEMs introduced in their code.

m....@gmail.com <m....@gmail.com> #12Mar 23, 2012 03:08PM

agree with #10 but Google is the only one can help developers to fix this problem. If they don't fix then many many many Android users can't use menu button anymore.