Android Studio Google JAR file causing GC overhead limit exceeded error

Question

I am using Android Studio on OS X. I am getting this error message:

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

• What went wrong: Execution failed for task ':app:preDexDebug'. com.android.ide.common.internal.LoggedErrorException: Failed to run command: /Applications/Android Studio.app/sdk/build-tools/android-4.4W/dx --dex --output /Users/alex/AndroidStudioProjects/SilentSMS/app/build/intermediates/pre-dexed/debug/android-4.3_r2.1-f22bbff4d1017230e169a4844a9c2195f13060d2.jar /Users/alex/AndroidStudioProjects/SilentSMS/app/libs/android-4.3_r2.1.jar

  Error Code: 3 Output:

  UNEXPECTED TOP-LEVEL ERROR:
  java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.RopperMachine.getSources(RopperMachine.java:665)
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.RopperMachine.run(RopperMachine.java:288)
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.Simulator$SimVisitor.visitLocal(Simulator.java:612)
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.BytecodeArray.parseInstruction(BytecodeArray.java:412)
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.Simulator.simulate(Simulator.java:94)
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.Ropper.processBlock(Ropper.java:782)
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.Ropper.doit(Ropper.java:737)
      at com.android.dx.cf.code.Ropper.convert(Ropper.java:346)
      at com.android.dx.dex.cf.CfTranslator.processMethods(CfTranslator.java:282)
      at com.android.dx.dex.cf.CfTranslator.translate0(CfTranslator.java:139)
      at com.android.dx.dex.cf.CfTranslator.translate(CfTranslator.java:94)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processClass(Main.java:682)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processFileBytes(Main.java:634)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.access$600(Main.java:78)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main$1.processFileBytes(Main.java:572)
      at com.android.dx.cf.direct.ClassPathOpener.processArchive(ClassPathOpener.java:284)
      at com.android.dx.cf.direct.ClassPathOpener.processOne(ClassPathOpener.java:166)
      at com.android.dx.cf.direct.ClassPathOpener.process(ClassPathOpener.java:144)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processOne(Main.java:596)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.processAllFiles(Main.java:498)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.runMonoDex(Main.java:264)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.run(Main.java:230)
      at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.main(Main.java:199)
      at com.android.dx.command.Main.main(Main.java:103)

I am using this library:

http://grepcode.com/snapshot/repository.grepcode.com/java/ext/com.google.android/android/4.3_r2.1/

I pulled the JAR file and added it to my project - the project I am trying to build is:

https://github.com/domi007/silentSMS/

I understand it is because my xms and xmx values are too low. I increased them in:

/Applications/Android Studio.app/bin/idea.vmoptions so that it now says:

-Xms256m
-Xmx1024m

However, I still get the error. What could this be caused by? Apart from the silentSMS app being an Eclipse project and me porting the code over to Android Studio I haven't changed anything. In terms of Android Studio spotting errors - it doesn't, and everything else looks fine.

Answer 1

I think there's a separate way to raise the heap limit of the dexing operation. Add this to your android closure in your build.gradle file:

dexOptions {
    javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
}

and see if that helps.

(idea courtesy of this answer from Scott Barta)

Answer 2

In my case, to increase the heap-size looks like this:

Using Android Studio 1.1.0

android {
    dexOptions {
        incremental true
        javaMaxHeapSize "2048M"
    }
}

Put the above code in your Build.gradle file.

Answer 3

This new issue is caused by the latest version of Android.

Go to your project root folder, open gradle.properties, and add the following options:

org.gradle.daemon=true

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8

org.gradle.parallel=true

org.gradle.configureondemand=true

Then add these changes in your build.gradle file:

dexOptions {
        incremental = true
        preDexLibraries = false
        javaMaxHeapSize "4g" // 2g should be also OK
}

Answer 4

Android Studio 3.5.3

Find the Memory Settings (Cmd + Shift + A on Mac or click on Help and start typing "Memory Settings") under Preferences/ Settings and increase the IDE Heap Size and/ or the Daemon Heap Size to your satisfaction

Answer 5

I disable my Instant Run by:

Menu Preference → Build → Instant Run "Enable Instant Run to hot swap code"

I guess it is the Instant Run that makes the build slow and creates a large size pidXXX.hprof file which causes the AndroidStudio gc overhead limit exceeded.

(My device SDK is 19.)

Answer 6

For me non of the answers worked I saw here worked. I guessed that having the CPU work extremely hard makes the computer hot. After I closed programs that consume large amounts of CPU (like chrome) and cooling down my laptop the problem disappeared.

For reference: I had the CPU on 96%-97% and Memory usage over 2,000,000K by a java.exe process (which was actually gradle related process).

Answer 7

Add this to build.gradle file

dexOptions {
   javaMaxHeapSize "2g"
}

Answer 8

4g is a bit overkill, if you do not want to change buildGradle you can use FILE -> Invalid caches / restart.

Thats work fine for me ...

Answer 9

I forced closed all Java.exe from taskmanger, restarted Android Studio and it worked for me

Answer 10

I'm using Android Studio 3.4 and the only thing that worked for me was to remove the following lines from my build.gradle file:

minifyEnabled true
proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'

Because Android Studio 3.4 is using R8 in full mode and is not direct compatible with Proguard

Answer 11

in my case, I Edit my gradle.properties :

note: if u enable the minifyEnabled true :

remove this line :

android.enableR8=true

and add this lines in ur build.gradle , android block :

  dexOptions {
        incremental = true
        preDexLibraries = false
        javaMaxHeapSize "4g" // 2g should be also OK
    }

hope this help some one :)

Answer 12

At some point a duplicate copy of apply plugin: 'com.android.application' got added to my build gradle. Removing the duplicate copy and making sure all my apply plugins were at the top fixed the issue for me.

Answer 13

I tried all the solutions mentioned above, but I was still facing the issue. Finally I stumbled upon the following which resolved the issue.

(On MacOS) Went to Preferences -> Memory Settings -> Find existing grade demon(s) -> Stopped all of them.