High Memory Usage - AdMob on Android (55 MB)

[Vairavan Srinivasan]

Hello,

   I have a free and paid version of the app. The free version uses a Banner ad at the bottom. The app is simple and has just one activity.

The adview is created using application context and added to the view hierarchy.

• Google Play services SDK version you're integrating with -> com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:10.2.0
• Version of the Google Play services apk installed on your device -> 9.8.75 (470-133986348)
• model and OS version of the device that exhibits the issue -> Emulator, API 25, Skin Nexus 6P
• Your SDK integration code, if relevant

  

  Use case is just to launch the activity and press back to finish the activity ( after the first ad is displayed ) and initiate GC via Android Studio's Memory Monitor and collect memory info.

Paid version (without ad)

                  Pss  Private  Private  SwapPss     Heap     Heap     Heap
                Total    Dirty    Clean    Dirty     Size    Alloc     Free
               ------   ------   ------   ------   ------   ------   ------
 Native Heap    14387    14328        0        0    19968    16386     3581
 Dalvik Heap     2040     1816        0        0     9393     7345     2048
Dalvik Other      773      772        0        0                           
       Stack      408      408        0        0                           
      Ashmem        4        4        0        0                           
   Other dev       12        0       12        0                           
    .so mmap     1422      132      136        0                           
   .apk mmap      376        0       52        0                           
   .ttf mmap       43        0        0        0                           
   .dex mmap     4523       16     3816        0                           
   .oat mmap     2599        0      584        0                           
   .art mmap     2010     1384      256        0                           
  Other mmap       15        4        0        0                           
     Unknown     1517     1516        0        0                           
       TOTAL    30129    20380     4856        0    29361    23731     5629

App Summary
                      Pss(KB)
                       ------
          Java Heap:     3456
        Native Heap:    14328
               Code:     4736
              Stack:      408
           Graphics:        0
      Private Other:     2308
             System:     4893

              TOTAL:    30129       TOTAL SWAP PSS:        0

Objects
              Views:        0         ViewRootImpl:        0
        AppContexts:        1           Activities:        0
             Assets:        2        AssetManagers:        2
      Local Binders:       15        Proxy Binders:       18
      Parcel memory:        5         Parcel count:       22
   Death Recipients:        0      OpenSSL Sockets:        2
           WebViews:        0

SQL
        MEMORY_USED:        0
 PAGECACHE_OVERFLOW:        0          MALLOC_SIZE:       62

 

Free version (with banner ad)  

                  Pss  Private  Private  SwapPss     Heap     Heap     Heap
                Total    Dirty    Clean    Dirty     Size    Alloc     Free
               ------   ------   ------   ------   ------   ------   ------
 Native Heap    30474    30396        0        0    41088    32210     8877
 Dalvik Heap     2531     2232        0        0     9914     7866     2048
Dalvik Other     1302     1300        0        0                           
       Stack      800      800        0        0                           
      Ashmem      160      132        0        0                           
   Other dev       12        0       12        0                           
    .so mmap     1809      148      232        0                           
   .apk mmap    23780       96    21340        0                           
   .ttf mmap       57        0        4        0                           
   .dex mmap     8261       24     7036        0                           
   .oat mmap     4788        0     1684        0                           
   .art mmap     2823     2068      280        0                           
  Other mmap     1077        4     1004        0                           
     Unknown     7251     7248        0        0                           
       TOTAL    85125    44448    31592        0    51002    40076    10925

App Summary
                      Pss(KB)
                       ------
          Java Heap:     4580
        Native Heap:    30396
               Code:    30564
              Stack:      800
           Graphics:        0
      Private Other:     9700
             System:     9085

              TOTAL:    85125       TOTAL SWAP PSS:        0

Objects
              Views:        6         ViewRootImpl:        0
        AppContexts:        1           Activities:        0
             Assets:        3        AssetManagers:        2
      Local Binders:       30        Proxy Binders:       26
      Parcel memory:        8         Parcel count:       32
   Death Recipients:        0      OpenSSL Sockets:        0
           WebViews:        2

SQL
        MEMORY_USED:        0
 PAGECACHE_OVERFLOW:        0          MALLOC_SIZE:       62

    The memory increase for the free app is ~55 MB ( Total Pss ), ~24 MB ( private dirty ) and ~27 MB ( private clean ).

No amount of GC reduces this memory despite the fact that the activity has been destroyed. The meminfo doesn't list any activity.

However, it does claim 6 views and 2 web views. I do call destroy() on my AdView when the activity is destroyed.

   The significant difference come from Native heap & apk mmap. How could i possibly debug this?

At some point my app launches a foreground service and users see this memory usage in running services and i get quite a few low ratings just because of the memory usage.

  Could anyone give some pointers?

- Vairavan

[Ivan Bautista (Mobile Ads SDK Team)]

Hi Vairavan,

To help us investigate further, could you provide us the following:

• Sample app where issue is reproducible 
• Copy of the hprof file for when the leak was encountered
• Code snippets of your Mobile Ads SDK implementaiton

Regards,

Ivan Bautista

Mobile Ads SDK Team

[Vairavan Srinivasan]

Hi Ivan,

   Here is a sample app in GitHub (https://github.com/Ethan1983/TestAdMobAds2). It has a free and paid product flavors, please replace the ad unit id in adview_layout.xml and MainActivity. In this case, hprof doesn't have a leak. It is just that the overall memory usage in high (native and apk mmap). Note that i'm using application context to inflate the AdView.

Using activity context would cause a leak of the activity.

Here is the code snippet,

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    private AdView mAdView;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        final ViewGroup adViewContainer = ( ViewGroup ) findViewById( R.id.adview_container );

        MobileAds.initialize(getApplicationContext(), "ca-app-pub-4073123456879230~86334354");

        // Avoid activity context as AdView internal has a static reference to the activity
        mAdView = (AdView) LayoutInflater.from( getApplicationContext() ).inflate(
                R.layout.adview_layout,
                adViewContainer,
                true /*attachToRoot*/ ).findViewById(R.id.adView);

        AdRequest request;

        if( BuildConfig.DEBUG )
        {
            final String android_id = Settings.Secure.getString(this.getContentResolver(), Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID);
            final String deviceId = MainActivity.md5(android_id).toUpperCase();

            request = new AdRequest.Builder()
                    .addTestDevice(AdRequest.DEVICE_ID_EMULATOR)
                    .addTestDevice(deviceId)
                    .build();
        }
        else
        {
            request = new AdRequest.Builder().build();
        }

        try
        {
            mAdView.loadAd(request);
        }
        catch( AndroidRuntimeException e )
        {
            final Throwable cause = e.getCause();
            if( cause!= null && cause.getMessage().contains( "com.android.webview" ) )
            {
                // WebView is being updated via Play Store. Ignore Adrequest for this session.
            }
            else
            {
                throw e;
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void onResume()
    {
        super.onResume();

        try
        {
            mAdView.resume();
        }
        catch( AndroidRuntimeException e )
        {
            final Throwable cause = e.getCause();
            if( cause!= null && cause.getMessage().contains( "com.android.webview" ) )
            {
                // WebView is being updated via Play Store. Ignore Adrequest for this session.
            }
            else
            {
                throw e;
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPause()
    {
        mAdView.pause();
        super.onPause();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy()
    {
        (( ViewGroup ) mAdView.getParent()).removeAllViews();
        mAdView.destroy();
        super.onDestroy();
    }

[Ivan Bautista (Mobile Ads SDK Team)]

Hi Vairavan,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will let the team know and update you.

[Vairavan Srinivasan]

Hi Ivan,

   Just wondering, if there is any recommendation for this usage?

[Ivan Bautista (Mobile Ads SDK Team)]

Hi Vairavan,

We have no updates nor any recommended workarounds yet from the team but rest assured that we will update this thread as soon as we get one.

[Ivan Bautista (Mobile Ads SDK Team)]

Hi Vairavan,

The high memory usage is because the SDK is using WebViews and WebView, in general, is expensive in memory consumption. In the meminfo you provided, the View and WebView objects that are still alive even after finishing the app are just expected behavior of how Android keeps the activity in memory even after finishing the app.

Eventually, the app process will be killed especially if memory is needed elsewhere but this is handled by Android and no extra handling should be done on your end.

[Vairavan Srinivasan]

Hi Ivan,

  Thanks for the update. In my case, i used the application context for the AdView and the activity is actually garbage collected. The meminfo doesn't list any activities (just that the views aren't GCed). Besides, the app actually starts a foreground service and the memory is not reclaimed and users tend to notice this memory usage.

- Vairavan

[Andrey Permyakov]

I have the same problem. How can I remove it?

четверг, 23 марта 2017 г., 9:42:06 UTC+3 пользователь Vairavan Srinivasan написал:

[mobileadssdk-a...@google.com]

Hi Andrey,

This issue was previously reported to us and was deemed as working as intended. The team was not able to find any evidence that the Mobile Ads SDK was causing these issues and would most likely come from Android's WebView.

That said, if you can provide to us the following information (preferably using the Reply Privately to Author option), then we may be able to investigate this issue further:

• Sample application/project we can use to replicate the issue, as well as the steps to replicate
• A Trace Log (.hprof) file showing the issue

Regards,

Joshua Lagonera

Mobile Ads SDK Team

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