Does Google Maps have a known memory leak?

Hey everybody-

I have a Pearl 8100. From the date of purchase until last week, it suffered from a slow memory leak. I installed the Soft Reset program and had to perform the soft reset approximately once per week.

Last week I installed Google Maps (resisted installing it prior because Beyond411 seemed to do everything I needed).

Since then, the memory leak has been much more severe, requiring a soft reset every single day.

Google Maps is pretty awesome, but it's not worth the constant resets. I have not installed anything other than Google Maps in the past week, so I'm inclined to believe it is the culprit.

Before I delete it, I was wondering if anybody else has experienced this program and if it's been traced to Google Maps.

Thanks.

I would try to make sure that you properly EXIT the application when you're done using it. i.e. Pressing the escape key (to the right of the trackball) or the END key will not close the app. It will continue to run in the background. Press the menu key to the left of the trackball, and scroll down to EXIT.

i've never had issues with google maps doing that on my 8100 take a look at the thread in my profile to free up some more memory if you haven't done so already

I always use "exit" to close the program.

I've freed up all available memory already. Over the last week, I'll start the day at 26MB available memory, and it will end up at 14MB available at the end of the day. I always try to reset around 15MB to avoid data loss.

wow that's crazy did you install a new os recently ?

That used to happen to ALL THE TIME since i used GPS so much when I first got the 8310. What I did to resolve the issue was "clear map" in the menu THEN exit. Haven't had an issue with it since.

What's really interesting is that Java, with it's garbage collection, and lack of pointers prevents traditional memory leaks.

Most likely you are just running to much stuff in the background without realizing it, or you have some other issue.

When you say, "It suffered a slow memory leak", what do you mean? Tell us the symptoms, not your diagnosis, and we might be able to help more.

Your problem is not Google Maps, but rather BlackBerry OS - put simply, BlackBerry OS is pathetic at memory management and this is the biggest flaw in BlackBerry devices.

Some devices are better than others though; I'm not sure about the BlackBerry Pearl series, but my BlackBerry 8800 handles memory a LOT better than my newer BlackBerry Curve 8300...

In short, get used to "battery pulls" - it's normal to have to do them on a weekly basis, though daily could be considered "normal" on some devices.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by patrick.waugh

When you say, "It suffered a slow memory leak", what do you mean? Tell us the symptoms, not your diagnosis, and we might be able to help more.

I sort of already did, although not in the first post.

I got my BB about 8 months ago, and followed the post that taught how to maximize available memory.

Throughout the last few months, immediately following a Soft Reset, I'd have about 26MB free memory. Over the course of a week or so, that would dwindle down to about 14-15MB free memory, and I'd do another Soft Reset to bring it back up to 26MB free memory.

Since last week when I installed Google Maps, that 26MB of free memory will dwindle down to 13-14MB free memory by the end of the day.

So, a "loss" of free memory that would typically take a week is now taking only a single day.

Originally Posted by cyba.cowboy

Your problem is not Google Maps, but rather BlackBerry OS - put simply, BlackBerry OS is pathetic at memory management and this is the biggest flaw in BlackBerry devices.

Some devices are better than others though; I'm not sure about the BlackBerry Pearl series, but my BlackBerry 8800 handles memory a LOT better than my newer BlackBerry Curve 8300...

In short, get used to "battery pulls" - it's normal to have to do them on a weekly basis, though daily could be considered "normal" on some devices.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

You know, I never really noticed but I do reset my BB once a week, if not every two weeks. But I can't remember the last time I did a battery pull other than to switch sims to another blackberry. Maybe that's why I've never noticed :)

My BlackBerry Curve 8300 has always had minimal content on it and experiences only minimal, specific use, yet I almost spend more time trying to "clean" it than I do actually using the device!

Honestly, my experience with memory on the BlackBerry Curve 8300 was almost enough to turn me off BlackBerry devices completely... Until I got my BlackBerry 8800.


Ironically, I'm constantly downloading content to my BlackBerry 8800, I'm using multiple browsers and GPS applications, plus my device is bulging with themes and I only "clean" my device on a monthly basis...

And despite all this, I NEVER, EVER have memory-related problems!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

maybe it depends on the specific device
my 8100 never had a memory leak and i dont remember EVER pulling the battery or turning it off
when i first got the curve i thought they had set it to auto-delete old calls and text msgs(crazy huh)

There is a lot of debate on whether the camera is what is doing it. Even if you don't use it. I've noticed that a lot of 88XX users don't have this issue or it's at a minimum compared to the 83XX and 8100.

Originally Posted by GadgetGuru72

I sort of already did, although not in the first post.

I got my BB about 8 months ago, and followed the post that taught how to maximize available memory.

Throughout the last few months, immediately following a Soft Reset, I'd have about 26MB free memory. Over the course of a week or so, that would dwindle down to about 14-15MB free memory, and I'd do another Soft Reset to bring it back up to 26MB free memory.

Since last week when I installed Google Maps, that 26MB of free memory will dwindle down to 13-14MB free memory by the end of the day.

So, a "loss" of free memory that would typically take a week is now taking only a single day.

I wouldn't let that number worry you. You see, the way garbage collection works, it doesn't happen till needed. So, basically that number does not reflect memory which is not currently in use, but has not been collected at this point. At some point, when the largest chunk available is smaller than needed, it will collect additional memory.

Patrick

I had massive memory leak problems and originally uninstalled all my 3rd party software looking for a fix. Luckily, removing all those programs white-screened-of-death my BB and a nice wipe and reinstall skipping most of the original preloaded software was a sufficient fix.