Possible Memory leak through FinalizerReference

Question

I have a small android app and I tried looking for memory leaks, so I clicked \'Dump Java Heap\' and the first class on the list is FinalizerReference (java.lang.ref). It ha

Answer 1

There is likely no memory leak involving FinalizerReference in your app, although the Android Memory Profiler makes it look like there is.

My investigation of similar concerns convinced me that Profiler performs massive multiple counting of the same small amount of memory in the case of FinalizerReference, so that the reported value of Retained Memory is meaningless, and sometimes even ludicrous.

In your case, the ~38kB Shallow Size is important, but small, while the ~40 MB Retained Memory should be ignored.