Android Lollipop users can breathe easy as Google has finally fixed the memory leak issue that was plaguing users.
Recently, with the Android 5.0.1 Lollipop update being pushed out, Nexus users (who were the first in line to get the software upgrade) were complaining of a memory leak bug. This bug basically killed open apps and caused the home screen of their devices to reload constantly.
With the bug causing apps to crash and leak RAM, users were in a quandary. Users took to Google's Android Issue Tracker to vent their frustration.
"When play music crashed in the background today, with maps navigation running in the forefront, system ram usage was at 780mb. Maps ram usage was at 280mb. The play music process was stuck in 'restarting' status until I swiped it out of recents and restarted it. This was after around 48 hours uptime. Camera app also started crashing mid-photosphere shortly after this. After a reboot system usage dropped to ~380mb and everything's working fine again," noted a user on the thread.
The thread reveals that several Nexus devices ranging from the Nexus 7 (2013 model), the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 5 were affected by the bug. The devices were eating up more than 1.2GB of RAM even though the normal usage is 500MB.
In any OS platform, when programs or applications are opened, the RAM gets consumed. Android also operates this way; however, it is set up in such a manner that the RAM clears up automatically when the OS sees that the resources are required by something else. The bug which inflicted users who update to Android 5.0.1 was basically stopping RAM from clearing out automatically and disallowed other underlying processes to make use of the space. This in turn resulted in the apps getting killed or crashing automatically.
However, Google has now addressed the issue and found a way of fixing the problem. The company has closed the issue and the status reads "Future Release." This means that Google will likely push out an update soon that will bring bug fixes affected users' way.
Given Google's swift track record for pushing out updates for Android Lollipop, the bug fix should be rolled out in the coming weeks.
