Optimization for Low-Spec Devices (for 2GB ram) (32bit device)

[Tausif-ZeaREX]

Checklist

• I am able to reproduce the bug with the latest version given here: CLICK THIS LINK.
• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - which I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the FAQ and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one bug.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.
• I have read and understood the AI policy. The content of this bug report is not generated by AI.

Affected version

0.28.0

Steps to reproduce the bug

Crashed while playing 60 fps video
Giving error of memory issues
Probably ram leakage
I have 2gb ram

Expected behavior

No response

Actual behavior

No response

Screenshots/Screen recordings

No response

Logs

Exception

• User Action: play stream
• Request: Player error[type=ERROR_CODE_IO_UNSPECIFIED] occurred while playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op2qodcjYxU
• Content Country: JP
• Content Language: en-US
• App Language: en_US
• Service: YouTube
• Timestamp: 2025-12-28T10:52:15.769+06:00
• Package: org.schabi.newpipe
• Service: YouTube
• Version: 0.28.0
• OS: Linux Android 7.1.2 - 25

Crash log

com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlaybackException: Source error
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleIoException(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:644)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.ExoPlayerImplInternal.handleMessage(ExoPlayerImplInternal.java:620)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:98)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:154)
at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:61)
Caused by: com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.Loader$UnexpectedLoaderException: Unexpected OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 65548 byte allocation with 4992 free bytes and 4KB until OOM
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.Loader$LoadTask.run(Loader.java:441)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1133)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:607)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:761)
Caused by: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 65548 byte allocation with 4992 free bytes and 4KB until OOM
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.DefaultAllocator.allocate(DefaultAllocator.java:102)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.SampleDataQueue.preAppend(SampleDataQueue.java:233)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.SampleDataQueue.sampleData(SampleDataQueue.java:176)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.SampleQueue.sampleData(SampleQueue.java:590)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.extractor.TrackOutput$-CC.$default$sampleData(TrackOutput.java:157)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.SampleQueue.sampleData(SampleQueue.java:0)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.chunk.BundledChunkExtractor$BindingTrackOutput.sampleData(BundledChunkExtractor.java:227)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.extractor.TrackOutput$-CC.$default$sampleData(TrackOutput.java:157)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.chunk.BundledChunkExtractor$BindingTrackOutput.sampleData(BundledChunkExtractor.java:0)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.extractor.mp4.FragmentedMp4Extractor.readSample(FragmentedMp4Extractor.java:1455)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.extractor.mp4.FragmentedMp4Extractor.read(FragmentedMp4Extractor.java:344)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.chunk.BundledChunkExtractor.read(BundledChunkExtractor.java:147)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.source.chunk.ContainerMediaChunk.load(ContainerMediaChunk.java:127)
at com.google.android.exoplayer2.upstream.Loader$LoadTask.run(Loader.java:412)
... 3 more

---

Another report:

Exception

• User Action: ui error
• Request: ACRA report
• Content Country: JP
• Content Language: en-US
• App Language: en_US
• Service: none
• Timestamp: 2025-12-28T10:47:15.887+06:00
• Package: org.schabi.newpipe
• Service: none
• Version: 0.28.0
• OS: Linux Android 7.1.2 - 25

Crash log

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 12 byte allocation with 3952 free bytes and 3KB until OOM
at okhttp3.internal.http2.Http2Connection.shutdown(Http2Connection.kt:419)
at okhttp3.internal.http2.Http2Connection.close$okhttp(Http2Connection.kt:449)
at okhttp3.internal.http2.Http2Connection$ReaderRunnable.invoke(Http2Connection.kt:627)
at okhttp3.internal.http2.Http2Connection$ReaderRunnable.invoke(Http2Connection.kt:609)
at okhttp3.internal.concurrent.TaskQueue$execute$1.runOnce(TaskQueue.kt:98)
at okhttp3.internal.concurrent.TaskRunner.runTask(TaskRunner.kt:116)
at okhttp3.internal.concurrent.TaskRunner.access$runTask(TaskRunner.kt:42)
at okhttp3.internal.concurrent.TaskRunner$runnable$1.run(TaskRunner.kt:65)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1133)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:607)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:761)

---

Another report bug:

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: OutOfMemoryError thrown while trying to throw OutOfMemoryError; no stack trace available

Affected Android/Custom ROM version

Android 7 32bit, lineage os 14.1

Affected device model

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 , 16GRom 2GB RAM Exynos 5420 Octa (28 nm) CPU Octa-core (4x1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & 4x1.3 GHz Cortex-A7) GPU Mali-T628 MP6

Additional information

Probably not optimized for 2GB Ram

[Tausif-ZeaREX]

@Stypox @TobiGr please fix that issue

[absurdlylongusername]

Related #12693

Partially related #12987

[Tausif-ZeaREX]

@absurdlylongusername one thing I have seen right now is that in the latest 1109 nightly build the problem is fully gone, no ram related issues doesn't happen even in 60fps video.
This is a really good luck for me 🙂

[dftf-stu]

Yeah, if I try to import my exported subscriptions list file (around 200 channels, I think?) from my current phone onto my oldest phone, it gets to around 20-30 channels done, then always crashes with a Java "OUT_OF_MEMORY" error.

I guess during the import it scrapes each channel's info (thumbnails, titles, comments, etc), but instead of committing to storage then releasing from RAM, it just keeps building-up the data in RAM until it's exhausted?

Whereas what should happen is the list should just get imported, but no info for the channel (beyond the channel thumbnail) should be obtained at that time; channel data should only download when you go "Subscriptions" -> "All", then do a refresh there later.

So for lower-RAM devices, a setting to limit the number of channels to get data for in-one-go, might help. Then the user could set this to something like 5, or 10, and reduce the RAM load at the cost of making the channel data-refresh take longer.

[absurdlylongusername]

@dftf-stu That's very interesting. Could you please open an issue about it so it can be tracked?

[dftf-stu]

@absurdlylongusername : I doubt it would be worth me doing that, given:

1. A major code-refactoring is taking-place, so this issue won't be addressed in the current codebase, and may not then be present in the re-written version;
2. As part of that refactoring, the minimum Android version is due to be bumped; my oldest phone has Lollipop (Android 5.1), and I believe the new app will target at-least Marshmallow (6.0) or Nougat (7.0) as a minimum? (KitKat 4.4 has already been ditched, as of the 0.24.0 release, in September 2025). So I won't be able to test if this remains an issue in the new app, anyway;
3. I'm sure there'd be existing-tickets on here for the same-issue: a quick search for open tickets with "java" or "memory" brings-up a number of results, so I'm sure at-least one will already be there for this.