Third-party tweak fixes Lollipop’s memory leak on rooted Androids

Lollipop's dreaded memory leak is fixed for some. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Lollipop’s dreaded memory leak is fixed for some. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Lollipop’s memory leak has been plaguing Nexus users since Android 5.0 was released late last year, and despite several updates since then, Google has failed to fix it. Fortunately, third-party developers have stepped in with a patch.

The tweak is intended for devices running AOSP ROMs based on Android 5.0 and up, and it’s available on rooted devices running the Xposed framework.

You’ll find a link to the tweak in the original XDA Developers thread, which provides further details on the memory leak and how this patch fixes it.

Many third-party manufacturers and ROM makers have addressed the issue themselves, but firmwares based on Google’s original AOSP code are still affected by it. If you’re running stock Lollipop on your Nexus, then, you’re probably suffering most.

Of course, Xposed isn’t available for the latest Android 5.1 software yet — though an update is in testing — so this tweak is just for Android 5.0 to Android 5.0.2 for now. But you can bookmark the XDA thread and return to it once the Xposed update is out.

And for those of you without rooted devices, Google has finally addressed the memory problem internally, but it hasn’t yet confirmed when an update will be available for users.