java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: GC overhead limit exceeded [duplicate]

You're essentially running out of memory to run the process smoothly. Options that come to mind:

1. Specify more memory like you mentioned, try something in between like -Xmx512m first
2. Work with smaller batches of HashMap objects to process at once if possible
3. If you have a lot of duplicate strings, use String.intern() on them before putting them into the HashMap
4. Use the HashMap(int initialCapacity, float loadFactor) constructor to tune for your case

The following worked for me. Just add the following snippet:

dexOptions {
        javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
}

To your build.gradle:

android {
    compileSdkVersion 23
    buildToolsVersion '23.0.1'

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "yourpackage"
        minSdkVersion 14
        targetSdkVersion 23
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"

        multiDexEnabled true
    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }

    packagingOptions {

    }

    dexOptions {
        javaMaxHeapSize "4g"
    }
}