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Profiling iOS app for memory leaks

Abhay Dave

28 August, 2018

Optimizing App Performance with Instruments

Importance of Memory Profiling in App Development

Developers always look for ways to improve their app’s performance. To achieve this, they should consistently profile their app. Instruments is a powerful performance tuning tool shipped with Xcode, providing templates to profile CPU usage, memory usage, leaks, network usage, file usage, energy consumption, and more.

Understanding Memory Leaks

Memory leaks are often overlooked when submitting apps to the App Store. They occur when memory is not properly released after being used, leading to excessive memory consumption. Over time, this can result in an out-of-memory crash, negatively affecting user experience.

While using an app, memory usage should remain stable, releasing allocated memory when no longer needed. The Leaks template in Instruments helps identify memory leaks, ensuring a more efficient app.

Steps to Perform Memory Profiling

Below are the steps to perform memory profiling on the app –

1. Select Open Developer Tools -> Instruments from the Xcode menu.

select-lnstruments

2. Select Device/Simulator and Target app on top of the template window

choose-device-targetapp

3. Select Leaks template and click Choose

choose-leaks-template

This will bring the instruments window with allocation and leaks information to show

instruments-window

4. Select the Record button to start profiling for the app

choose-record-leaks

This will start the app in the selected Device / Simulator. As you will use the app, instruments will record the allocation and leaks information about the different resources of the app.

Each green check mark shows No memory leak in the app, while the user was playing around the app. And each red mark shows Memory leaks

5. Clicking on the red diamond will show the Leaks by Backtrace

click-leaks-info

Parts in the gray color in stack trace are system libraries and parts in black color are app’s code.

leaks-stacktrace

6. Double click on the black color part (App’s code) will show the code which was causing the leak

leaks-causing-code

By analyzing those code snippets we can remove memory leaks and rerun profiling on the app.

How Memory Profiling Enhances Mobile App Development

Memory profiling plays a crucial role in Mobile App Development Services by ensuring better performance and stability. Identifying and fixing memory leaks prevents crashes, enhances user experience, and optimizes resource usage.

Summary

Profiling apps for memory leaks helps detect and retain cycles and resolve them effectively.
Memory leaks may not cause immediate issues, but as they accumulate, they can lead to app crashes.
Using Instruments to detect and fix memory leaks improves performance, stability, and overall efficiency.

By integrating regular memory profiling into the development process, developers can create robust and high-performing apps.

Hope this blog helps. Happy Profiling! 😊