Eclipse OutOfMemory Error Fix by increasing Heap Memory/Permgen Space

Published on August 4, 2022

Eclipse Out of Memory Error happens when you are working on large projects. Sometimes it’s because of Permgen space (below Java 8) and sometimes your eclipse memory runs out of heap memory.

Eclipse OutOfMemoryError Fix

We can increase eclipse memory by providing more Permgen space and heap memory for Eclipse to use. These settings are usually configured in the eclipse.ini file. You can check the location of the eclipse.ini file from below images for Mac OS X. eclipse out of memory, eclipse memory eclipse.ini file, eclipse.ini file location mac In windows, you will find the eclipse.ini file in the same directory as the eclipse.exe file. eclipse.ini file location windows 10 Once you have located the eclipse.ini file, just open it in your favorite text editor.

Increase Eclipse Heap Space

You can increase the maximum heap size by editing -Xmx value. For example, below snippet will increase the eclipse heap size to 2 GB.

-Xmx2048m

increase eclipse memory size windows

Increase Permgen Space in Eclipse

If you are using below Java 8, then you might get OutOfMemoryError: Permgen space, just increase the permanent generation space available to Eclipse. Below is the configuration to increase permgen space to 512 MB in eclipse.ini file.

-XX:MaxPermSize=512M

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Pankaj Kumar

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Java and Python Developer for 20+ years, Open Source Enthusiast, Founder of https://www.askpython.com/, https://www.linuxfordevices.com/, and JournalDev.com (acquired by DigitalOcean). Passionate about writing technical articles and sharing knowledge with others. Love Java, Python, Unix and related technologies. Follow my X @PankajWebDev

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JournalDev

June 13, 2016

I am a regular reader of your blog. the blog is very interesting and will be much useful for us.

- sathya

JournalDev

August 10, 2017

thnks alot sir…really helpful

- Sana Shaikh

JournalDev

October 8, 2017

An internal error occurred during: “Retrieving archetypes:”. GC overhead limit exceeded please help me to solve this

- HARSHA VARDHAN

JournalDev

October 23, 2017

Hello … I have an issue, My spring tool suite hangs (not responding) after using it for 5 mins and this happens when I start my server on which our application is hosted . Please help me out

- Rohit

JournalDev

August 3, 2018

Worked for me on OSX High Sierra using Eclipse Oxygen. Thanks

- Joe D.

JournalDev

October 11, 2018

Hello I am getting an internal error while launching the eclipse saying "java heap space " during setup check. Please help me!

- Aradhana

JournalDev

December 7, 2018

Not helpful at all. Most people use Windows these days.