Android Mascots At The Google I/O Developers Conference
Android mascots are lined up in the demonstration area at the Google I/O Developers Conference in the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, May 10, 2011. Reuters/Beck Diefenbach

Nexus 5 users may be in for a stressful ride as the latest Android 5.1 update appears to be causing more problems. According to recent details, the software has a major bug including memory leak issues. It appears Google has taken notice but for those already affected, the timeline of release may require a little more patience.

Android 5.1 update was supposed to be a bug-fixing release from Google - that may not quite be the case for Nexus 5 users. According to an Android Open Source Project tracker, many Nexus 5 users have been experiencing performance problems including memory resoure draining.

The problem, unfortunately, persisted from Android 5.0 Lollipop. One user from the tracker notes: "After one day of usage the free ram down to 800 mb and I can see google+ restarting...Without reseting the phone, it returns automaticaly to 1.1 gb free ram. All this happen without opening or changing any app, what proves the memory leak."

Nexus 5 users should not lose hope though as the Android Team answered the thread saying it has “been fixed internally" though timeline is not yet sure. Apart from waiting for Google's fix to arrive, users can do some diagnostic tests on their unit.

To check, go to Settings, open Apps then check the Running section. See if the system memory has been used up too much. This may indicate that the device is also affected by the problem. If system memory has been eaten, users can expect their devices to go slower or their apps to crash sometime after. A good and temporary remedy is to restart the device occasionally. It may be quite inconvenient to some but it should be preferable over a slow device or a corrupted app. Nonetheless, Nexus 5 users should not be discouraged to update to the software. The Android 5.1 update still offers a number of performance bumps, speed boosts and other fixes. The bug may be annoying but the software is still important.

To report problems or leave feedback on this article, email: p.silva@ibtimes.com.au.