Android Studio cannot resolve symbol but code executes correctly

Question

I have recently created a library Jar file that I imported in my Android project. I am able to call functions and use classes that are present in this Jar file, but Android Studio keeps telling me that it cannot "resolve symbol" of the class I am using. Please see the screenshot below:

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The code builds and executes successfully. The function isThisThingWorking() simply returns true, and that is just what boolean blah gets set to.

I have tried pressing the Sync Project with Gradle Files button and using the Invalidate Caches / Restart... option from Android Studio's File menu, but none of this solved the issue. What can I do to make the Android Studio IDE not display the Cannot resolve symbol 'xxxSDK' error?

Solution 1

EDIT: For most folks, Senthil's answer will be more appropriate. I am leaving this one as the accepted answer because it solved my specific problem.

I found the issue - my SDK.jar was not generated correctly. It included .java files instead of .class files. This explains why the IDE was not able to find the SDK class. The package structure was still correct in the Jar, which is why the package name itself is not a red color. The code worked correctly, because the compiler knew to compile the .java files.

To solve the issue, I modified my build.gradle of my SDK project to include .class files, instead of .java files, when creating the Jar. Including this new Jar instead of the old Jar fixed the IDE issue.

Solution 2

I have faced this issue when IntelliJ IDEA got closed abruptly due to OS crash.

You can do "File" -> "Invalidate Caches...", and select "Invalidate and Restart" option to fix this.

Solution 3

Try adding the library to the Project Structure.

To do this, on the menu choose File -> Project Structure. Select the Libraries option and click the green + to add your library.

Solution 4

This was always happening to me after switching branches on my current project: a lot of non-sense erros being reported by the IDE.

The solution is to modify and force a build.gradle synchronization.

Solution 5

This problem regularly generated in android 3.1. I have tried every possible way. But it resolved when i delete .gradle and .idea file and start Android studio which is already close.

Android studio create .idea and .gradle file for your project again. After this click on sync project with gradle. Now everything works fine.

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Comments

[BVB]

What do you mean? I have accepted the answer that has solved my specific problem. The answer with the most upvotes here applies to most people who have the same issue. I am not familiar with any other solutions, unfortunately.

[BVB]

@grAPPfruit the premise of the question is different and the posted date is earlier than the question you linked.

[user1506104]

in 2018, this can still happen when your Android Studio and Gradle don't agree. I fixed it using three options as discussed here: stackoverflow.com/questions/50313885/…

[RBT]

Related post - Android Studio suddenly cannot resolve symbols & Android Studio says “cannot resolve symbol” but project compiles

[BVB]

I have added it there already by right clicking on the Jar and selecting the Add as Library option.

[hqt]

thanks :) my problem as you, that after OS crashes :D

[clocksmith]

This makes sense. What if the .jar is not owned by me. How can I get it from .java to .class?

[BVB]

You would have to compile the Java files.

[sivag1]

After scrambling a lot, this fixed, it. It happens mainly to the Eclipse imported projects.

[Jared Burrows]

Thank for you posting this. This is the correct solution.

[Dmitry Kolesnikovich]

This saves me a lot of time!

[scubbo]

Thank you! I had spent about three days following other solutions, but none worked completely until I did this!

[lilbyrdie]

This happened to me after an OS crash, too. Good tip! Just a clean build couldn't resolve this.

[eyadMhanna]

This fixed it for me, thank you so much, it's been hours trying to solve the problem!

[flobacca]

sorry, but I don't have a dependency for '.java' files. Could you post the line from your build.gradle file?

[BVB]

What kind of a dependency do you have?

[chaoskreator]

Worked for a brief period, but when I re-made the project, the issue popped up again.

[Alireza Noorali]

Great Answer, You Saved My Day! it must be the true answer. my problem occured after OS crashing, too.

[Herbert Schiller]

I would say this is the correct Answer, but I had a very specific case, so just in case someone still having the issue after doing all that, I have 2 flavours, 1 for a paid version and 1 for a free version, I updated some libraries on my app.gradle on the free version, and for some reason I enabled "Global Gradle Settings > Offline work" and when I changed the build type to the pro version I started getting the errors, the app would run but I would get these erros, so I disabled offline work, built it again and all went back to normal, just frustrating lost an hour with this silly thing...

[Mir Stephen]

Thank you Brother