instead of preview, Android Studio showing only black screen with 'android...ActionBarOverlayLayout' written on it

Question

From few days, I'm not able to see preview/design of screens/layouts. Only a black screen is shown with android...ActionBarOverlayLayout written on it.

There is no error or exception in logcat. Also after running the project no issue on device. Only preview and Design tab in Android Studio showing black screen.

This is happening for every layouts after some Android Studio and build tools updates(which happened automatically)

Note: If I change Theme in preview (Theme in Editor), then sometimes the preview is shown, but it's very weird preview which can't be used for development

Solution 1

Got this error-message:

Error:Execution failed for task ':app:processDebugManifest'.
Suggestion: use a compatible library with a minSdk of at most 9, 
or increase this project's minSdk version to at least 14. 

The solution is (as everyone said before) to match up the versions:

compileSdkVersion 26
buildToolsVersion '26.0.2'
targetSdkVersion 26
compile "com.android.support:support-v4:26.0.2"
compile "com.android.support:design:26.0.2"

But also change the compatible library minSDK

minSdkVersion 14

And the play-services

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:11.8.0'

Solution 2

If problem still not solved after doing things that @Roar RAP mentioned.

Goto: src -> main -> res -> style.xml and add Base. to the style tag parent attribute. It should look like below,

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
...
</style>

This option is also worked for me.

Solution 3

Had the same error as you.

I updated the build.grade file, so that the "compileSdkVersion" matched the version I was running in my emulator. I also updated my "targetSdkVersion" to likewise fit the SDK I was running in my emulator.

Lastly, Android Studio asked me to update the dependencies (underlined with red in the program, so that it matches the targetsdkversion.. the last three lines...)

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
compileSdkVersion 27
buildToolsVersion '26.0.2'

defaultConfig {
    applicationId "com.example.android.miwok"
    minSdkVersion 15
    targetSdkVersion 27
    versionCode 1
    versionName "1.0"
}
buildTypes {
    release {
        minifyEnabled false
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
    }
 }
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.2'
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:27.0.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:27.0.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:design:27.0.1'
}`

Solution 4

You have to do two things:

1. be sure to have imported right appcompat-v7 library in your project structure → dependencies
2. change the theme in the preview window to not an AppCompat theme. Try with Holo.light or Holo.dark for example.

Solution 5

Make sure your your app->bulid.gradle file have same verison with compileSdkVersion, buildToolsVersion, targetSdkVersion and support libraries notice the support libraries verison which in this example 23. If I have 26.0.2 buildToolsVersion I will change my support libraries version 26 too.

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 23
    buildToolsVersion "23.0.2"
defaultConfig {
    applicationId "com.example.android.miwok"
    minSdkVersion 15
    targetSdkVersion 23
    versionCode 1
    versionName "1.0"
}
buildTypes {
    release {
        minifyEnabled false
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}
dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.3.0'
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:23.3.0'
    compile 'com.android.support:design:23.3.0'
}

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Comments

[Shirish Herwade]

changing theme i tried already, it didn't solve the issue completely, though it's passable for now :). About appcompat-v7 I'm not sure how to check it's right or not; Can you plz explain a bit more?

[sanoop sandy]

To use the class ActionBarOverlayLayout you need to include this in the dependencies section of build.gradle file: compile 'com.android.support:design:24.1.1' Please match the version accordingly

[Shirish Herwade]

Thanks. Simple solution- make everything same version in build.gradle. Or just update everything to latest.

[dcx86]

I have tried all the solution here, and none worked except this one here! Excellent and easy fix, but I do not understand what or why this happens.

[Kwnstantinos Nikoloutsos]

That worked for me! I don't know why the solutions above didn't work. Is this because of the version that I am running in my emulator(API 27)?