java.lang.VerifyError: Verifier rejected class on Lollipop when using release APK

Question

I get this error when I install my release APK on a 5.x device. The error does not occur when I push the same code from Android Studio, or if I run it on a 4.x device.

java.lang.VerifyError: Verifier rejected class com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector due to bad method void com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector.reset(com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity) (declaration of 'com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector' appears in /data/app/com.myapp.android-2/base.apk)
       at java.lang.Class.classForName(Class.java)
       at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:308)
       at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:272)
       at butterknife.ButterKnife.findInjectorForClass(ButterKnife.java:298)
       at butterknife.ButterKnife.inject(ButterKnife.java:271)
       at butterknife.ButterKnife.inject(ButterKnife.java:184)
       at com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MyDrawerActivity.onCreate(MyDrawerActivity.java:31)

I inject my Toolbar and a custom NavigationDrawer in the class.

@InjectView(R.id.toolbar) Toolbar mToolbar;
@InjectView(R.id.nav_drawer) MyNavigationDrawer mNavigationDrawer;

Line 31:

ButterKnife.inject(this);

Is there something that would be different with the Butterknife codegen when using gradle assembleRelease? I am not using ProGuard at all.

Here are my other Android build settings:

# Android SDK settings
ANDROID_BUILD_MIN_SDK_VERSION=14
ANDROID_BUILD_TARGET_SDK_VERSION=21
ANDROID_BUILD_SDK_VERSION=21
ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=21.1.2

Logcat

I/art     (21354): Verification error in void com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector.inject(butterknife.ButterKnife$Finder, com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity, java.lang.Object)
I/art     (21354): void com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector.inject(butterknife.ButterKnife$Finder, com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity, java.lang.Object) failed to verify: register v4 has type Reference: com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity but expected Reference: com.myapp.android.ui.activity.LoggedInNavActivitya.lang.Object): [0x0]
I/art     (21354): Verification error in void com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector.reset(com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity)
I/art     (21354): void com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector.reset(com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity) failed to verify: register v1 has type Reference: com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity but expected Reference: com.myapp.android.ui.activity.LoggedInNavActivity
E/art     (21354): Verification failed on class com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector in /data/app/com.myapp.android-1/base.apk because: Verifier rejected class com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector due to bad method void com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity$$ViewInjector.reset(com.myapp.android.ui.activity.MainActivity)

Solution 1

Cleaning out the build folder resolved the problem. Not sure why ART had an issue but Dalvik did not.

Running a gradle clean task was not clearing out my build folder all the way. I had to do it manually, but clean may work for some people.

Solution 2

In my case, the cause was slightly different.

Apparently, putting a synchronized statement inside a try/catch block causes the VerifyError, as reported here on SO and on the official bug tracker.

Solution 3

In my case the method that the error message said was 'bad', had some unknown faults. Changing from a Kotlin lambda to a regular loop solved my issue.

Before (With Error):

fun validZipCode(zipcode: String): Boolean {
    val validRegexes = arrayOf(
            "0[0-9]{1}[0-9]{2}", 
            "1[0-2]{1}[0-9]{2}", 
            "1[3-4]{1}[0-9]{2}", 
            "19[0-9]{2}", 
            "2[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}" 
    )
return validRegexes.any { zipcode.matches(it.toRegex()) }

After:

fun validZipCode(zipcode: String): Boolean {

    val validRegexes = arrayOf(
            "0[0-9]{1}[0-9]{2}", 
            "1[0-2]{1}[0-9]{2}", 
            "1[3-4]{1}[0-9]{2}",
            "19[0-9]{2}", 
            "2[0-1]{1}[0-9]{2}"
    )

    for (regex in validRegexes) {
        if (zipcode.matches(regex.toRegex())) {
            return true
        }
    }

    return false
}

Solution 4

My app was working on most platforms but crashing immediately on Android 5.1. I started to suspect the new D8 dex compiler after reading Google info on how great it is. Disabling D8, so it uses the original DX compiler, is the only thing that worked for me. Project clean/invalidate caches didn't fix it. I had some synchronized blocks, but removing them didn't fix it. Turning off instant run didn't fix it. Disabling proguard didn't fix it.

Here is how you disable D8:
-Create a file called gradle.properties in the root of your project, if it doesn't exist
-In it put this line: android.enableD8=false

You'll get deprecated warnings. Hopefully Google actually fixes D8 before they fully remove the deprecated DX. I don't know what in my code triggers it. I'm using Android Studio 3.2.1 with gradle version 4.6. Edit: I've reported this bug and Google developers are actively investigating

Solution 5

Verify Error is majorly thrown in certain scenarios which occurs if we changed definition of class A, but class B was compiled using an older version of the class A. That's why it gets resolved if we clear our project and rebuild all the classes together with same version of Java.

Following link lists some of the scenarios where Verify error might occur. java.lang.VerifyError – How to solve VerifyError

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