Unable to Merge Dex - Android Studio 3.0

Question

When I updated my Android Studio to 3.0 in the stable channel and ran the project, I started getting the below error.

Error:Execution failed for task ':app:transformDexArchiveWithExternalLibsDexMergerForDebug'.
com.android.builder.dexing.DexArchiveMergerException: Unable to merge dex

I tried cleaning and rebuilding the project, but it didn't work. Any help will be appreciated.

Project level build.gradle

buildscript {
repositories {
    jcenter()
    google()
}
dependencies {
    classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.0.0'
    classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:3.1.0'


    // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
    // in the individual module build.gradle files
}
} 
allprojects {
repositories {
    jcenter()
    google()
}
}
task clean(type: Delete) {
delete rootProject.buildDir
}

App level build.gradle

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
android {
compileSdkVersion 26
buildToolsVersion '26.0.2'
defaultConfig {
    applicationId "com.med.app"
    minSdkVersion 21
    targetSdkVersion 26
    versionCode 1
    versionName "1.0"
    testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    resConfigs "auto"
    multiDexEnabled true

}
buildTypes {
    release {
        minifyEnabled false
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
    }
}
}
dependencies {
compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
androidTestCompile('com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2', {
    exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'
})

compile 'com.android.support.constraint:constraint-layout:1.0.2'
testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'

//appcompat libraries
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:26.1.0'
compile 'com.android.support:design:26.1.0'


//butterknife
compile 'com.jakewharton:butterknife:8.8.1'
annotationProcessor 'com.jakewharton:butterknife-compiler:8.8.1'

//picasso
compile 'com.squareup.picasso:picasso:2.5.2'

//material edittext
compile 'com.rengwuxian.materialedittext:library:2.1.4'

// Retrofit & OkHttp & and OkHttpInterceptor & gson
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:retrofit:2.3.0'
compile 'com.squareup.retrofit2:converter-gson:2.3.0'
compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.2'
compile 'com.squareup.okhttp3:logging-interceptor:3.8.0'

// FirebaseUI for Firebase Auth
compile 'com.firebaseui:firebase-ui-auth:3.1.0'
}
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

I have tried all the answers given but I am unable to solve this error. Please help.

Solution 1

Add an explicit dependency to play-services-auth along with your firebase-ui-auth dependency:

// FirebaseUI for Firebase Auth
    compile 'com.firebaseui:firebase-ui-auth:3.1.0'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:11.4.2'

This is because firebase-ui-auth has a transitive dependency to play-services-auth and must be used with the corresponding version of play-services-auth. Please see this explanation.

firebase-ui-auth
|--- com.google.firebase:firebase-auth
|--- com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth

Earlier versions of the Gradle build tool did not include transitive dependencies so now versions can conflict with other play-services versions.

My Issue Explained and Answered (In case anyone wants to know)

When you upgrade to Android Studio 3.0 and update the gradle build tool version to 3.0.0, compiling of dependencies is now done differently than in earlier versions.

I recently encountered the same issue. I was using these dependencies which worked fine through Gradle version 2.3.3:

implementation 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpmime:4.3.6'
implementation 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient-android:4.3.5.1'

After the upgrade to gradle-build-version 3.0.0, I got the same error. Digint into it, I found that the transitive dependency of httpmime conflicted with the file httpclient-android was including.

Description

Let me explain this in detail. Earlier, while using gradle-tool-version 2.3.3, I was using httpclient-android to fetch and use the class named org.apache.http.entity.ContentType.java Expanding the transitive dependencies of org.apache.httpcomponents:httpmime:4.3.6 showed that it has org.apache.httpcomponents:httpcore:4.3.6 which is the same package I wanted to use. But while compiling or syncing the build, it was excluding org.apache.http.entity.ContentType.java so I needed to add this dependency which includes ContentType.java:

implementation 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient-android:4.3.5.1'

Everything worked fine after that.

Once I upgraded the gradle-build-version to 3.0.0, things changed. It now included all transitive dependencies. So while compiling with the latest Android Studio with gradle-build-tool version 3.0.0, my ContentType.java was being compiled twice. Once from org.apache.httpcomponents:httpcore:4.3.6 (which is an implicit transitive dependency of httpmime) and again from org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient-android:4.3.5.1 which I was using earlier.

To resolve this issue I had to remove the existing org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient-android:4.3.5.1 dependency as httpmime would itself fetch the relevant class required for my application.

The solution for my situation: only use required dependencies and remove the httpclient-android

implementation 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpmime:4.3.6'

Note that this is just the case for me. You'll need to dig into your own dependencies and apply the solution accordingly.

Solution 2

First of all I enabled multidex as suggested in previous comments.

Then, if the error continues, open the Gradle Console (click on "Show Console Output" icon at left of "Messages" section) and click on the link to recompile with Debug/Info/Stack options. This will show further details about the error.

In my case, the error "Unable to merge dex" was caused by duplicate entries in "com.jakewharton.picasso:picasso2-okhttp3-downloader:1.1.0".

I manually removed the conflicting library from my project and executed the "Rebuild Project" (forcing to reload the library). This solved the issue.

Solution 3

Check out dependencies in your build.gradle (app) if you're using 2 (or more) libraries with the same name and different version. For example (in my case):

implementation files('src/main/libs/support-v4-24.1.1.jar')
implementation 'com.android.support:support-v4:27.0.2'

Remove one, then clean and rebuild. Also note that dependencies is outside buildscript.

Solution 4

I had this error:

com.android.builder.dexing.DexArchiveMergerException: Unable to merge dex

and ended up changing back my gradle in order to fix this issue.

app\build.gradle

android {
compileSdkVersion 25
//buildToolsVersion '26.0.2'
buildToolsVersion '25.0.3'//<< Changed back to old version before my studio 3.0 update
defaultConfig { ....

.\build.gradle

buildscript {
repositories {
    jcenter()
    google()
}
dependencies {
    classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.3' //<< Changed back to old version before my studio 3.0 update
    // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
    // in the individual module build.gradle files
}

It's not ideal as it's back dating, but it's something which worked for me and should get me there until a possible patch is released.

Solution 5

android {
    defaultConfig {
       multiDexEnabled true
    }
}

add this line to the :gradle file

View more solutions

Comments

[Russ Wheeler]

Where exactly did you see duplicate entries? In a build.gradle file? The actual jar in a folder? Thanks

[AutonomousApps]

I'm getting com.android.dex.DexIndexOverflowException, despite the fact I have multidex enabled and my project built fine before updating to Android Gradle Plugin 3.0.

[Admin]

I did as mentioned and got the following: Caused by: com.android.dex.DexException: Multiple dex files define Lcom/google/firebase/iid/zzd; I tried removing FirebaseUI library, rebuilding the project and then again copying the dependency. But it's not working.

[Harish Rana]

Exactly, I was also stuck with similar issue. One of my project dependency and its transitive dependent library had a dependency on 'com.android.volley'. So this new gradle was having having issues while merging dex files. I fixed it by adding "exclude group: 'com.android.volley' in my gradle file.

[dan_flo10]

Eres una pistola

[Pardeep Sharma]

@Bhavesh Patadiya, Please help me here (stackoverflow.com/questions/46976279/…). I just got stuck and unable to resolve it.

[Erhannis]

It took a long time to pinpoint and eliminate the duplicate dependencies (which I feel gradle ought to do automatically), but recompiling with stack info (showing me which class was duplicated) was the tool I needed to be able to fix it at all.

[pirho]

While this may answer the question, it is better to explain the essential parts of the answer and possibly what was the problem with OPs code.

[Alexander]

While this code may answer the question, providing additional context regarding how and why it solves the problem would improve the answer's long-term value.

[xarlymg89]

Lucky me that your explanation happen to be related with org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient-android and org.apache.httpcomponents:httpmime . I was getting crazy to find out about it. Thanks!

[Denys Kniazhev-Support Ukraine]

you need to dig into the classes your are having an issue with But how did you find out which classes you've been having an issue with? Did you run ./gradlew dependencies and go through all transitive dependencies (marked as xxx -> yyy in the output)?

[Midou Dz]

this is dependencies

[Midou Dz]

dependencies { compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:12.0.0' compile files('libs/dagger-1.2.2.jar') compile files('libs/javax.inject-1.jar') compile files('libs/nineoldandroids-2.4.0.jar') compile files('libs/support-v4-19.0.1.jar') }

[Cyrus]

I think you'd better edit your answer again for others understand your idea clearly