Unable to merge dex

Question

I have Android Studio Beta. I created a new project with compile my old modules but when I tried launching the app it did not launch with the message:

Error:Execution failed for task ':app:transformDexArchiveWithExternalLibsDexMergerForDebug'.

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

But I don't know how to solve this error. I googled this for hours but with no success.

My project gradle:

    // Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        google()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.0.0-beta6'
        classpath "io.realm:realm-gradle-plugin:3.7.1"
        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
}

My app gradle:

    apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 26
    buildToolsVersion "26.0.1"
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "parad0x.sk.onlyforyou"
        minSdkVersion 21
        targetSdkVersion 26
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
        multiDexEnabled true
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
        debug {
        }
    }
    compileOptions {
        targetCompatibility 1.7
        sourceCompatibility 1.7
    }
    packagingOptions {
        exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
        exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
    }
    lintOptions {
        checkReleaseBuilds false
    }
    productFlavors {
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(include: ['*.jar'], dir: 'libs')
    androidTestCompile('com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2', {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'
    })
    //noinspection GradleCompatible
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:26.0.0-alpha1'
    compile project(path: ':loginregisterview')


}

And my module gradle:

    apply plugin: 'com.android.library'
apply plugin: 'realm-android'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 26
    buildToolsVersion "26.0.1"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 19
        targetSdkVersion 26
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"

        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"

    }
    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:appcompat-v7:26.0.2'
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:26.1.0'
    compile 'com.github.bumptech.glide:glide:4.0.0'
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
    compile project(path: ':parser')

}

My second module:

     apply plugin: 'com.android.library'
apply plugin: 'realm-android'

android {
    compileSdkVersion 26
    buildToolsVersion "26.0.1"
    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 14
        targetSdkVersion 23
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"

    }

    realm {
        syncEnabled = true
    }
    useLibrary 'org.apache.http.legacy'

    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
    productFlavors {
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    androidTestCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
    //  compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.1.0'

    //   compile 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-core:2.9.0'
 //   compile 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-annotations:2.9.0'
 //   compile 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.9.0'
    compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.6.2'
}

____________finding_________

When I did not import the second module (parser) the app did not crash on dex but when the module was not imported app did not work. :D :D

Answer 1

For our project, we accidentally added same jar two times with different name. Removing one of them solved the issue.

Answer 2

In my case it was gson-2.8.1.jar which I have added to libs folder of the project. But the reference was already there by SDK. So it was not necesary to add gson-2.8.1.jar to libs folder.

When I took it out th gson-2.8.1.jar project compiles without this wiered error.

So try to revise libs folder and dependencies.

Answer 3

Sometimes you only need to pay attention to WARNINGS. In my special case I had these two dependencies in my module-level build.gradle file:

implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:27.0.2'
implementation 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:27.0.2'

and Studio had warned (in addition to dex merging problem):

All com.android.support libraries must use the exact same version specification (mixing versions can lead to runtime crashes). Found versions 27.0.2, 21.0.3. Examples include com.android.support:animated-vector-drawable:27.0.2 and com.android.support:support-v4:21.0.3

So I explicitly determined the version of com.android.support:support-v4 (see here for details) and both problems (the warning and the one related to dex merging) solved:

implementation 'com.android.support:support-v4:27.0.2'  // Added this line (according to above warning message)
implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:27.0.2'
implementation 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:27.0.2'

---

See others' comments below for other similar situations.

Answer 4

In case the top answers haven't worked for you, your issue may be that you have multiple dependencies that depend on the same library.

Here are some debugging tips. In this sample code, com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:3.0.0 is the offending library.

Always clean and rebuild every time you modify to check your solution!

1. Build with the --stacktrace flag on for more detail. It will complain about a class, Google that class to find the library. Here's how you can set up Android studio to always run gradle with the --stacktrace flag.

2. Take a glance at the Gradle Console in Android Studio View > Tool Windows > Gradle Console after a build

3. Check for repeated dependences by running ./gradlew -q app:dependencies. You can re-run this each time you modify the your build.gradle.

4. In build.gradle,

   android {
           ...
           configurations.all {
               resolutionStrategy {
                   // Force a particular version of the library 
                   // across all dependencies that have that dependency
                   force 'com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:3.0.0'
               }
           }
   }
   

5. In build.gradle,

   dependencies {
       ...
       implementation('com.google.auth:google-auth-library-oauth2-http:0.6.0') {
           // Exclude the library for this particular import
           exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
       }
   }
   

6. In build.gradle,

   android {
       ...
       configurations.all {
           resolutionStrategy {
               // Completely exclude the library. Works for transitive
               // dependencies.
               exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs'
           }
       }
   }
   

7. If some of your dependencies are in jar files, open up the jar files and see if there are any conflicting class names. If they are, you will probably have to re-build the jars with new class names or look into shading.

Some more background reading:

• Android - Understanding and dominating gradle dependencies
• Gradle Documentation: Dependency Management for Java Projects
• Gradle Documentation: ResolutionStrategy
• StackOverflow: Error:Conflict with dependency 'com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305'
• StackOverflow: How do I exclude all instances of a transitive dependency when using Gradle?
• Google search StackOverflow for all related questions

Answer 5

For me it was updating the firebase messaging in app\build.gradle:

compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:10.0.1'

to

compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-messaging:11.4.2'

Answer 6

In my case issue was because of the room library:

compile 'android.arch.persistence.room:runtime:1.0.0-alpha1'

Changing it to:

compile 'android.arch.persistence.room:runtime:1.0.0'

worked.