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


I tried all the above and none of them helps. finally, I find this work for me:

app/build.gradle:

android {
    defaultConfig {
       multiDexEnabled true
    }
}

I had the same problem when I update from com.google.android.gms:play-services:11.2.2 to com.google.android.gms:play-services:11.4.0. This solved it for me:

  1. clean
  2. rebuild

Pay attention to Warnings!

Sometimes you only need to eliminate warnings and the error will be disappeared automatically. See below 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 below comments for other similar situations.