Error:com.android.tools.aapt2.Aapt2Exception: AAPT2 error: check logs for details

Update 2 (Follow this approach)

You shouldn't do this now. Instead fix all the errors. This is only a workaround until it's removed. After that, you'll need to fix errors manually anyways.

Try to update your gradle plugin to 3.3.0-alpha06 to check if that fixes your issue.

Update 1:

Non-ascii characters issues have been fixed in AAPT2 and android gradle plugin now (yay!). Instead of disabling AAPT2 now you can just use android gradle plugin version 3.2.0-alpha11 or newer and you should not encounter this error anymore.

Original Answer

Aapt2 is enabled by default when you use android plugin for gradle 3.0.

This is to

improve incremental resource processing

as stated here.

But if you are facing issues with it, you can switch back to previous version by adding this in gradle.properties

android.enableAapt2=false

UPDATE

A new version of Gradle and Android-gradle-plugin is available that fixes these issues.

build.gradle (top level)

buildscript {
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.2.1'
    }
}

gradle-wrapper.properties

distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.8-all.zip

PREVIOUS ANSWER

If you disable AAPT2 you are just hiding the real issue.

Please be aware that AAPT1might be removed in the future therefore you are forced to use AAPT2. Actually the migration guide isn't hard to follow since you don't see that much changes at the same time this way is future proof.

Element hierarchies in the Android manifest

In previous versions of AAPT, elements nested in incorrect nodes in the Android manifest are either ignored or result in a warning. For example, consider the following sample:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="com.example.myname.myapplication">
   <application
       ...
       <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
           <intent-filter>
               <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
               <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
           </intent-filter>
           <action android:name="android.intent.action.CUSTOM" />
       </activity>
   </application>
</manifest>

Therefore you must check first if your really follow the correct Manifest structure as showed below.

Manifest file structure

The code snippet below shows the general structure of the manifest file and every element that it can contain. Each element, along with all of its attributes, is fully documented in a separate file.

<manifest>

    <uses-permission />
    <permission />
    <permission-tree />
    <permission-group />
    <instrumentation />
    <uses-sdk />
    <uses-configuration />  
    <uses-feature />  
    <supports-screens />  
    <compatible-screens />  
    <supports-gl-texture />  

    <application>

        <activity>
            <intent-filter>
                <action />
                <category />
                <data />
            </intent-filter>
            <meta-data />
        </activity>

        <activity-alias>
            <intent-filter> . . . </intent-filter>
            <meta-data />
        </activity-alias>

        <service>
            <intent-filter> . . . </intent-filter>
            <meta-data/>
        </service>

        <receiver>
            <intent-filter> . . . </intent-filter>
            <meta-data />
        </receiver>

        <provider>
            <grant-uri-permission />
            <meta-data />
            <path-permission />
        </provider>

        <uses-library />

    </application>

</manifest>