Layout preview rendering problems in android studio(Android Studio 1.2)

Question

I have the following error in my preview window in the latest version of Android Studio (1.2) that stops me from being able to view the layout I am creating, I have tried restarting android studio several times as well as cleaning, rebuilding the project and restarting my computer

EDIT:

Some projects have the same error while other older projects work fine

The following classes could not be instantiated:
- android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActionBarOverlayLayout (Open Class, Show Exception, Clear Cache)

Exception Details

  java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:       android/support/v7/internal/widget/ActionBarOverlayLayout$1
    at android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActionBarOverlayLayout.<init>(ActionBarOverlayLayout.java:93)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.ViewLoader.createNewInstance(ViewLoader.java:413)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.ViewLoader.loadView(ViewLoader.java:105)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.LayoutlibCallback.loadView(LayoutlibCallback.java:177)
    at android.view.BridgeInflater.loadCustomView(BridgeInflater.java:214)
    at android.view.BridgeInflater.createViewFromTag(BridgeInflater.java:142)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:482)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:414)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.bars.BridgeActionBar.<init>(BridgeActionBar.java:84)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.bars.AppCompatActionBar.<init>(AppCompatActionBar.java:56)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.RenderSessionImpl.createActionBar(RenderSessionImpl.java:1691)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.RenderSessionImpl.inflate(RenderSessionImpl.java:362)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.Bridge.createSession(Bridge.java:321)
    at com.android.ide.common.rendering.LayoutLibrary.createSession(LayoutLibrary.java:350)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask$2.compute(RenderTask.java:497)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask$2.compute(RenderTask.java:485)
    at com.intellij.openapi.application.impl.ApplicationImpl.runReadAction(ApplicationImpl.java:894)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask.createRenderSession(RenderTask.java:485)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask.render(RenderTask.java:590)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.doRender(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:644)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.access$1700(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:79)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager$7$1.run(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:586)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager$2.run(CoreProgressManager.java:152)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.registerIndicatorAndRun(CoreProgressManager.java:452)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.executeProcessUnderProgress(CoreProgressManager.java:402)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressManagerImpl.executeProcessUnderProgress(ProgressManagerImpl.java:54)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.runProcess(CoreProgressManager.java:137)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager$7.run(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:581)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.execute(MergingUpdateQueue.java:320)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.execute(MergingUpdateQueue.java:310)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue$2.run(MergingUpdateQueue.java:254)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.flush(MergingUpdateQueue.java:269)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.flush(MergingUpdateQueue.java:227)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.run(MergingUpdateQueue.java:217)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.runSafely(QueueProcessor.java:238)
    at com.intellij.util.Alarm$Request$1.run(Alarm.java:351)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:439)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:895)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:918)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:695)

Answer 1

The easiest way would be to change the theme of the application by clicking AppTheme.

This does not need to change anything in the code.

I attach the image below

AppTheme example of solution render problem android studio

Answer 2

You can also update Gradle to version 1.2.3 as explained here: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=171417

Apparently this was a bug on version 1.2.2 of Gradle and from the next version of Android studio Gradle 1.2.3 will be the default on new projects.

At least it worked for.

While Base.Theme.AppCompat.... is the superclass of Theme.AppCompat.... anyway, I prefer the fix using the new version of Gradle.

Worked for me, hope it works for you.

Also I had to Clean and Rebuild the Project.

Answer 3

Try changing your base application theme using below code - in res/values/styles.xml

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>

OR

Also you can try Switching the preview's API level to lower one from the preview configuration