Execution failed for task ':app:transformClassesAndResourcesWithR8ForDebug' Issue

Question

After upgrading the gradle to com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.3.0-alpha07 today, I am facing one issue with build:

Task :app:transformClassesAndResourcesWithR8ForDebug FAILED

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

• What went wrong: Execution failed for task ':app:transformClassesAndResourcesWithR8ForDebug'.

java.lang.NullPointerException (no error message)

I have tried following steps to fix this issue :

• Deleted .gradle folder in projects root directory
• Invalidated caches and restarted android studio

Note : Issue exists when I set following values to true :

        minifyEnabled true
        shrinkResources true

If I make them false, Build succeeds. But still issue persist with them being true. Can anyone help in this?

Answer 1

This may not be the exact solution but something similar happened with me. However, I had updated my dependencies to AndroidX.

Keeping

minifyEnabled true shrinkResources true

will require you to also update app's proguard-rules file. After which only your app will compile. I hope this gives you some pointers in figuring out a solution.