How to troubleshoot React Native build error?

Question

Below you can see the output I get when I try to run npx react-native run-android. It suggests some options to try in order to further pinpoint the problem, however they don't work with the aforementioned command so I assume that they are related to a gradle (just an educated guess).

I know ZERO about gradle; I have just seen the name here and there and in the output shown below. So please keep that in mind when you answer. If I need to learn how to run some gradle command(s) directly, please be as verbose as possible in your answer.

The project was working fine just a bit ago, but I wanted the ability to force portrait mode for certain screens but without configuring my entire app to always have to stick to portrait mode. So I found what looked to be a solution in the react-native-orientation-locker module. I installed it with yarn and then proceeded to update files as directed: https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-orientation-locker.

After updating the appropriate files, I got an error that suggested axios was the problem. I uninstalled and reinstalled axios. After that didn't work, I proceeded to undo all the file changes I had just made. Then I uninstalled the react-native-orientation-locker module.

To my knowledge, I have undone everything I did between the time the project worked and stopped working.

Sadly, I had not put this into source control yet (a mistake I won't make again), so I can't revert.

Where to go from here?

Answer 1

Problems like this are hard to pin point. What you can do is open the android project in android studio and see the logs as the project is being assembled. I assume you do not have much knowledge about android either so you might need some senior resource to help you. What I usually do in this case is open android studio and if I am lucky enough, it tells me which file has an issue and I go to the file and do what android studio suggests me. Some times it fixes the problem and sometimes it doesn't. Another thing I would like to mention is that the documentation of the package you are using is important to follow. I assume you did that already but I would suggest to review it narrowly and closely.

Another guess I can tell you is try to go to your-project/android/build.gradle and over there, you'll see something like this in the start. The package you are using mentions something about target SDK 27. I think you should check that out too. May be it helps

Lastly I would say always use source control while working with react native. It can easily blow up at any time so you should always have a safety net to fallback to :)