Gradle does not generate an output APK

Question

I'm trying to generate an APK for my android project on the command line. I am running

./gradlew clean assembleProductionDebug

The output I get is:

:app:processProductionDebugManifest
:app:processProductionDebugResources
:app:generateProductionDebugSources
:app:compileProductionDebugJava
Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
:app:preDexProductionDebug
:app:dexProductionDebug
:app:processProductionDebugJavaRes UP-TO-DATE
:app:validateDebugSigning
:app:packageProductionDebug
:app:zipalignProductionDebug
:app:assembleProductionDebug

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 2 mins 29.574 secs

However, my build/outputs folder is empty. The same happens when I run ./gradlew assemble

The only relevant thing I could search for is potentially https://gradle.org/docs/current/dsl/org.gradle.language.assembler.tasks.Assemble.html but how do I specify the objectFileDir in the build.gradle?

Note: running

./gradlew clean installProductionDebug

does successfully install the APK on my device.

Relevant build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'git-dependencies'
apply plugin: 'testfairy'
apply plugin: 'org.robolectric'


android {
    compileSdkVersion 21
    buildToolsVersion "21.1.2"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.test.androidas"
        minSdkVersion 15
        targetSdkVersion 21
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }

    signingConfigs {
        release {
             storeFile file("as.keystore")
             storePassword "***"
             keyAlias "as"
             keyPassword "***"
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
            signingConfig signingConfigs.release
        }
    }


    productFlavors {
        production {
            applicationId "com.antsquare.test"
            versionCode 1
        }

        staging {
            applicationId "com.antsquare.test.staging"
            versionCode 1
        }
    }

    packagingOptions {
        exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
        exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
        exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES'
        exclude 'META-INF/notice.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/license.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/dependencies.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/LGPL2.1'
    }

    testfairyConfig {
        apiKey '***'
        video "wifi"
        notify true
        testersGroups "ME"
        autoUpdate true
        videoQuality "low"
        videoRate "0.5"
    }
}

Kumar

Where do you try to find for this file? This file is not visible in Android Studio – Philippine

It is {project}/app{or folder of your module}/build/outputs/apk/*.apk – Philippine

By file do you mean the APK? I am looking for it in /<app>/build/outputs/apk/ – Kumar

yes there should be there if not clean your project and run ./gradlew build – Philippine

In <app>/build/ I do not have an outputs folder, only an intermediates folder. I manually created outputs/apk/ but it is still not put there – Kumar

Use some file explorer not android studio – Philippine

Yes, I am using ls -A build/outputs/apk . it is empty – Kumar

Did you call ./gradlew build ? And did you see message that BUILD SUCCESSFUL – Philippine

My mistake ./gradlew task build – Philippine

First clean your project by ./gradlew task clean and after that call ./gradlew task build --debug | grep .apk from console you will see apk place – Philippine

./gradlew task build gives me a lint error: android { lintOptions { abortOnError false } } – Kumar

Answer 1

First add

android { 

     compileSdkVersion 21
     buildToolsVersion "21.1.2"

     ...

     lintOptions { 
         abortOnError false 
     } 
}

in your build.gradle in app module.

After that clean your project by ./gradlew task clean and after that call ./gradlew task build --debug | grep .apk from console you will see apk place

Philippine

Thanks, that fixed the build error, but the apks are still not made. In the output I see the following lines:12:14:13.906 [DEBUG] [org.gradle.api.Project] Packaging app-staging-release-unaligned.apk Output file /Users/jimwang/dev/test/AndroidAS/app/build/outputs/apk/app-staging-release.apk has changed. Output file /Users/jimwang/dev/test/AndroidAS/app/build/outputs/apk/app-staging-release.apk has been removed. – Kumar

try cd /Users/jimwang/dev/test/AndroidAS/app/build/outputs/apk – Philippine

and ls -a after that – Philippine

in console in your android studio – Philippine

there have to be these files – Philippine

yes ur right, i was actually looking in the wrong folder that time. thanks ! – Kumar

I am glad that I could help you Good luck – Philippine

Answer 2

In Android Studio,

If the build is successful but not generating

.apk

file and not launching emulator.

Solution: Make sure the drop-down below build in menu or drop-down to left side of the run is selected to 'app' then when you run or debug,

.apk

file will be generated and the emulator will launch.

Tailing

"Make sure the drop-down below build in menu or drop-down to left side of the run is selected to 'app' then when you run or debug," I don't find anything that looks like this. – Volkslied