Android Studio xml preview issue failed to initialize editor

Question

After Update android studio dolphin my old projects xml preview not showing views. Is anyone facing same issue? And have done solution then please share it here. It's run perfectly fine but preview not working.

What I did tried?

• File -> Invalidate Cashes / Restart
• Delete build , idea , gradle folder
• Restart PC and android studio

but none of that solved my problem.

Bryantbryanty

@MansoorMalik tried but still have same problem – Bryantbryanty

did you try complete uninstall then download and install again instead of update? – Stud

Same issue I am facing – Forehand

Invalidate caches is not working. This update is very bad – Tva

I have the same issued when updating to dolphin, very bad update, anyone solve it – Miasma

same issue. nothing worked. changing theme, reinstalling sdsk tools, emulators, update again, cache delete, restart....very bad situation – Griner

@FabianK You got any error? Upgrade Your gradle to latest if not already. – Bryantbryanty

In my case, the issue only happens with any XML file that contains a custom view. Setting defStyleAttr = 0 should resolve it. – Gravy

Answer 1

I'm suffering from same issue/bug. What I did so far?

Attempt 1

• File -> Sync Project with gradle files
• File -> Invalid catch and Restart.
• Delete build folder idea and .gradle folder.
• Restart Android studio and restarted my pc as well.
  This will do solve in one of the my project which is only 5 screen project. But not solved in my other old projects which are more than 5 year old.

Attempt 2

Tried all step from attempt 1 Also tried what siregar2103 answered

• File -> Repair IDE but still have same problem ,But Repair IDE did solve my other project issue/bug.

Attempt 3

All from Attempt 1 and 2 but not solve in my main project so I decided to upgrade my years old project to latest one. I did upgrade my Gradle from 4.1.3 to 7.3.0 Update all dependency to latest one but I face many error while doing that. Hilt error and other errors too. Which I'm going to mention below.
For Hilt I did removed all old Hilt related library and and below

kapt "com.google.dagger:dagger-compiler:2.42"     
kapt "com.google.dagger:hilt-android-compiler:2.43.2"     
implementation "com.google.dagger:dagger:2.42"     
implementation "com.google.dagger:hilt-android:2.43.2"     
implementation 'androidx.hilt:hilt-work:1.0.0'     
kapt "androidx.hilt:hilt-compiler:1.0.0"     
implementation 'androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-viewmodel-ktx:2.5.1'     
implementation "androidx.navigation:navigation-compose:2.5.1"

---

In build.gradle file (not .app level)

• id 'com.google.dagger.hilt.android' version '2.43.2' apply false

Important note: I did add implementation "androidx.navigation:navigation-compose:2.5.1" dependency because I got

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: CreationExtras must have a value by SAVED_STATE_REGISTRY_OWNER_KEY error in runtime.

---

Other Error which I faced is

Exception is: com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.model.ExternalSystemException: lateinit property _buildFeatureValues has not been initialized

For this I did build gradle using command line and it give me full error which I didn't get when I directly build don't know why? But It's through error related flat dir and aar file so I did removed flat dir code and change aar file implementation code now It's started to build and my app started to install.
Now still some of my file not rendering and that because of I'm using custom attr from style so I'm trying to figuring out why it's happening and I'll update this answer when I find solution for that.
So using above my 60% xml files preview start showing in my old projects. For 40% screen I have to change my default theme to custom theme in preview of xml so it can start rendering.

---

• Repair IDE
• Upgrade your code to latest Android Gradle Plugin

This 2 step should solve your problem. And build using command line for more error related details.

Gown

I did upgrade gradle but still got error _buildFeatureValues so building using command line did the trick and I had problem aar files are not resolved. But I still not understand why androidx.navigation:navigation-compose:2.5.1 is required because I have same error SAVED_STATE_REGISTRY_OWNER_KEY ? – Bryantbryanty

Answer 2

In my case, I have upgraded the project AGP (Android Gradle Plugin) and then restart the android studio.

Problem Solved.

Armyworm

@AndroidDev, I hope your issue is resolved. – Armyworm

Thanks .Yes It is facing other error after upgrading gradle that is solved by bhavin patel's answer. – Bryantbryanty

Answer 3

Have you try to using Repair IDE? It works for me

Samora

Answer 4

I ran into a similar issue when upgrading to Dolphin. I was able to solve this by changing the preview's theme from App.Starting [default] to my app's theme.

Barsky

After trying this the issue is still the same. – Alarice

no solution for me. whatever theme – Griner

Answer 5

Try to update the gradle and sync files. It work for me.

Redneck

Answer 6

The XML file in your project may contain an error. The reason may be a font issue or a file not linking correctly with your XML layout.

This is for your reference on how to find errors.

Hope you find it useful.

Adjutant

Answer 7

Check what Layout Inspectors you have enabled in Android Studio and try to let only the API 29-30 inspector active.

Earthworm

No, whatever version is not running. Whatever style is choosen. – Griner

Answer 8

In my case if in xml custom views have used that my preview screen not show views if I remove or comment custom views in xml layout after that the preview screen show other view perfectly

I know removing custom layouts not solution.

for solve this issue I do following steps

First I just update Gradle plugin version to 7.3.0 from setting project structure (No working)

after that I also update com.google.gms:google-services version to 4.3.14

now every things work fine.

Natator

Answer 9

In my case, I have upgraded Android Gradle Plugin when update is popUp and then restart the android studio.

My Problem Solved.

Backswept

Answer 10

I am looking as well for a soluition till now. From what i see, it has something to do with AGP or Cardview (Layouts). Many code snipeets relate to this issue.

I am trying to update the AGP version, but it seems, that the enveronmet is more broken than that. I get as well an empty Field for the gradle version and plugin under settings.

Griner

Answer 11

For anyone can not fix this issue, i'm just need to update gradle version and buildtool

buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/Dependencies.kt

object BuildPlugins {
    object Versions {
        const val buildToolVersion = "7.3.0" //lower version seem not work

and change to 7.4 in gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties

distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.4-bin.zip

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