Gradle plugin 3.5.0: "Failed to transform artifact", "Execution failed for JetifyTransform"

Question

We updated Android Gradle plugin from 3.4.2 to 3.5.0 (and Gradle from 5.1.1 to 5.4.1).

After that, the build started failing in a few submodules. Trying to assemble any build variant yields this (same error on the command line and in Android Studio):

> Failed to transform artifact 'bottom-navigation.aar (project :bottom-navigation)' to match attributes {artifactType=jar}.
   > Execution failed for JetifyTransform: <project_root>/bottom-navigation/build/outputs/aar/bottom-navigation-release.aar.
      > Failed to transform '<project_root>/bottom-navigation/build/outputs/aar/bottom-navigation-release.aar' using Jetifier. 
        Reason: Cannot open a library at 'FileMapping(from=<project_root>/bottom-navigation/build/outputs/aar/bottom-navigation-release.aar, to=<project_root>/bottom-navigation/build/.transforms/9b2af95a5f0e0055110660c22ff05ab5/jetified-bottom-navigation-release.aar)'. (Run with --stacktrace for more details.)

Any ideas how to fix this?

What I've tried

• "Invalidate caches" in AS and also clearing all Gradle caches in ~/.gradle/caches as suggested in this answer
• All the advice in this somewhat similar question
  • I checked that the problematic modules use apply plugin: 'com.android.library' (instead of com.android.application)
  • I tried updating appcompat dependency to androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.1.0 in affected modules and also removing that dependency

Update

It starts to look like something is wrong in Gradle plugin 3.5.0; builds behave erratically for me locally and on our CI machine.

For example, clean builds are failing: ./gradlew clean assembleBetaRelease fails while ./gradlew assembleBetaRelease works!

Also, sometimes I get AAPT: error: attribute ... not found instead of the above Failed to transform artifact error.

Reverting to Gradle plugin 3.4.2, all these problems disappear.

Edit Oct 2019: Still seeing this weird behaviour with Gradle plugin 3.5.1. Edit Nov 2019 And 3.5.2. Upgrading to Gradle 5.6 didn't help either.

Redfin

Did you missed android.useAndroidX=true & android.enableJetifier=true in gradle.properties file? – Whiff

are using a React Native project? – Vert

@JeelVankhede: we have both of those in project-wide gradle.properties. – Redfin

@sajadabbasi: no, this project has nothing to do with React Native. – Redfin

@Redfin Please verify that you're not having any support library artifact in any module. – Whiff

Answer 1

A bit weird, but I got it working again. Apparently just a temporary glitch in Android Gradle plugin related to caching.

This answer helped me:

The simple way to solve this is to switch between your build variants. This refreshes the cached copies and resolves the issue.

I couldn't do that in Android Studio since the project sync was failing, but on the command line I tried another variant (in my case ./gradlew assembleBetaDebug having used ./gradlew assembleBetaRelease earlier). The build passed, and after that it worked for all all other variants too, and Gradle sync in Android Studio started working as well!

Edit: actually this is not completely solved; see updated question.

Update 12/2019: bundle* commands work fine, it's only assemble* that fails—still failing with Android Gradle plugin 3.5.3. Building in Android Studio works fine. Obviously this is not a common issue, and I don't know what exactly in the particular project I'm working on is causing this.

Update 04/2020: now with Android Gradle plugin 3.6.2 (and Gradle 5.6.4) builds work for me locally and I was able to update the project. On CircleCI, the build still occasionally fails with "Failed to transform artifact" but re-running fixes it. Go figure 🤔

Redfin

Actually this problem is nastier than that — now I'm getting it again for example when I run ./gradlew clean assembleBetaRelease, while ./gradlew assembleBetaRelease works! And we ran into the same issue in our CI environment; haven't been able to fix that yet. I'm considering reverting back to 3.4.2 to make builds reliable again. – Redfin

I also had this issue using Android Gradle plugin 3.5.3 with Gradle 5.4.1. I reverted the Android Gradle plugin to 3.4.2 and it works. – Soapsuds