Develop Reference

Could not determine the class-path for interface com.android.builder.model.AndroidProject

When I import an Eclipse project into Android Studio, I got this problem:
Gradle 'XNote' project refresh failed
Error:Could not determine the class-path for interface com.android.builder.model.AndroidProject.
Anyone knows why it happened? Thanks!

Just now i am facing the same problem.
1.Check classpath in build.gradle file.
change to
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.0'
then go to gradle-wrapper.properties, and change distributionUrl
distributionUrl=http://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-3.3-all.zip
and then rebuild the project. its help for me...
I think this will definitely helps you.

I have solved this problem.
Google doesn't update ADT any more, so when Eclipse export a project to gradle, it use an old gradle plugin version that Android Studio doesn't support.
First, you should check the version of gradle plugin that you have installed.
Open Android Studio's installation directory,then open the directory \gradle\m2repository\com\android\tools\build\gradle\, you will see all version you have installed.
Then open Android Studio, open tab 'Project -> Gradle Scripts', Edit file build.gradle, change the gradle plugin to newest version you have installed, such as 2.3.0:
[OPTIONAL] This step is not necessary, but if you do not do this, you may see this problem:
A problem occurred evaluating root project 'XXX'.
> org/gradle/initialization/BuildCompletionListener
Check the newest version of gradle you have installed at C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\.gradle\wrapper\dists.
Then open tab 'Project -> Gradle Scripts', edit file gradle-wrapper.properties, modify the gradle version(attention: gradle, NOT gradle plugin) to the newest at the last line.
Finally, click Build - Clean Project, done!
If it still warning "Gradle project sync failed...", just click Try Again!
AT THE END, SOMEBODY HELP ME TO TRANSLATE MY ANSWER TO REAL ENGLISH THAT NO grammatical mistakes!!!

Just Update two things:-
1) Update your Build.gradle to
dependencies {
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.0.1'
}
2) Update Gradle-wrapper.properties: (Change Android mode > Project mode then Extend Gradle and open Gradle-wrapper.properties)
Replace distributionUrl=http\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.12-all.zip
By
distributionUrl=http://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-3.3-all.zip
This always resolves the issue. may it usefull for you

I got it working after upgrading build tools to version 25.0.0 in build.gradle:
buildToolsVersion '25.0.0'
And change project to use newest gradle version 3.3 with default gradle wrapper (File -> Settings -> Gradle)

In my case I removed folder .idea from the project and then restarting the studio automatically manages to all the required folder and gradle work.

First, delete your .gradle folder in the home directory then restart Android Studio.

Palanivelraghul was right. A Studio has to download the old version. Then it presented 3 different options after it was complete.
Choose the top option ~"Sync with 3.0.1".
Event Log:
Gradle sync started > Project setup started > Gradle sync finished > Executing tasks:
[:app:generateDebugSources, :app:generateDebugAndroidTestSources, :app:mockableAndroidJar] > Gradle build finished.

Gradle build failing after update to Android studio 2.3 Canary 3

I've recently updated the android studio version of my project from 2.3 Canary 2 to 2.3 Canary 3. Since then the gradle build is failing every time with this error:
Error:Unable to find method 'org.gradle.api.tasks.Sync.getInputs()Lorg/gradle/api/internal/TaskInputsInternal;'.
Possible causes for this unexpected error include:Gradle's dependency cache may be corrupt (this sometimes occurs after a network connection timeout.)
Re-download dependencies and sync project (requires network)The state of a Gradle build process (daemon) may be corrupt. Stopping all Gradle daemons may solve this problem.
Stop Gradle build processes (requires restart)Your project may be using a third-party plugin which is not compatible with the other plugins in the project or the version of Gradle requested by the project.In the case of corrupt Gradle processes, you can also try closing the IDE and then killing all Java processes.
I've searched google and not found solutions like this exactly but those that are similar are not working. Does anyone know how to fix it?

The solution is to select "Use default gradle wrapper (recommended)" option in the build gradle panel like the image below.
Now you can build with gradle 3.2 (in your gradle-wrapper.properties) and android gradle:2.3.0-alpha3 or beta1 as the time of writing
Don't forget to invalidate cache if you have some trouble using File -> Invalidate Cache / Restart

I had the same problem, fixed with checking gradle home path. This cannary build is no more working with gradle-2.14.1
The below link shows, point gradle path to gradle 3.2 directory.

The problem is the last version of tools 2.3.0-alpha3.
Try to use the 2.3.0-alpha2 in project build.gradle
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.0-alpha2'

It's mostly happened when setup new or update version of Android studio. I tried almost all solutions and find some fact that I like to share. It's work for me.
Make sure that updated JDK has set up to your computer and set path location.
Control Panel\System and Security\System-> Advanced system setting -> Advanced -> Enviroment Variables -> edit Path and pest your JDK bin folder location
Ex: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_131\bin
Set Project-level-setting "Use default Gradle wrapper (recommended)" from,
Android Studio -> File -> Setting -> Build, Exeution, Deployment -> Gradle
Set Android Studio JDK location:
Android Studio -> File -> Project Structure -> SDK Location -> JDK location
If this three thing is done then you need to set Gradle version 3.4.1 or see the latest version from gradle.org/releases.
Android Studio -> File -> Project Structure -> Project -> Gradle Version
After complete setting clean cash Android Studio will recover it own.
Android Studio -> File -> Invalidate caches/ Restart...

If you're using the gradle wrapper, make sure that the distributionUrl in your gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties is correct and up to date. As of this writing, I use this:
distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
distributionPath=wrapper/dists
zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-3.3-all.zip

try upgrading the Gradle version to 3.2.1

You may face this problem with your previous Project, We will notice that when you create a new application the Gradle build will complete successfully.
So just copy paste the grade setting from new project to the previous project.
Steps:
1) Replace Dependencies in build.gradle (project) by this code :
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.0'
2) Replace distributionUrl in Gradle-wrapper.properties by this code:
distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-3.3-all.zip
3) Don't forget to use Gradle default wrapper in Project level setting.
See this picture for more information

When updating to android studio 2.3, and then load an existing project for older version of android studio, It might take long if not forever on refreshing project.
I had the same problem but i fixed it as follows:
first of all go to Gradle Distributions and download any gradle of
version greater than 3.2
extract it and save it in a suitable place in your computer.
go to android studio and choose the following path
File->Settings->Build,Execution,Deployment->Gradle
on the right side choose or select Use local gradle distribution
and then browse to where you had saved your downloaded extracted
gradle
click apply, then ok.
thats it, your project should now work normally.

change
build:gradle:
from
dependencies {
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle +'
to
dependencies {
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.2.3'

Gradle's dependency cache may be corrupt (this sometimes occurs after a network connection timeout.)

I am getting this kind of error, how to fix it.
Error:Unable to load class 'org.gradle.tooling.internal.protocol.test.InternalTestExecutionConnection'.
Possible causes for this unexpected error Gradle's dependency cache may be corrupt (this sometimes occurs after a network connection timeout.)
Re-download dependencies and sync project (requires network)The state of a Gradle build process (daemon) may be corrupt. Stopping all Gradle daemons may solve this problem.
Stop Gradle build processes (requires restart)Your project may be using a third-party plugin which is not compatible with the other plugins in the project or the version of Gradle requested by the project.In the case of corrupt Gradle processes, you can also try closing the IDE and then killing all Java processes.

I updated my Android Studio to 2.3 and it asked me to update my gradle plugin to 3.3 that created issues with my running projects.
I've gone through all the Stack solutions and nothing worked for me except this workaround:
I changed my distribution url in gradle-wrapper.properties with this one.
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-5.6.2-all.zip
(permanent link list here : https://services.gradle.org/distributions/)
My project is up and running.It just asked me to update to gradle build tools 25.0.0 which I did so. Everything is fine now :)
Go to the project section and select gradle scripts menu.
Under script, menu select gradle -wrapper.properties
Then replace the distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.2-all.zip with "distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-3.4.1-all.zip"
note: distributions gradle will change depended upon the version of the android studio.

Make sure you have Internet Connection then:
1.For Window Users Go to > C:\Users\username\.gradle\wrapper\dists
2.For Linux users
Go to $HOME/.gradle (~/.gradle) and/or (Under Specific project)
<PROJECT_DIR>/.gradle
3.Delete the gradle file(s) with the problem(i.e the zipped folders with
missing with no its extracted file )
4.Sync the project with gradle files.

Delete corrupt files
This error occurs when Gradle files are not completely downloaded or corrupted by some other reason, so we have to redownload the files.
The easy way is to delete the old files in
C:\Users\username.gradle\wrapper\dists
and rebuild the project, Android Studio will automatically download the new files.

Watch the Tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u92_73vfA8M
or
follow steps :
Go to any browser
type gradle and press enter
you can specify any version you want after the
gradle keyword
i am downloading gradle 3.3
https://services.gradle.org/distributions
click on this link which is in description directly if you want
click on gradle 3.3 all.zip
wait for the download to complete
once the download is complete
extract the file to the location
c://user/your pc name /.gradle/wrapper/dists
wait till extraction it takes 5 mins to complete
Now open your project in android studio
9.go to file > settings >bulid ,exec,deployment > gradle
now change use default gradle to
use local gradle distributn
select the location where you had extracted gradle 3.3.zip
C:\Users\your pc name.gradle\wrapper\dists\gradle-3.3
click on OK
Now build starts again and
you can see now the build is successful and error is resolved

If you manually setup gradle also make sure projects build.gradle verison is compatible with it. See following as an example.
Project's build.gradle
dependencies {
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.2'
}
Manual gradle setup

A lot of answer to this questions but a few were helping. I want to give accurate and updated answer.
Gradle's dependency cache may be corrupt (this sometimes occurs after a network connection timeout.)
This error happens when you bad internet connection or you put your computer to sleep while Android Studio is downloading the required dependencies.
How to resolve this issue.
Find out the project's Gradle version. You will find that in gradle-wrapper.properties in distributionUrl my gradle distribution was https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.5-all.zip that means gradle-6.5-all.zip is required to download and right now it is corrupted because of connection timeout. Lets find out this folder and delete this.
Go to $HOME/.gradle folder then to wrapper then to dists then find a folder that matches the gradle version name that required to download. In my case it was gradle-6.5-all.zip select this folder and delete it.
Now sync the project and make sure you have good internet connection and setting that will prevent your system going to sleep while downloading something.

Kindly delele all folders under the in /.graddle/version/
This is how i solved mine. good luck

Maybe you can run ./gradlew build -s in the terminal, the stacktrace would show you where went wrong.

Try the next step to "Refresh" your IDE (android studio)
1. Let Gradle rebuild your auto-genrated files by click Build | Rebuild
2. Also try Choose File | Invalidate Caches/Restart.

I resolved this issue by downloading current version of graddle from link given
download latest version of graddle possibly graddle 3.3
Then in next step i accessed .graddle/wrapper/dists dirctory from home directory on my Mac after showing up hidden system files and deleted previuos version folder residing there.
Now i put that downloaded latest version folder after uncompressing there.
Now restarted Android studio and problem was resolved.

If you are seeing this error in Android Studio 4.1 with Gradle 6.5 then you should move back to
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.0.2'
For some reason
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.2.0'
does not work correctly.

You can try this
first Open your Android Studio > open any project you're doing
click on File > Settings > Build,Execution,Deployment > Gradle
At Project-Level settings , there are 2 option to sync the gradle either usin the default or local.
now change from default to a local gradle distribution > gradle Home
select the path on your computer.
C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\gradle\gradle-4.1
click on OK
Now build starts again it should be solved.

Go to "C:\Users\.gradle\caches\". Delete all the files in the folder. Then Sync Gradle and Rebuild the project.

i deleted the gradle folder and then i did rebuild, every thing working fine

If you using Ubuntu, So firstly you have unhide all files from your home directory or where located your android studio folder :
Go to your home directory and unhide all files by using ctrl+h
You found .gradle folder
Inside .gradle -> wrapper
You can found dists folder, So delete this dists folder
Create a New Project than your Gradle file re-downloaded
Congo you successfully build project

check out distributionUrl setting in gradle-wrapper.properties. I changed https to http, then my problem was solved.

In my case,just change http to https in the gradle-wrapper and Sync it.

Just reimport project. :)
I tried cleaning up the cache and refreshing dependencies doesn't work but failed.

Clear .gradle folder and rebuild

Open C:\Users\Username.gradle\wrapper\dists\
Open latest gradle folder, e.g. gradle-4.1-rc-1-all
You will find a random folder named 936kh1brdchce6fvd2c1o8t8x
Download zip file of similar name
eg: https://downloads.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.1-rc-1-all.zip
Save it in this folder
Restart Android studio
It will automatically extract the zip folder and Error will clear

Finally solved this problem.
If you just copy new version's files to old folder and override files,you may face the same question as me.
To solve it:
makesure you saved your all settings.
close AS,DELETE ALL files of your mixed version.
extract new version to your empty folder.
It works for me.

For me, i was cloning a project from github which used a version of gradle higher than that which i had installed. I had two choices:
Open gradle.wrapper-properties of a project you have that's building successfully, and copy the line that says distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.10.1-all.zip. Use this to replace the same value in the project that's failing. That should do the trick.
Your build might still fail if the gradle version used to build the project is higher than that which you just added. For this you should update the gradle version to the latest.

In my case I hade to change from:
plugins {
id 'com.android.application'
id 'kotlin-android'
id 'kotlin-kapt'
**apply plugin :'com.google.gms.google-services'**
}
to
plugins {
id 'com.android.application'
id 'kotlin-android'
id 'kotlin-kapt'
id 'com.google.gms.google-services'
}

search on google "download java 11"
click oracle website download your java to your platform and install it.
go to android studio click CTRL+SHIFT+ALT(Project Structure)
SDK Location Tab Show the path of JDK location which you installed

In your gradle-wrapper.properties
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.5-bin.zip
This won't download and always gives 'gradle cache corrupt' error, but a small change makes it work fine
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.5-all.zip
Now sync the gradle again and it's done.

I will generalize the issue that you might face
Inside module's build.gradle :
Change:
plugins {
[...]
apply plugin:'whatever_you_have'
}
to
plugins {
[...]
id 'whatever_you_have'
}
In other words instead of apply plugin: use id

Unable to find method ''void
com.android.build.api.extension.AndroidComponentsExtension$DefaultImpls.androidTest$default(com.android.build.api.extension.AndroidComponentsExtension,
com.android.build.api.extension.VariantSelector,
kotlin.jvm.functions.Function1, int, java.lang.Object)'' 'void
com.android.build.api.extension.AndroidComponentsExtension$DefaultImpls.androidTest$default(com.android.build.api.extension.AndroidComponentsExtension,
com.android.build.api.extension.VariantSelector,
kotlin.jvm.functions.Function1, int, java.lang.Object)'
Gradle's dependency cache may be corrupt (this sometimes occurs after
a network connection timeout.)
Re-download dependencies and sync project (requires network) The state
of a Gradle build process (daemon) may be corrupt. Stopping all Gradle
daemons may solve this problem.
Stop Gradle build processes (requires restart) Your project may be
using a third-party plugin which is not compatible with the other
plugins in the project or the version of Gradle requested by the
project.
In the case of corrupt Gradle processes, you can also try closing the
IDE and then killing all Java processes.
It happened to me after upgrading Android Studio to 4.2.0.
Updating the hilt classpath on build.gradle to 2.35 fixed these issues for me.
classpath "com.google.dagger:hilt-android-gradle-plugin:$2.35"

If you have updated your android studio, then go to FILE, Project Structure, Project, then check gradle version. Before that check your gradle version in C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\gradle and check the version if it matches then sync again else change the gradle version in android studio and sync again.

I had a similar problem after cloning AnySoftKeyboard and opening it in Android Studio. What worked for me was deleting the AynSoftKeyboard/gradle folder and then cleaning the project via menu item Build > Clean Project.
So try deleting YourProject/gradle folder and clean the project to trigger a Gradle sync.
Hope it works for your case.

download gradle from here for your OS and extract the file and paste the inner folder into installLocation/gradle
than in Android Studio Goto File > Settings > bulid ,exec,deployment > gradle and choose local gradle option and provide the file path of your new downloaded gradle and hit ok it works :)

Cannot resolve symbol 'AppCompatActivity'

I've just tried to use Android Studio. I've created blank project and tried to create Activity which extends AppCompatActivity. Unfortunalty Android Studio "says" that it
Cannot resolve symbol 'AppCompatActivity'
I have compile "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.0.+" in dependency list of my "app" module and rebuilt project several times. However I can only use ActionBarActivity. What am I doing wrong?

A little addition to other answers here, for anyone having the same error while using the right lib version and the right class.
When I upgraded to
appcompat-v7:22.1.0
In which ActionBarActivity is deprecated and empty and AppCompatActivty is the way to go, due to some glitch in Android Studio, It didn't quite pick up on version change.
i.e. Even though Gradle ran without errors, the IDE itself kept saying
Cannot resolve symbol 'AppCompatActivity' (and it also wasn't available through the Ctrl+N search)
I looked into the .idea/libraries folder and noticed there's no appropriate metafile for the new version of the lib.
So, using the old-reliable File->Invalidate Caches/Restart did the trick. Always try this when you feel something is magically wrong with Android Studio.
And then Disable offline mode and sync.

If the soft methods via gradle file / "Invalidate caches" and the other IDE tools do not work, use the hard way:
Exit Android Studio
Navigate in your project to the .idea folder
Just Rename the libraries folder
Restart Android Studio. It should now recreate the libraries folder and work again.
This worked for me on
Android Studio 3.1.2
Build #AI-173.4720617, built on April 13, 2018
JRE: 1.8.0_152-release-1024-b01 amd64
JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o
Linux 4.13.0-38-generic
Shahbaz Ali confirmed, it works also on
Android Studio 3.1.3
Build #AI-173.4819257, built on June 4, 2018
JRE: 1.8.0_152-release-1024-b01 amd64
JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o
Linux 4.13.0-38-generic
moujib confirmed, it works on Android Studio 3.2.1

Today (22 April) you can use the new AppCompatActivity released with the support libraries v 22.1.0.
Just change your dependency :
compile "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.1.0"
Here you can find more info about this new class.

It is too simple.here are the steps you need to follow
1-Exit Android studio.
2-Go to your project directory.
3-Something like this in my case( F>Android->YourProjectName->.idea).
4)-delete libraries folder present in .idea folder.
5)-restart your android studio.
and your issue is resolved.

I got it fixed by Going to build.gradle file and in dependencies the appcompat one, something like compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:XX.X.X'
Changed it to compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:XX.X.+'
Then click on Sync. All the red squiggly lines should go if everything else in your code is correct.

Check for typos too, i wasted my whole day looking for solutions when i had actually typed AppCompactActivity instead of AppCompatActivity

Cannot resolve symbol AppCompatActivity Issue.
Do the Simple Step to resolve the problem.
i) Exit the Android studio.
ii) Go to your project directory.
iii) Find the .idea folder in your project directory.
iv) Delete .idea folder.
v) Restart your android studio.
vi) The Issue Will be resolved.

I got the Cannot resolve symbol error for AppCompatActivity and many other classes & methods after updating Android Studio from 2.2.3 to 2.3, updating Android Gradle plugin to 2.3.0, and updating Gradle to 3.3.
File -> Invalidate Caches / Restart did not resolve the issue.
Preferences -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Gradle showed Use local gradle distribution selected with Gradle home: /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/gradle/gradle-2.14.1 and a warning displayed saying the gradle location was incorrect.
Resolved issue by selecting Use default gradle wrapper (recommended).
Probably just pointing to the new local distribution location would also work.

When you add AndroidX support in Gradle.properties file e.g.
android.useAndroidX=true
android.enableJetifier=true
If you are using Gradle version greater than 3.2, the conventional Appcompat dependancy e.g.
implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:27.1.1
wont work.
Replace this dependancy with:
implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.1.0'
Moreover, change the AppCompatActivity import in your class file from this:
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
to this:
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
Done

Try this. In Android Studio, after putting the dependency in build.gradle.
Go to Build --> Clean Project.
It worked for me.

Thats really insane, i tried everything, synced with Gradle files, invalidated and restarted android studio. Still the problem persisted. Last resort was deleting .idea/libraries folder and it worked as charm.

You can use new AppCompatActivity appcompat-v7:22.1.+
Just add this to your gradle:
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.1.1'

For me the issue resolved when i updated the appcompact v7 to latest..
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.3.0'
Hope it helps...:)

So my collegue pushed their local.properties which broke everything. I copied my sdk path from another app and did:
File -> Sync Project with Gradle Files

I was getting this same problem with Android SDK 23, while developing on a Mac OS X Yosemite Machine. It turned out that I did not have Java SDK 7.
Once I installed Java SDK 7 and pointed the SDK from with the Android Studio to the new SDK, everything worked for me.
Here are the steps that I followed:
1) Shutdown Android SDK
2) Install Java SDK for Mac OS X from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
3) Start the Android SDK and point the SDK for this project to the new 1.7 Java SDK by going to File -> Project Structure -> JDK Location
4) Restart Android Studio
Hope this help

none of below solved my issue
Restart Android
File >> Synch Project with Gradle Files
Build >> Clean Project
Build >> Rebuild Project
File >> Invalidate Caches / Restart
Instead, I solved it by updating the version of appcompat & design dependencies to the recent version
To do so: go to build.grade (Module:app) >> dependencies section and then hit ALT + ENTER on both appcompat & design dependencies then select the shown version in my case it's 24.2.1 as shown in the picture

Remember to press Alt+Enter or add the import.
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;

I updated my Gradle 2.3.3 to 4.4 and got an error on AppCompatActivity and also Cardview. I tried with clean project and rebuild project. It won't work, then I go to Project Folder -> .idea -> create backup of libraries folder and remove it -> then Rebuild Project that solved my issue.

Lets get going step by step: first clean project by using
Build->Clean
if this doesn't helps then use your second step
File>Invalidate Caches/Restart...
But the real problem begins when all the above options doesn't works so use your ultimate solution is to close project and go to project location directory and delete
.idea
You can open your project now again.

After upgrading to the latest support library, I had to upgrade to the latest Android studio (beta) version and gradle version before the IDE recognized AppCompatActivity again (invalidating caches and restart did not do the trick)

Add this dependency in project build .gradle.
Follow the example below.
dependencies {
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.1.0'
}

Easist Way
Open app level build.gradle and remove appcompact-v7 dependency & Sync.
Add dependency again & Sync.
Error gone!
Before
After

I solved it adding:
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
in the "import" zone of the main .java file. It worked for me.
Hope it helps!

You Have to just Do some change in your Gradle App File by adding some dependency
compile "com.android.support:appcompat-v7:XX:YY:ZZ"
while XX:YY:ZZ is the version code that you are using in your gradle file, otherwise if you set this version lower or higher than that you are using , then your app will face some problems like it will crash sometimes

i just update my android studio from 2.3.2 to 3.1.2 version. and this error occurs.
i clean project, rebuild project, invalidate cache/restart but nothing works.
i resolve this error by updating appcompat library from
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.4.0'
to
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.1.1'
in app build.gradle file.

If Invalidating caches not helps, just close the project then re-open it. Steps:
File > Close Project
Remove the project out of the starting project list
Close Android Studio
Open Android Studio
Open existed Project with this project

This happens because of one the following reasons:
You do not have the SDK API installed (this was my problem)
Your project/Android Studio doesn’t know where the needed files are
Your project references an outdated compile version that does not support AppCompatActivity
There is a typo
Possible solutions:
Check your .gradle file to make sure you’re not referencing an outdated version. AppCompatActivity was added in version 25.1.0 and belongs to Maven artifact com.android.support:appcompat-v7:28.0.0-alpha1, so do not use any version earlier than this. In your build.gradle (Module: app) file you should have the dependency listed:
dependencies {
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.1.0'
}
You may be using a different version, but just make sure you have listed the
dependency.
Open the SDK manager and download every API 7 or newer. If you were missing the needed API it will fix that issue, and downloading all the newer API’s can save you some hassle later on as well.
Check for typos in your import statement. Make sure it doesn’t say “AppCompactActivity” instead of “AppCompatActivity”.
Resync your project (File >Sync project with Gradle files)
Rebuild your project (Build >rebuild)
Clean your project (Build >clean project)
Close and restart Android Studio
Update Android Studio
Regenerate your libraries folder – In Android Studio, view your files in project view. Find the folder YourProjectName >.idea >libraries. Rename the folder to “libraries_delete_me”. Close and reopen Android Studio. Open your project again and the libraries folder should be regenerated with all of the files; you can now delete the “libraries_delete_me” folder.

For me, the issue resolved when I updated the Gradle build version. Don't know why?

I'll tell you how did i solved this problem in eclipse.
Download zip file from this link.https://github.com/dandar3/android-support-v7-appcompat then extract this file,open project, in lib folder you will see one jar file named "android-support-v7-appcompat" , add this jar file into your project. Thats it.

This can might be in the version difference in the app level gradle check it once and then re-build

Android Studio build fails with "Task '' not found in root project 'MyProject'."

I get this error when trying to build my project after changing laptop and updating to Android Studio version 0.8.2.
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
What went wrong:
Task '' not found in root project 'MyProject'.
Try:
Run gradle tasks to get a list of available tasks. Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
BUILD FAILED
Here are my Gradle files:
Top Level settings.gradle
include ':MyProject'
build.gradle in MyProject:
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
buildscript {
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.12.+"
}
}
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
android {
compileSdkVersion 20
buildToolsVersion "20"
defaultConfig {
minSdkVersion 14
targetSdkVersion 20
}
}
dependencies {
compile 'de.timroes.android:EnhancedListView:0.3.0#aar'
compile 'com.nineoldandroids:library:2.4.0'
}
Top level build.gradle is empty

Though late in answering, this is a hard one to Google (the single quotes) and it’s not clear what’s happening. I don't have the reputation yet to comment or ask for scope (or post 3 links), so this answer may be a little tedious.
To answer fast, you may have multiple Gradle plugins in your project.
Synchronize Gradle Wrapper and Plugins
My issue seemed to start with a corrupted IML file. Android Studio (between closing and reopening a project) began complaining an IML was gone (it wasn’t) and a module should be deleted, which I declined. It persisted, I upgraded to AS 0.8.7 (canary channel) and got stuck on the OP issue (Task '' not found in root project). This completely blocked builds so I had to dig in to Gradle.
My repair steps on OSX (please adjust for Windows):
Upgrade Android Studio to 0.8.7
Preferences | Updates | Switch "Beta Channel" to "Canary Channel", then do a Check Now.
You might be able to skip this.
Checked the Gradle wrapper (currently 1.12.2; don’t try to use 2.0 at this time).
Assuming you don’t need a particular version, use the latest supported distribution
$ vi ~/project/gradle-wrapper.properties ... distributionUrl=http\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.12-all.zip
This can be set in Android Studio at Preferences | Gradle (but 0.8.7 was giving me ‘invalid location’ errors).
The 'wrapper' is just a copy of Gradle for each Android Studio project. It allows you to have Gradle 2 in your OS, and different versions in your projects. The Android Developer docs explain that here.
Then adjust your build.gradle files for the plugin. The Gradle plugin version must be compatible with the distribution/wrapper version, for the whole project. As the Tools documentation (tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide#TOC-Requirements) is slightly out of date, you can set the plugin version too low (like 0.8.0) and Android Studio will throw an error with the acceptable range for the wrapper.
Example, in build.gradle, you have this plugin:
dependencies {
classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.12.+"
}
You can try switching it to the exact version, like this:
dependencies {
classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.12.2"
}
and (after recording what version you’re changing from in each case) verifying that every build.gradle file in your project pulls in the same plugin version. Keeping the “+” should work (for 0.12.0, 0.12.1, 0.12.2, etc), but my build succeeded when I updated Google’s Volley library (originally gradle:0.8.+) and my main project (originally 0.12.+) to the fixed version: gradle:0.12.2.
Other checks
Ensure you don’t have two Android Application modules in the same Project
This may interact with the final solution (different Gradle versions, above), and cause
UNEXPECTED TOP-LEVEL EXCEPTION: com.android.dex.DexException: Multiple dex files define (various classes)
To check, Build | Make Project should not pop up a window asking what application you want to make.
Invalidate your caches
File | Invalidate Caches / Restart (stackoverflow.com/a/19223269/513413)
If step 2 doesn't work, delete ~/.gradle/ (www.wuttech.com/index.php/tag/groovy-lang-closure/)
Quit Android Studio
$ rm -rf ~/.gradle/
Start Android Studio, then sync:
Tools | Android | Sync Project with Gradle Files
Repeat this entire sequence (quit...sync) a few times before giving up.
Clean the project
Build | Clean Project
Project structure mismatch; see https://stackoverflow.com/a/64962359/8740349 for details.
If You See This...
In my recent builds, I kept seeing horrible fails (pages of exceptions) but within seconds the messages would clear, build succeeded and the app deployed. Since I could never explain it and the app worked, I never noticed that I had two Gradle plugins in my project. So I think the Gradle plugins fought each other; one crashed, the other lost its state and reported the error.
If you have time, the 1-hour video "A Gentle Introduction to Gradle" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFUEb7pLLXw) really helped me approach the Gradle build files, tasks, build decisions, etc.
Disclaimer
I'm learning this entire stack, on a foreign OS, after working a different career...all at the same time and under pressure. In the last few months I have hit every wall I think Android has; I've been here quite often and this is my first post. I thought this was a hard fix, so I sincerely apologize if the quality of my answer reflects the difficulty I had in getting to it.

Download system image(of targeted android level of your project) from sdk manager for the project you have imported.
This error comes when you do not have target sdk of your android project installed in sdk folder
for eg. Your imported project's target sdk level may be android-19 and on sdk folder->system-images you may have android-21 installed. so you have to download android-19 system image and other files from sdk manager or you can copy paste it if you have the system image.

Remove:
<facet type="android" name="Android">
<configuration />
</facet>
in your iml file. That works for me.
https://plus.google.com/+AlexRuiz/posts/49hP3V9GSGe

This happened to me recently when I close one Android Studio project and imported another Eclipse project. It seemed to be some bug in Android Studio where it preserves some gradle settings from previously open project and then get confused in the new project.
The solution was extremely simple: Close the project and shut down Android Studio completely, before re-opening it and then import/open the new project. Everything goes smoothly from then on.

Apparently this error has multiple causes. Here's what fixed it for me.
I was running the build command like this:
./gradlew :testapp: build
Running it without the space fixed the issue:
./gradlew :testapp:build

I got this error when switching from one Git branch to another, and then trying to run "Clean Project". I used ack to search for the Task name, and found it in a .iml file.
My solution was to regenerate the project's .iml file by clicking (in the main menu) Tools > Android > Sync Project with Gradle Files. (Thanks to this answer.)

In my case, setting the 'Gradle version' same as the 'Android Plugin version' under File->Project Structure->Project fixed the issue for me.

Simple fix for me was
Build > Clean project
Restart Android Studio

Yet another solution to the same problem:
This happened to me every time I imported an eclipse project into studio using the wizard (studio version 1.3.2).
What I found, quite by chance, was that quitting out of Android studio and then restarting studio again made the problem go away.
Frustrating, but hope this helps someone...

Sometimes, if you have opened two windows of Android Studio, and when you try to compile, this issue might happen. For me, when I was compiling a backed Google Cloud Endpoint module which was not embedded in a project, rather shared among different Android Studio projects, and when there is more than once instance open, this error use to spring up for me. But as soon as you close other windows, everything will be fine. Sometimes, you might have to restart Android Studio altogether.

I got this problem because it could not find the Android SDK path. I was missing a local.properties file with it or an ANDROID_HOME environment variable with it.

Make sure you have the latest values in your gradle files. As of this writing:
buildToolsVersion "21.1.2"
dependencies {
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:1.1.0'
}

Open Command Prompt
then go your project folder thru Command prompt
Type gradlew build and run

Apparently this issue caused by Android Studio on the various situation but the reason is build error When importing an existing project into android studio. In my case, I've imported my exist project where I was supposed to install few build tools then finally build configuration was done with error. In this case, just do the following things
Close the current project
File>New>Import Project (Don't use the open recent project)
Note:
I'm sure this kind of error is not on source code when this happened on Import project.

Problem
I specifically got the "[module_name]:prepareDebugUnitTestDependencies" task not found error, every time I ran gradle build. This happened to me after updating my Android Studio to 3.0.0.
Investigation
I had previously added command-line options to the gradle-based compiler, which you can find under: File -> Settings -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Compiler -> Command-line Options. Specifically, I had excluded a number of tasks, including the aforementioned task. While that worked fine on the previous stable version (2.3 at that time), it seems like this was the reason behind the build failure.
Solution
This is one of many possible solutions.
Make sure you have the correct command-line options specified in the settings under: File -> Settings -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Compiler -> Command-line Options, and that none of them is causing this problem.
In my case, I removed the exclusion of this task (and other tasks that seemed related), left the unrelated tasks excluded, and it worked!

I had the same problem and the "Tasks" tab doesn't appear to me on the Gradle settings, neither doing the commands gradlew signinReport or something.
I fix it doing the following steps:
1.- Add android: exported = "true" in my main activity of the AndroidManifest (because that Activity has an intent-filter)
2.- Update in Build.gradle (app) the compileSdkVersion to 31
3.- Update in the same place the targetSdkVersion also to 31.
4.- Click on "Sync now".
And that works for me.
Farewell!

For this you may simply just goto: SETTINGS > EXPERIMENTAL > Then uncheck the option:
"Do not build Gradle Task List during Gradle sync", Click on "Apply" > "Ok" and then click on the "Sync Project with Gradle files" option from the right side of the menu bar.
Your issue should be resolved.

Set the path of the root folder and after run the below command
ex : cd C:\Users\maha\Documents\gradle\gs-gradle-master\initial

This is what I did
Remove .idea folder
$ mv .idea .idea.bak
Import the project again

I remove/Rename .gradle folder in c:\users\Myuser\.gradle and restart Android Studio and worked for me

In my case, I meet this problem that compile options in Android Studio is "stacktrace." Modify stacktrace to --stacktrace, the problem solved.

I have solved this problem You just need to Create file in Android Folder
Go android folder
Create file local.properties
then just add this code in local.properties file:-
If you are using MacBook then sdk.dir=/Users/USERNAME/Library/android/sdk
if you are using Windows then sdk.dir=C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Android\sdk
if you are using Linux then sdk.dir = /home/USERNAME/Android/sdk
if you want to know what is your system USERNAME then just use command for Mac whoami
and then just rerun command react-native run-android
Thanks :)

Am on Mac so answer is as per like that.
Go to Android Studio(From Menu Bar) -> Preferences -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Compiler . Then look for Command-Line Options , there make sure nothing typed in its Text Field. That should be empty. Then rebulid project and thats it.