Develop Reference

Errors when creating a new Android project

Im trying to create an Android project on Eclipse but as soon as i create it, errors appear on the project name.
I dont know whats wrong since I havent written anything myself yet. When when im on the final step of the project creation window (the activity section), I click finish and it takes like 5 seconds and the project name appears on the left, in the project explorer but the window doesnt close.
Heres what it looks like:
Here's the result of the Problems tab:

When you have errors like R cannot be resolved to a variable most of the times you have to solve problems in your Resources, for example you can see the folder \res has a red cross, solve that problems first.

Do the below changes and I guess it should work.
Update ADT & SDK.
Remove gen folder , and create it again .
Do a clean-project.
Right click the project and choose android-tools -> fix-project-properties .
Right click the project and choose properties -> java-build-path -> order-and-export. make sure the order is :
Android private libraries
Android dependencies
Your library project's if needed
yourAppProject/gen
yourAppProject/src
Make sure all files in the res folder's subfolders have names that are ok : only lowercase letters, digits and underscore ("_") .
Always make sure the targetSdk is pointed to the latest API (currently 18) , and set it in the project.properties file
If above doesn't work then try next method 2 given below:
The step to solve the issues is easy. You just mouse point to your project folder (Example: SampleAndroid), then right click and now choose “Build Project”. Your all project will rebuild.
Once rebuild complete, you can see that the error icon was disappear on the MainActivity.java code. Now you can run your application in Emulator.

Maybe try "Project->clean" in order to rebuild.

First of all check the Problems tab that will you show you what may cause this. Also clean your project as it might solve some issues.

I also faced the same problem and solved it by deleting appcompatv4 file from libs folder. Try it, it might help to you.

I have this problem, finally,I solved this by opening my SDK manager → download Android support in Extras,you can try.
check your Android support is installed, and then you can build a new project without errors.

Resource file can't be located by eclipse android

I need help badly. I tried to to a clean in my android app Project>Clean. After doing this, All my classes started to have errors. It can't detect the R in --> findViewById(R.id.heightVal); And it cannot locate some other files, xml ids and xmls. Any ideas?

I think you import android.R in your activity . If it is the case then delete that line and clean project again.
R is an automatically generated class that holds the constants used to
identify your resources. If you don't have an R.java file (it would be
gen/eu.mauriziopz.gps/R.java in Eclipse with the 1.5 SDK) I would
recommend closing and reopening your project or going to Project >
Build all (and selecting "Build Automatically"). If that doesn't work than try making a new
project.

this might help you if you are using Ganymede and in some other versions of eclipse had experienced similar problems either restarting or doing this cleared it most of the times
right click on your project then click configure build path tick the android file shown there

Try to comment all the lines in XML file that show an error.
Clean up the project.You can uncomment the lines if R.java has been regenerated.
If the id's are still not detecting try closing and reopening the project.Its weird but sometimes you have to do it.

R.java disappeared

I recently downloaded the Android Support Package and have been using it trying to get my application, running at SDK 10, to use a GridLayout.
Anyway, I cleaned my project a few times working on this error in my XML files, and then when I went back to my classes in /src, every single reference to R.* was an error.
This has happened to me before, but it usually fixes itself, and it has not yet. Does anyone know what to do?
The R.java file is no longer in my /gen folder.

It sometimes happens when you import another project First i suggest you to build it, it will create automatically .
If it's not working then try to create new project from existing source and specify the downloaded project . It worked for me
Hope this works for you let me know..

Sometimes if there is an error in your XML files R.java won't build. Go through your XML files to make sure that everything is in order (typo, forgetting to close a bracket, etc). When you fix that it should build itself again.

You can also try Adnroid Tools>Fix Project. That may help you to create gen/R.java file

Follow following steps :
In Eclipse,
=> Right Click on Project > Android Tools > Fix Project
By this way, you can fix many common problems which can help generate R.java in gen/R.java file.

There can be several reasons why this occurs. The following I have found happen to me and I have included the steps I took to resolve them.
First step is to try and clean the project (from the Project menu option I believe)
Check there are no errors with your XML files. Sometimes this is obvious from the red 'x' that appears next to an XML filename in the Project exlporer window and sometimes it is not. If it is not obvious check the 'Errors' window (whic is founf in the 'Windows' Menu option
Failing that I have found that by disabling the automatic build option, adding some arbitrary comment to an arbitrary source file, saving the source file, clean the project, remove the comment and then re-selcting automatic build can work too.
Apologies for the approximate locations for some of the Eclipse functions but I am not currently in front of Eclipse to check.

This happens when you have an error in the res folder.
Fix the error first, then do :
Project --> Clean --> Ok
Et voila !

Eclipse error : Your project contains error(s),please fix them

I am using Eclipse Classic 3.7.2 working only on Android. I use Ubuntu as my OS. When I run any basic Android application on Eclipse say "Hello World", it results an error called Your Project contains error(s), please fix them before running your application.
Now I have googled and checked here and may others but I did not get the solution.
I also tried Project > clean... but it isn't working.
Windows->Show Views->Problems shows 2 errors:
Error generating final archive: java.io.FileNotFoundException:/home/android/Desktop/helloworld/bin/resources.ap_does not exist.
Unable to parse aapt...

It may be be because of Eclipse's debug certificate expiration.
Please look at to my this answer.

Close and restart Eclipse. It works everytime !
Its bug with deleting android projects I think.

I have faced exactly same type of issue. Just update your eclipse ADT plugin to latest version.
After update clean build the project.

Go to your .android folder and delete your debug certificate. In my computer it is in this path
E:\Users\(ur profyle)\.android
Inside that there is a file name 'debug.keystore'. Delete that,clean and try to build the project again. Sometimes this error is caused when the certificate expires.

You need to update your Eclipse to the latest available version(Indigo) and then need to update the ADT(level 16 I think), as the latest ADT updates works on Indigo only. After the updates close and reopen the Eclipse, it should work now.

Go to Project Properties -> Java Build Path
Select Libraries and remove Android Dependencies
After this my problem solved.
The error was because of updating

Set your Android sdk path once again and restart Eclipse. It fixes the issue (window-preferences-android-sdklocation).
Or, just update your Android tools and restart Eclipse works.

Check your libs folder ..
some libraries cause this ,
it happened to me once and i was use Apache POI .. i tried to delete the jars from libs folder and it's worked ..

I had this problem in Eclipse after executing Project => Clean... That option deletes all the compiled stuff from your project and, therefore, the java classes start looking like if they all have errros.
To fix that problem I had to:
1. open my java clases and XML layout files(for android dev)
2. do a small change, something like a adding a space
3. Hitting Crt+S to ask eclipse to save and compile the class once again.
This solution may or may not work for you. I recommend looking at your specific problems using the Problems tab of Eclipse (Found at Windows=>Show View=>Problems) since it tells you about the exact errors and other very useful information.

If you're using android support library make sure you have not added jar files ( android-support-v4.jar and android-support-v7-appcompat.jar ) in your libs folder.
you only need to add android-support-v7-appcompat as library on your project.
It worked for me the time I had the same issue

My project had no errors in it but I noticed another open (unrelated) project which did have errors. I closed that project and my other project worked fine again.
Now the "unrelated" project used to be related but I'd removed the dependency ages ago. Closing it solved my problem so I have to assume there is some Eclipse bug in there somewhere which is still linking to it in some way. I'd say if I created a new project and copied everything in it might have achieved the same result.
As a test for yourself.. maybe close all other projects except the one you are working on.

Your project contains error(s), please fix it before running it

I am developing a simple Android application. But when I run Eclipse, it shows the following error:
Your project contains error(s), please fix it before running it.
I can't find any error in my project or there is no error in my application.
There is a red cross under the application name but it is not under another file name.
Does anyone else have this issue?

That usually comes from errors in the build path.
If you're using eclipse, there is a view you can add that lists all the errors called "Problems":
Otherwise, you can try to clean the project, and that usually solves a few problems.
Finally, if you add or alter resources from outside your IDE, you'll want to reload the resources and clean.
EDIT (Comment by anonymous user)
This can also be caused by an out of date "Debug Certificate" fixed as follows:
IF ALL FAILS THEN THIS GOTTA BE THE SOLUTION:
Delete your debug certificate under ~/.android/debug.keystore (on Linux and Mac OS X); the directory is something like %USERPROFILE%/.androidon Windows.
The Eclipse plugin should then generate a new certificate when you next try to build a debug package. You may need to clean and then build to generate the certificate.
This is also another fix for the "setContentView(R.layout.main);" error that says it cannot find R.layout.main when it is actually generated. (R cannot be resolved to a variable).
This is also another fix for the error "Your project has errors..." and you cannot find any.
Clean and rebuild are still necessary after generating a new debug certificate.

First go to Window -> Show View -> Error Logs in menu. It will display error logs if you have any. Then try to clean the project and build it again.

Well, in my case some libraries were addressed twice in the:
Project >> Properties >> Java Build Path >> Libraries
I just had to remove the duplicate and it worked fine without any cleanings or refreshing.

I saw this with an existing project. I had made a few edits, but hadn't imported anything new. Restarting Eclipse didn't help.
Project->Clean did solve the problem.

I come across this error often when I import a new project in my workspace.
Reason: Some necessary files (Like R.Java) is not generated in its respective packages.
Cure: Clean and build projects, All the files that needs to be auto generated will be there on place after building the project.
Best Luck.

This is happened to me. After format of my system,
When i import project it shows same error
remove first debug.keystore file then goto -
Project -> Project properties -> select library -> remove -> add again libraries.
It's working for me......

Go to projects menu, click on clean menu item.
After that close the eclipse and reopen and try compiling..
It is software glitch you find some times.

it can also happen if you move required files. Simply check Problems View (menu window -> show view -> Problems) as told here

I had this exact same problem. One solution that would work would be to create a brand new project, but I don't think there's any need for that. For me the problem was that the debug certificate that gets auto-generated had expired. Deleting this file allowed Eclipse to rebuild that file, which solved the problem. You can't run an app with an invalid certificate, whether it be a debug or release certificate. Note that cleaning my project did not work. For more information, see:
"Debug certificate expired" error in Eclipse Android plugins

Recently I came across this error. I was really in a corner with no help, then I figured it out. This error can occur for the following reasons:
An error in the project code
Improper linking of external library files to the project
Most important: if your debug.keystore file is expired.
The first 2 cases are easily identifiable but the third one is like searching a black box in a dark room.
So in addition to Project -> Clean, remove your debug.keystore file also.
I am using Mac + Eclipse so to remove, I wrote the command rm ~/.android/.debug.keystore in a terminal.

Is there a way to ignore existing errors in project. Something similar what eclipse allows in case of java projects.
In my case the errors exist in jni directory. The errors are shown even though ndk-buid succeeds. So all i want to do is to ignore the errors reported by eclipse.
If the errors are indeed errors then i should get unresolved symbols during ndk-build.
I have ensured standard android includes are there in include path.
Also my project is of type android/c/c++.
I have two builders associated with the project
1. statndard android builder
2. custom ndk builder that ive explicitly created.

Simulate your self some error in class. Then save it and it would show more errors than you simulated. For me it was incorrect import and this helped.

I have had a similar problem.
Under "problems" tab I have found an error saying "Error generating final archive: Debug Certificate expired on 2/22/12 1:49 PM"
So my advice is to look in the problems tab to get some more info.
Bye

If none of the above solution work, you should check the READ ONLY property of the Project folder, if it is Read-Only, the compiler will not be able to overwrite the resources, R.java and other dex APK etc files and hence this will occur..
This happened to me and I fixed after a long struggle..
Happy Programming.

For some reason eclipse only showed a ! error on root and didn't specified what error it was.
Go in Windows -> Show Views -> Problems. You might find all previous errors there, delete them, do a clean build and build again. You'll see the exact errors.
Eclipse shows an error on android project but can find the error

I had this exact problem when trying to run the Doodlz app, from the book Android for Programmers, on Mac OS X with Eclipse Juno.
After downloading and unzipping the demos from the book, I forgot to change the permission of the files. They were read-only on my system so this was the first issue.
The second issue was solved by selecting a build target on Eclipse. This was fixed by going to: Project > Properties , and clicking the Android field on the left panel to be able to select one option as the Project Build Target, which in my case was:
Target Name Vendor Platform API Level
> Google APIs Google Inc. 4.0.3 15
Then cleaning and rebuilding the project showed no errors.
Finally, to run the app right-click the package (at the Package Explorer tab) and then select:
Run As > Android Application

Simply Deleted my debug certificate under ~/.android/debug.keystore and Project->Clean did solve the problem.

Delete the .android folder from your Documents&settings\User\ on XP and \User\ on Win7. Recreate the AVD again and create a new project.

What caused this problem for me was none of the above, but simply that I'd left the "debuggable" attribute to false in the manifest.xml file after doing a release. D'oh!
Of course neither the LogCat, Error log, Console, or Problems window alerted me to this..

I had the same error, when I copied a project to another computer.
I then checked all properties of the project on both machines, and the only thing that was different was the order of items in Java Build Path - tab Order and Export.
I moved the items Android X.X.X and Android Dependencies above the other 2 in the list (in my case, src and gen folders) and voila, it worked again!
I'm not really sure if the different order was actually the problem, but at least changing it (and saving the properties again) seemed to help...

I had the exact same problem after updating the SDK and ADT.
My issue was resolved by deleting the .android folder (hidden) under C:\Users\USERNAME\

This happened to me when I was experimenting with Maven.
Right click project -> Maven -> disable maven nature
corrected the problem for me.

Yes, this is a rather cryptic message. If you've got a faulty project (say one you've been working on in the past) then you'll get this message (and no messages in your current project's Problems / Error Log panes).
You may just want to run your current project. This may be perfectly fine. Just click on the down arrow to the right of the Run button to select your project.

Try changing your workspace. I am not sure this is the exact solution . I did face the same issue for sometime untill i changed my workspace.

In my case, it happens with ADT 22.
I choose not to create Activity.
After I remove the "appcompat_v7" as library project. I works.

I had similar problem where I couldn't run my project yet didn't see any problems in the code. In Error Log panel it said something like "Cannot add P/ to the list of segments P/ in as a parent".
Restarting Eclipse solved the problem.