React Native 0.60 - Unable to Run App with react-native run-android: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError

Question

It's late on Friday before a long weekend, and I'm having issues running an react-native app. Current version is 0.60 (latest), and running the command

react-native run-android

Results in a debug build that successfully installs on my connected app, but crashes upon opening with the following error:

FATAL EXCEPTION: main
Process: com.myApp, PID: XXXX
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Failed resolution of:
Lcom/google/android/gms/common/internal/zzbq

Googling this cryptic error results in a number of results suggesting MultiDex to be the culprit, and how to handle this. I'll link some threads for research's sake:

Android 3.1.1 - Failed resolution of: Lcom/google/android/gms/common/internal/zzbq;

Didn't find class "com.google.android.gms.common.internal.zzbq" on path: DexPathList
(links to previous result)

One of the solutions, namely overriding use version for com.google.android.gms if name contains multidex to version 12.0.1 works for debug builds :

In android/build.gradle :

subprojects {
    project.configurations.all {
        resolutionStrategy.eachDependency { details ->
            if (details.requested.group == 'com.google.android.gms'
            && !details.requested.name.contains('multidex') ) {
                details.useVersion "12.0.1"
            }
        }
    }
}

However, this causes completely different issues for production builds:

Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-vision-image-label:12.0.1.
Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-clearcut:12.0.1
Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-phenotype:12.0.1
Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-stats:12.0.1

All of these are saying "Required by XXX:17.0.1", so I tried details.useVersion "17.0.1" , but that resulted in a similar issue:

Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:17.0.1
Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-base:17.0.1
Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-basement:17.0.1
Could not find com.google.android.gms:play-services-tasks:17.0.1

Some of these modules have version 17.0.1 , while others are at 17.0.2 or 17.0.0 , so a strict use version XYZ will not work for release build.

If I remove this subProjects { ... } declaration and attempt to enable MultiDex as suggested in other answers:

In android/app/build.gradle :

android {
    defaultConfig {
        ...
        multiDexEnabled true
    }
}
dependencies {
    ...
    implementation 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.3'
}

This results in the same error for both debug and release builds, and a little bit of extra Googling uncovers that MultiDex is not required for SDK version > 27.0.0 (looks to be using 28.0.0 / 28.0.3 )

I've been banging my head against this for the entire day and haven't been able to make any progress. Has anyone seen this issue as it pertains to React Native 0.60 ?

Note: There are a couple plugins that are using these com.google.android.gms in my project, namely:

• react-native-background-geolocation
  • implementation "com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:$playServicesLocationVersion"
• react-native-camera
  • generalImplementation "com.google.android.gms:play-services-vision:$googlePlayServicesVisionVersion"
• react-native-device-info
  • implementation "com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:${safeExtGet('googlePlayServicesVersion', '16.1.0')}"

Answer 1

Solution is to use the new bundle/build process for Android .aab and .apk files, as shown on React Native documentation. Current process that is throwing errors is as follows:

cd android
./gradlew clean
cd ..
bundleAPK (`react-native bundle --platform android --dev false --entry-file index.js --bundle-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --assets-dest android/app/src/main/res/`)
buildReleaseAPK (`cd ./android && ./gradlew assembleRelease && cd ..`
installReleaseAPKAlt (`adb install -r ./android/app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk`)

When successful, this generates the .apk file and installs it on device, similar to downloading/installing directly from the Play Store. Various bugs in build process are preventing this, as detailed above.

React Native documentation suggest to use a different set of commands to generate .aab file, and from that the .apk :

cd android
./gradlew clean
./gradlew bundleRelease
cd .. && react-native run-android --variant=release

Complete details can be found at https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/signed-apk-android#generating-the-release-apk . Information about generating Signed APK included since previous implementation.

Using this approach, .aab and .apk files are generated and installed on device, but another issue arises in lack of ic_launcher_rounded . See React Native 0.60 - ic_launcher_round missing for Release Bundle/Build for details. Marking question as closed when allowed.