Android Studio: “Execution failed for task ':app:mergeDebugResources'” if project is created on drive C:

I added Google Play services as a dependency in my current project. If I save the project on the C: drive, I get the following error while syncing up the project:

Error: Execution failed for task ':app:mergeDebugResources'. > Error: Failed to run command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-studio\sdk\build-tools\android-4.4.2\aapt.exe s -i C:\Users\ashokp\Desktop\Studio\AndroidV2SDK_AndroidStudioFormat\Google Play Services\SampleApplication\AndroidV2SDKSampleApp_GooglePlayServices\app\build\exploded-aar\com.google.android.gms\play-services\4.3.23\res\drawable-hdpi\common_signin_btn_text_focus_light.9.png -o C:\Users\ashokp\Desktop\Studio\AndroidV2SDK_AndroidStudioFormat\Google Play Services\SampleApplication\AndroidV2SDKSampleApp_GooglePlayServices\app\build\res\all\debug\drawable-hdpi\common_signin_btn_text_focus_light.9.png Error Code: 42 

This only happens if the project is saved on the C: drive. If I save it to some other drive, it works perfectly.

Does anyone else face this issue? What causes this? How can I fix/circumvent this?

29 Answers

This is caused by the path length restriction. I think it's 256 characters maximum.

Relocate your project and the build will succeed.

I had the same problem. Try to go to Build - Rebuild project. I didn't get that problem again and my app successfully started.

For developers who live in Iran, Just rebuild while offline. You're done! (it's related to sanctions!)

I have a similar problem with Error:Execution failed for task ':app:mergeDebugResources. And at last I found the reason is the pictures resource error which use the incorrect ".9.png".

add this in module's build.gradle.

android{ aaptOptions.cruncherEnabled = false aaptOptions.useNewCruncher = false } 

In drawable assets there was an image format which was an unsupported image. When i removed the image every thing started working fine.

In my case

1. I Followed This answer

2. Changed the location of project.

3. Tried another android device [Build and success install]

4. Tried on my android device [Build and success install * Uninstall any previous version of same app on device]

Edit- Again it happend

I had this error message and lot of others like

x-version is deprecated and use y-version instead and it'll be removed in 2019

and all of my project started giving same error messages suddenly.

Android studio was giving warnings about my antivirus program. I tried configuring it but didn't work.

Finally I uninstalled QuickHeal antivirus from my system and all is well now

I was facing this issue after i updated to Android-Studio 3.6 the only way that worked for me was downgrading project build.gradle setting by changing

from

dependencies { classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.6.0' } 

to

dependencies { classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.3.0' } 

In my case, I created a folder audio in res directory. That caused the problem! Deleting the folder fixed it. Hope it might help someone.

I encountered the same error.

In the end, the problem was that I used an image in res/drawable that I copied in there and saved it as .png although the original file was .jpg .

I deleted the file (there's a warning message if there are still usages for the item in your code, but you can ignore it) and pasted it in with the original .jpg ending.

After a cleanup and gradle syncronization the error disappeared.

In Android Studio 1.4 with buildToolsVersion '22.0.1' the approach of fvasquezc23 worked for me with a restart and cache invalidation.

So, after you change the location of your project folder – copy/paste the folder onto disk D: (or somewhere else with no big ‘folder in folder’ structure), just

• go to “File” -> “Invalidate Caches/Restart” (below “Synchronize”)
• select first option “Invalidate and Restart”

Remove any capital letters or other not allowed symbols in resource file name.

Example: activity_parkingList --> activity_parking_list

Update your gradle build tools in project level gradle , and it will show you the exact resource that is causing the error.

Dont make name with capital letters . Always use lowercase for naming . This will work fine . like companyLogo.png will raise error but company_logo.png will work fine.

If you are using ionic in config.xml update widget tag with "xmlns:android=""

<widget version="0.0.1" xmlns="" xmlns:android="" xmlns:cdv=""> <widget/>

Adding the right repository in Project build.gradle solved the issue. In my case Google Maven Repository was needed and was added as below in the build.gradle

repositories { google() } 

refer to this link for declaring repositories:

If you are working on PC of a company that uses a proxy you must turn on your VPN

when we add some new thing in out project, in that case some times resources might get duplicate that time it will give the error while run the app, in my case also get same issue I had face, while I had added the kotlin activity in java project, in it gives me error

Execution failed for task ':app:mergeDebugResources'. ...\themes.xml: Error: Duplicate resources

so in this case please check the local history and remove the duplicate resources from res folder, so simply revert that changes

I just found out that I had defined some color in colors.xml twice and after commenting one of them out, it solved the issue. and now i'm furious

I encountered this error and by process of elimination I discovered the problem to be a single apostrophe (') in a string resource. (Specifically, a string array item.) Replacing the apostrophe with the ' entity didn't work either. Escaping it with \' however, did work and my project built. I discovered the proper escape code through Android Studio's string resource editor. The build error message was completely unhelpful.

In my case, the problem was caused by having a button with an angle bracket inside android:text field:

<Button ... android:text="<-" /> 

Changing it to android:text="back" fixed everything.

While having "<-" as a hardcoded text on a button isn't the best practice, it's a shame people have to spend so much time on finding solutions to these kind of issues without getting any informative hints from gradle on what is wrong.

I encountered this issue while working on a Flutter Application. I solved it by going to Tools > Flutter > Flutter Clean.

I my case, I had duplicated properties in the xml file. The 'android:layout_height' was in my layout tag and also in one of his child.

Check if all the files in the values folder are correct. In my case it was the strings.xml where I forgot to escape single quotes.

In my case this error was due to character in string.xml file.

from

<string name="machine_coords">MACHINE\nCOORD'S</string> 

to

<string name="machine_coords">MACHINE\nCOORD"'"S</string> 

In my case the problem was with the recent change in color XML i failed to insert '#' into the XML file. Please check ur recent changes that can be a cause for concern for this error.

Cleaning the project worked for me, Build > clean project.

Relocate the project in an outer directory.

For example from C:/Users/x/desktop/AndroidProject to C:/projects/AndroidProject.

Add this two lines to your build.gradle(app)

aaptOptions.cruncherEnabled = false aaptOptions.useNewCruncher = false