The given artifact contains a string literal with a package reference 'android.support.v4.content' that cannot be safely rewritten. for androidx

Question

I upgraded my android studio to 3.4 canary and now I cannot successfully build anymore due to the following error:

The given artifact contains a string literal with a package reference 'android.support.v4.content' that cannot be safely rewritten. Libraries using reflection such as annotation processors need to be updated manually to add support for androidx.

More details:

Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Failed to transform '.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/com.jakewharton/butterknife-compiler/9.0.0-SNAPSHOT/732f93940c74cf32a7c5ddcc5ef66e53be052352/butterknife-compiler-9.0.0-SNAPSHOT.jar' using Jetifier. Reason: The given artifact contains a string literal with a package reference 'android.support.v4.content' that cannot be safely rewritten. Libraries using reflection such as annotation processors need to be updated manually to add support for androidx.. (Run with --stacktrace for more details.)

Clearly, its something to do with Butterknife, androidx and Jetifier

Do anybody know how to fix this?

Answer 1

Try blacklisting butterknife from the jetifier:

gradle.properties file:

android.jetifier.blacklist = butterknife.*\\.jar

You need to be on the 3.3.0-rc1 of the AGP and the 1.3.0 version of the Kotlin Gradle plugin:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        ...
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.3.0-rc01'
        classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:1.3.0"
        classpath 'com.jakewharton:butterknife-gradle-plugin:9.0.0-rc2'
    }
}

Answer 2

Add the last version of the butterknive dependency you can check it here if it changes (https://github.com/JakeWharton/butterknife). It supports androidX. Then go to your app build graddle and replace the old version with the following:

dependencies {
implementation 'com.jakewharton:butterknife:10.0.0'
annotationProcessor 'com.jakewharton:butterknife-compiler:10.0.0'
}

Answer 3

For androidx simply upgrade your dependencies to version '10.0.0'

dependencies {
implementation 'com.jakewharton:butterknife:10.0.0'
annotationProcessor 'com.jakewharton:butterknife-compiler:10.0.0'
}

Look for documentation here

Answer 4

Upgrade ButterKnife to latest version and make sure to add these into your build.gradle(app):

android {
...
compileOptions {
    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}
}

Answer 5

Which version if Butterknife you use? Latest version 9.0.0-rc2 supports androidx.

UPD: There is closed issue on butterknife's github repo. Temporary workaround

Add android.jetifier.blacklist=butterknife-compiler to your gradle.properties file.

Answer 6

Using the latest version of Butterknife resolved the issue. Use >= 9.0.0-rc2 (Butterknife Version) to support androidX. For the latest release check the link - https://github.com/JakeWharton/butterknife/releases