More than one file was found with OS independent path "META-INF/LICENSE"

📝 Blog Post: How to Fix the "More than one file was found with OS independent path 'META-INF/LICENSE'" Error in Android Build 📱💥

Have you ever encountered the frustrating error "Execution failed for task ':app:transformResourcesWithMergeJavaResForDebug'. More than one file was found with OS independent path 'META-INF/LICENSE'" while building your Android app? 😫

Fear not! In this blog post, we will dive into this common issue and provide you with easy solutions to get rid of this error. Let's get started! 🚀

Understanding the Problem

The error message indicates that there are multiple files with the same path 'META-INF/LICENSE' in your app's resources. This can cause conflicts during the build process, resulting in the error. The good news is, we can easily solve this issue with a couple of tweaks. 💪

Solution 1: Configuring packagingOptions

One way to resolve this error is by excluding the duplicate files using the packagingOptions block in your app's build.gradle file. Here's an example:

android {
   // ...

   packagingOptions {
       exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES'
       exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
       exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
       exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'
       exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE.txt'
   }
}

By adding these exclude directives, you are instructing the build system to ignore duplicate files when merging resources.

Problem: Another Issue Arises

However, please note that excluding certain files in the packagingOptions may lead to other issues, as mentioned by one of our readers. They faced the java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com.squareup.leakcanary.internal.HeapAnalyzerService error after excluding the duplicate files.

Solution 2: Adjust Dependencies

To fix this new error, you need to make sure the required dependencies are included in your app. In this case, the missing class com.squareup.leakcanary.internal.HeapAnalyzerService can be resolved by adding the following dependencies to your build.gradle file:

dependencies {
    // ...

    debugCompile 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android:1.5.1'
    releaseCompile 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android-no-op:1.5.1'
    testCompile 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android-no-op:1.5.1'
}

Make sure to sync your project after adding these dependencies to resolve the NoClassDefFoundError issue.

Conclusion

By following the steps mentioned in this blog post, you should be able to fix the "More than one file was found with OS independent path 'META-INF/LICENSE'" error in your Android build. Remember to exclude duplicate files using the packagingOptions block and adjust your dependencies accordingly to avoid any new issues.

We hope this guide helped you overcome this annoying error! 🎉 If you have any other questions or facing any other tech-related challenges, feel free to reach out. Let's keep building amazing apps together! 👩‍💻👨‍💻

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