Android Gradle Error “java finished with non-zero exit value 2”

Aman Gupta

18 December 2016

In this blog,

I have talked about the reason behind Android Gradle error.

“java finished with non-zero exit value 2”

This is a very general problem when we have used many libraries to build our android project.

So, I will give the answer and the some suggestions for avoiding this gradle error.

Explaination:

This issue is quite possibly due to exceeding the 65K methods dex limit imposed by Android.

And if you had put a unnecessary compile library code in build.gradle.

dependencies { compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.3.0' }

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dependencies {
compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:8.3.0'
}

Which was causing over 65k methods, so removed it, used only neccessary compile library code gradle sync, cleaned project, and then ran again and then this error stopped. I needed just maps, analytics and gcm so i put these lines and synced project

dependencies { compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.3.0' compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:8.3.0' compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:8.3.0' }

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dependencies {
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.3.0'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:8.3.0'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:8.3.0'
}

After that your problem should be solved.

Note: If you want to count the total methods in your project then you can use the following link
http://inloop.github.io/apk-method-count/
By simply upload your apk file.

After all this If still your project is giving this error, So you have to enable the multidex in your project.

defaultConfig { // Enabling multidex . multiDexEnabled true } dexOptions { incremental true javaMaxHeapSize "2048M" jumboMode = true } dependencies { compile fileTree(include: ['*.jar'], dir: 'libs') compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1' }

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defaultConfig {
   // Enabling multidex .
    multiDexEnabled true
}

dexOptions {
    incremental true
    javaMaxHeapSize "2048M"
    jumboMode = true
}

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(include: ['*.jar'], dir: 'libs')
    compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1'
}

And create a class

dependencies { compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.3.0' compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:8.3.0' compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:8.3.0' }

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dependencies {
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-maps:8.3.0'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-gcm:8.3.0'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-analytics:8.3.0'
}

that extends Application class

@Override protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) { super.attachBaseContext(base); //include this method MultiDex.install(this); }

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@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
    super.attachBaseContext(base);
    //include this method
    MultiDex.install(this);
}

also add in OnCreate method too

@Override public void onCreate() { //include this method MultiDex.install(this); super.onCreate(); }

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@Override
public void onCreate() {
//include this method
MultiDex.install(this); super.onCreate();
}