In some scenarios while developing a project using android studio we usually come across some errors that need us to update the android studio Gradle file to the stable version or the one that is recent.
Android studio tends to stop supporting some features making it hard to continue using them thus being forced to update the Gradle one is using in an android project.
One thing you should note is that if Gradle fails to build successfully for any given project, the project will not be executed, and the end product, that is, the apk or aab will not be generated.
In this article, we shall discuss how you can update project Gradle in android studio such that your project will not have any issues while building an apk or aab file.
What is a gradle in android
A Gradle in android is basically a tool that is used to automate and control the process of developing apps by ensuring that each step from compiling to packaging to deployment and publishing is executed successfully.
In the android studio, the Gradle ensures that the code written is compiled successfully and packaged into an end result called an apk or aab that can be installed in a mobile device
Importance of having an up to date working gradle
Without an up-to-date working Gradle file, your project will not execute successfully. You will receive errors ranging from one to another until gradle is configured correctly.
One of the errors that is common when Gradle is not working as it should is the Installed Build Tools is corrupted Android Studio Error which we highlighted how to solve in a previous article.
Please note there are various gradle files in your project, that is, one for the module called build.gradle (Module: projectname.app) and one for the project called build.gradle (Project: projectname)
Ensure you are conversant with each gradle such that you do not add resources where there are not needed.
When to update gradle in android
Having known that no project can build successfully without having Gradle working, at some point in your android development you may need to update the Gradle file.
The good thing with the android studio is that from time to time it will alert you when there is a stable version of Gradle that needs to be added to android studio.
Another time when you may need to update Gradle for your project is when you have imported a project from another source and you need to use it in your android studio. If the project has a gradle that is not compatible with the one in android studio, you will be required to update it.
How to update Gradle in android
Method 1
- Visit the gradle distribution official website https://services.gradle.org/distributions/ and click on the preferred gradle version or the latest one
- You can either decide to download and install manually by clicking on any gradle file that you prefer or copy the URL as follows https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.5-bin.zip and update it in the gradle-wrapper.properties distribution as shown below
#Sun Nov 07 22:01:58 EAT 2021
distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
distributionPath=wrapper/dists
zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.5-bin.zip
- Click sync now and wait for the gradle resources to be added to your project
Method 2
- Open build.gradle for project
- Check the latest release gradle file in https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/gradle-plugin
- update the dependency in gradle file for project to the latest stable version by changing this dependency class path to the latest version
classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.1.3"As of December 2021, the current gradle version is 7.0.4, change it as follows
classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.0.4"- click sync and wait for the resources to be downloaded successfully
The dependency section in the build.gradle for project will be as follows
dependencies {
classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.0.4"
classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:$kotlin_version"
// NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
// in the individual module build.gradle files
}
There are various other methods of updating Gradle for your project in android studio that work to achieve the same result.
For this article, we have decided to share those two methods that we see are straightforward and will help you update the project Gradle in android such that your project will run successfully if there are no other errors.
Remember, if you are experiencing other errors in android studio, we have covered some ways of how to solve errors in android in our other articles. You can check them out
Also, a thing to note while updating gradle in android is that you should have a stable internet connection since some files are bigger in size.
