others-How to solve 'Failed to transform artifact 'butterknife-compiler.jar exception' when migrating from android support library to androidx

Nov 25, 2019

1. The purpose of this post

In this article, I would demo how to solve ‘Failed to transform artifact ‘butterknife-compiler.jar exception’ when migrating from android support library to androidx”

2. Environments

android studio 3.5

the properties in project’s gradle.properties which choose androidx as the support library:

android.enableR8=true
android.useAndroidX=true
android.enableJetifier=true

butterknife dependents:

implementation "com.jakewharton:butterknife:$rootProject.bufferknifeVersion"
annotationProcessor "com.jakewharton:butterknife-compiler:$rootProject.bufferknifeVersion"

butterknife version definition in project’s build.gradle

bufferknifeVersion = "8.8.1"

Build and run the code, we would get these exceptions:

org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':app:javaPreCompileProCnDebug'.
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.execute(CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.java:38)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter$1.executeTask(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:73)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter$1.call(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:52)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter$1.call(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:49)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:416)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:406)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$1.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:165)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:250)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:158)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.call(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:102)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.call(DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.java:36)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter.execute(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:49)
	at org.gradle.execution.plan.LocalTaskNodeExecutor.execute(LocalTaskNodeExecutor.java:43)
	at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$InvokeNodeExecutorsAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:355)
	at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$InvokeNodeExecutorsAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:343)
	at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$BuildOperationAwareExecutionAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:336)
	at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$BuildOperationAwareExecutionAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:322)
	at org.gradle.execution.plan.DefaultPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultPlanExecutor.java:134)
	at org.gradle.execution.plan.DefaultPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultPlanExecutor.java:129)
	at org.gradle.execution.plan.DefaultPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.execute(DefaultPlanExecutor.java:202)
	at org.gradle.execution.plan.DefaultPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.executeNextNode(DefaultPlanExecutor.java:193)
	at org.gradle.execution.plan.DefaultPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.run(DefaultPlanExecutor.java:129)
	at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:63)
	at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ManagedExecutorImpl$1.run(ManagedExecutorImpl.java:46)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
	at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
	at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ThreadFactoryImpl$ManagedThreadRunnable.run(ThreadFactoryImpl.java:55)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Caused by: org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.DefaultLenientConfiguration$ArtifactResolveException: Could not resolve all files for configuration ':app:proCnDebugAnnotationProcessorClasspath'.
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.configurations.DefaultConfiguration.rethrowFailure(DefaultConfiguration.java:1195)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.configurations.DefaultConfiguration.access$2100(DefaultConfiguration.java:138)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.configurations.DefaultConfiguration$ConfigurationFileCollection.getFiles(DefaultConfiguration.java:1170)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileCollection.iterator(AbstractFileCollection.java:72)
	at org.gradle.internal.snapshot.impl.DefaultFileSystemSnapshotter$FileCollectionLeafVisitorImpl.visitCollection(DefaultFileSystemSnapshotter.java:240)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.file.AbstractFileCollection.visitLeafCollections(AbstractFileCollection.java:233)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.file.CompositeFileCollection.visitLeafCollections(CompositeFileCollection.java:205)
	at org.gradle.internal.snapshot.impl.DefaultFileSystemSnapshotter.snapshot(DefaultFileSystemSnapshotter.java:126)
	at org.gradle.internal.fingerprint.impl.AbstractFileCollectionFingerprinter.fingerprint(AbstractFileCollectionFingerprinter.java:48)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.DefaultTaskFingerprinter.fingerprintTaskFiles(DefaultTaskFingerprinter.java:46)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveBeforeExecutionStateTaskExecuter.createExecutionState(ResolveBeforeExecutionStateTaskExecuter.java:93)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveBeforeExecutionStateTaskExecuter.execute(ResolveBeforeExecutionStateTaskExecuter.java:73)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ValidatingTaskExecuter.execute(ValidatingTaskExecuter.java:62)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.execute(SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.java:108)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveBeforeExecutionOutputsTaskExecuter.execute(ResolveBeforeExecutionOutputsTaskExecuter.java:67)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveAfterPreviousExecutionStateTaskExecuter.execute(ResolveAfterPreviousExecutionStateTaskExecuter.java:46)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.execute(CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.java:94)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.FinalizePropertiesTaskExecuter.execute(FinalizePropertiesTaskExecuter.java:46)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskExecutionModeExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskExecutionModeExecuter.java:95)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:57)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:56)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.execute(CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.java:36)
	... 27 more
Caused by: org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformException: Failed to transform artifact 'butterknife-compiler.jar (com.jakewharton:butterknife-compiler:8.8.1)' to match attributes {artifactType=processed-jar, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime-jars}.
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformingArtifactVisitor.lambda$visitArtifact$1(TransformingArtifactVisitor.java:61)
	at org.gradle.internal.Try$Failure.ifSuccessfulOrElse(Try.java:191)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformingArtifactVisitor.visitArtifact(TransformingArtifactVisitor.java:50)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.resolveengine.artifact.ArtifactBackedResolvedVariant$SingleArtifactSet.visit(ArtifactBackedResolvedVariant.java:112)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformCompletion.visit(TransformCompletion.java:42)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.resolveengine.artifact.CompositeResolvedArtifactSet$CompositeResult.visit(CompositeResolvedArtifactSet.java:83)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.resolveengine.artifact.ParallelResolveArtifactSet$VisitingSet.visit(ParallelResolveArtifactSet.java:64)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.DefaultLenientConfiguration.visitArtifacts(DefaultLenientConfiguration.java:256)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.DefaultLenientConfiguration.access$500(DefaultLenientConfiguration.java:69)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.DefaultLenientConfiguration$2.run(DefaultLenientConfiguration.java:231)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:402)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:394)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$1.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:165)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:250)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:158)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:92)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.run(DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.java:31)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.DefaultLenientConfiguration.visitArtifactsWithBuildOperation(DefaultLenientConfiguration.java:228)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.DefaultLenientConfiguration.access$200(DefaultLenientConfiguration.java:69)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.ivyservice.DefaultLenientConfiguration$1.visitArtifacts(DefaultLenientConfiguration.java:133)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.configurations.DefaultConfiguration$ConfigurationFileCollection.getFiles(DefaultConfiguration.java:1167)
	... 46 more
Caused by: org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformException: Execution failed for JetifyTransform: /Users/tom/.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/com.jakewharton/butterknife-compiler/8.8.1/b2f4505a1babb7b7c11abbbf8ea4c90b18c3aeac/butterknife-compiler-8.8.1.jar.
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.DefaultTransformerInvoker.lambda$invoke$1(DefaultTransformerInvoker.java:172)
	at org.gradle.internal.Try$Failure.mapFailure(Try.java:182)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.DefaultTransformerInvoker.lambda$invoke$2(DefaultTransformerInvoker.java:172)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.DefaultTransformerInvoker.fireTransformListeners(DefaultTransformerInvoker.java:219)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.DefaultTransformerInvoker.lambda$invoke$3(DefaultTransformerInvoker.java:117)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.ImmutableTransformationWorkspaceProvider.lambda$withWorkspace$0(ImmutableTransformationWorkspaceProvider.java:81)
	at org.gradle.cache.internal.LockOnDemandCrossProcessCacheAccess.withFileLock(LockOnDemandCrossProcessCacheAccess.java:90)
	at org.gradle.cache.internal.DefaultCacheAccess.withFileLock(DefaultCacheAccess.java:194)
	at org.gradle.cache.internal.DefaultPersistentDirectoryStore.withFileLock(DefaultPersistentDirectoryStore.java:170)
	at org.gradle.cache.internal.DefaultCacheFactory$ReferenceTrackingCache.withFileLock(DefaultCacheFactory.java:194)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.ImmutableTransformationWorkspaceProvider.withWorkspace(ImmutableTransformationWorkspaceProvider.java:76)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.AbstractCachingTransformationWorkspaceProvider.lambda$withWorkspace$0(AbstractCachingTransformationWorkspaceProvider.java:54)
	at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$LocalManualCache$1.load(LocalCache.java:4717)
	at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$LoadingValueReference.loadFuture(LocalCache.java:3444)
	at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$Segment.loadSync(LocalCache.java:2193)
	at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$Segment.lockedGetOrLoad(LocalCache.java:2152)
	at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$Segment.get(LocalCache.java:2042)
	at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache.get(LocalCache.java:3850)
	at com.google.common.cache.LocalCache$LocalManualCache.get(LocalCache.java:4712)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.AbstractCachingTransformationWorkspaceProvider.withWorkspace(AbstractCachingTransformationWorkspaceProvider.java:53)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.DefaultTransformerInvoker.invoke(DefaultTransformerInvoker.java:116)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformationStep.lambda$transform$0(TransformationStep.java:104)
	at org.gradle.internal.Try$Success.flatMap(Try.java:102)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformationStep.transform(TransformationStep.java:101)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformationNode$InitialTransformationNode$1.transform(TransformationNode.java:159)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformationNode$ArtifactTransformationStepBuildOperation.call(TransformationNode.java:229)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformationNode$ArtifactTransformationStepBuildOperation.call(TransformationNode.java:212)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:416)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:406)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$1.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:165)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:250)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:158)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.call(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:102)
	at org.gradle.internal.operations.DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.call(DelegatingBuildOperationExecutor.java:36)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformationNode$InitialTransformationNode.execute(TransformationNode.java:145)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.TransformationNodeExecutor.execute(TransformationNodeExecutor.java:37)
	... 15 more
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Failed to transform '/Users/tom/.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/com.jakewharton/butterknife-compiler/8.8.1/b2f4505a1babb7b7c11abbbf8ea4c90b18c3aeac/butterknife-compiler-8.8.1.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.)
	at com.android.build.gradle.internal.dependency.JetifyTransform.transform(JetifyTransform.kt:118)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.LegacyTransformer.transform(LegacyTransformer.java:76)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.DefaultTransformerInvoker$TransformerExecution.execute(DefaultTransformerInvoker.java:274)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ExecuteStep.lambda$execute$1(ExecuteStep.java:33)
	at java.util.Optional.orElseGet(Optional.java:267)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ExecuteStep.execute(ExecuteStep.java:33)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ExecuteStep.execute(ExecuteStep.java:26)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CleanupOutputsStep.execute(CleanupOutputsStep.java:58)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CleanupOutputsStep.execute(CleanupOutputsStep.java:35)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ResolveInputChangesStep.execute(ResolveInputChangesStep.java:48)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ResolveInputChangesStep.execute(ResolveInputChangesStep.java:33)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CancelExecutionStep.execute(CancelExecutionStep.java:39)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.TimeoutStep.executeWithoutTimeout(TimeoutStep.java:73)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.TimeoutStep.execute(TimeoutStep.java:54)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CatchExceptionStep.execute(CatchExceptionStep.java:35)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CreateOutputsStep.execute(CreateOutputsStep.java:51)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.SnapshotOutputsStep.execute(SnapshotOutputsStep.java:45)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.SnapshotOutputsStep.execute(SnapshotOutputsStep.java:31)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CacheStep.executeWithoutCache(CacheStep.java:201)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CacheStep.execute(CacheStep.java:70)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.CacheStep.execute(CacheStep.java:45)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.BroadcastChangingOutputsStep.execute(BroadcastChangingOutputsStep.java:49)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.StoreSnapshotsStep.execute(StoreSnapshotsStep.java:43)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.StoreSnapshotsStep.execute(StoreSnapshotsStep.java:32)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.RecordOutputsStep.execute(RecordOutputsStep.java:38)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.RecordOutputsStep.execute(RecordOutputsStep.java:24)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.SkipUpToDateStep.executeBecause(SkipUpToDateStep.java:96)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.SkipUpToDateStep.lambda$execute$0(SkipUpToDateStep.java:89)
	at java.util.Optional.map(Optional.java:215)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.SkipUpToDateStep.execute(SkipUpToDateStep.java:54)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.SkipUpToDateStep.execute(SkipUpToDateStep.java:38)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ResolveChangesStep.execute(ResolveChangesStep.java:77)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ResolveChangesStep.execute(ResolveChangesStep.java:37)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.legacy.MarkSnapshottingInputsFinishedStep.execute(MarkSnapshottingInputsFinishedStep.java:36)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.legacy.MarkSnapshottingInputsFinishedStep.execute(MarkSnapshottingInputsFinishedStep.java:26)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ResolveCachingStateStep.execute(ResolveCachingStateStep.java:90)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.steps.ResolveCachingStateStep.execute(ResolveCachingStateStep.java:48)
	at org.gradle.internal.execution.impl.DefaultWorkExecutor.execute(DefaultWorkExecutor.java:33)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.transform.DefaultTransformerInvoker.lambda$invoke$2(DefaultTransformerInvoker.java:148)
	... 48 more
Caused by: com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.transform.bytecode.AmbiguousStringJetifierException: 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.
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.transform.bytecode.CoreRemapperImpl.rewriteString(CoreRemapperImpl.kt:91)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.transform.bytecode.asm.CustomRemapper.mapValue(CustomRemapper.kt:75)
	at org.objectweb.asm.commons.MethodRemapper.visitLdcInsn(MethodRemapper.java:179)
	at org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.readCode(ClassReader.java:1586)
	at org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.readMethod(ClassReader.java:1126)
	at org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.accept(ClassReader.java:698)
	at org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.accept(ClassReader.java:500)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.transform.bytecode.ByteCodeTransformer.runTransform(ByteCodeTransformer.kt:39)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.Processor.visit(Processor.kt:443)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.archive.ArchiveFile.accept(ArchiveFile.kt:49)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.Processor.visit(Processor.kt:425)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.archive.Archive.accept(Archive.kt:76)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.Processor.transformLibrary(Processor.kt:421)
	at com.android.tools.build.jetifier.processor.Processor.transform(Processor.kt:247)
	at com.android.build.gradle.internal.dependency.JetifyTransform.transform(JetifyTransform.kt:113)
	... 86 more

3. Solution and commands

It seems that the 8.8.1 butterknife is still using the old android support library, so ,we change it to the new version:

upgrade butterknife in project’s build.gradle

bufferknifeVersion = "10.2.0"

Clean, build and rerun the project, problem solved.