Android - Inner element must either be a resource reference or empty

Question

Error Details

AGPBI: {"kind":"error","text":"error: \u003citem\u003e inner element must either be a resource reference or empty.","sources":[{"file":"...\\app\\src\\main\\res\\values\\ids.xml","position":{"startLine":2,"startColumn":4,"startOffset":57,"endColumn":61,"endOffset":114}}],"original":"","tool":"AAPT"}
:app:mergeDebugResources
Error: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: com.android.builder.internal.aapt.v2.Aapt2Exception: AAPT2 error: check logs for details
:app:mergeDebugResources FAILED

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:mergeDebugResources'.
> Error: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: com.android.builder.internal.aapt.v2.Aapt2Exception: AAPT2 error: check logs for details.

Resource File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <item name="tv_deviceName" type="id">tv_deviceName</item>
</resources>

Build Environment

• Android Studio 3.1.4
• minSdkVersion = 21
• targetSdkVersion = 28
• compileSdkVersion = 28
• buildToolsVersion = "28.0.2"

Answer 1

When declaring id in resources, the body should be empty

<item
    type="id"
    name="id_name" />

For more info please have a look on below link

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/more-resources#Id

So as Oliver Manyasa mentioned, it should be as below

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <item name="tv_deviceName" type="id"/>
</resources>

Answer 2

I had a similar issue after upgrading to Android Studio 3.2.1

The error was pointing to this item in ids.xml file

<item name="mnuActivate" type="id">Activation</item>

As mentioned by the user Sangeet Suresh, I changed it to

<item name="mnuActivate" type="id" />

That fixed the issue.

Answer 3

To all others who are still scratching their head to get the solution for this is create ids.xml inside src/main/res/values with contents similar to the following (but make sure to update it with the ids you're seeing errors for):

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<items>
    <item name="animator" type="id"/>
    <item name="date_picker_day" type="id"/>
    <string name="deleted_key"/>
</items>

Now Android Studio will be giving you an error for explicit values and if those values are coming from some library you are using then you can't make a change in the intermediate file so instead change here and while merging your code Android studio takes care of it.

Answer 4

On your Resource File remove the closing tag plus the Body i.e Remove "tv_deviceName"

and let your resource file be like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <item name="tv_deviceName" type="id"/>
</resources>