Android Studio crash (aapt.exe returns 42) when I put PNG file in drawable folder

Question

After yesterday's update it won't build or run project with these 2 PNG images as background image. As soon as I delete these images everything works fine again (I put images in drawable folder).

:app:mergeDebugResources FAILED
C:\Users\Daedlues\Desktop\Android-Studio-Projects\AndroidInterView\app\src\main\res\drawable\middle.png
Error:Error: com.android.ide.common.process.ProcessException: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: Process 'command 'C:\Users\Daedlues\Desktop\Work\SDK\build-tools\21.1.2\aapt.exe'' finished with non-zero exit value 42
Error:Execution failed for task ':app:mergeDebugResources'.
> C:\Users\Daedlues\Desktop\Android-Studio-Projects\AndroidInterView\app\src\main\res\drawable\middle.png: Error: com.android.ide.common.process.ProcessException: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: Process 'command 'C:\Users\Daedlues\Desktop\Work\SDK\build-tools\21.1.2\aapt.exe'' finished with non-zero exit value 42
Information:BUILD FAILED

Answer 1

This can also happen if you exceed the Windows max path length.

Android Studio - Unable to open PNG file

Answer 2

If 'yesterdays update' refers to Android 5.1 (API 22) then try using the latest version of the build tools. Adjust your build.gradle to use buildToolsVersion "22.0.0"