Cannot build react-native project from Android-Studio

Question

I can run my react-native project. It works fine. I have tested by running using react-native. But when I'm trying to run it with Android studio I get the following error.

*FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* Where:
Script 'D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\@react-native-community\cli-platform-android\native_modules.gradle' line: 195
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating settings 'employeeMobile'.
> Unable to determine the current character, it is not a string, number, array, or object

  The current character read is 'E' with an int value of 69
  Unable to determine the current character, it is not a string, number, array, or object
  line number 1
  index number 0
  Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, scandir 'D:/EmployeeApp/EmployeeMobileAppGit/employeemobile-app/android/app/build/intermediates/signing_config/debug/out/signing-config.json'    at Object.readdirSync (fs.js:790:3)    at GlobSync._readdir (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:288:41)    at GlobSync._readdirInGlobStar (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:267:20)    at GlobSync._readdir (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:276:17)    at GlobSync._processReaddir (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:137:22)    at GlobSync._process (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:132:10)    at GlobSync._processGlobStar (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:380:10)    at GlobSync._process (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:130:10)    at GlobSync._processGlobStar (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:383:10)    at GlobSync._process (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:130:10)
  ^
* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.
* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org
BUILD FAILED in 3s
Unable to determine the current character, it is not a string, number, array, or object
The current character read is 'E' with an int value of 69
Unable to determine the current character, it is not a string, number, array, or object
line number 1
index number 0
Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, scandir 'D:/EmployeeApp/EmployeeMobileAppGit/employeemobile-app/android/app/build/intermediates/signing_config/debug/out/signing-config.json'    at Object.readdirSync (fs.js:790:3)    at GlobSync._readdir (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:288:41)    at GlobSync._readdirInGlobStar (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:267:20)    at GlobSync._readdir (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:276:17)    at GlobSync._processReaddir (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:137:22)    at GlobSync._process (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:132:10)    at GlobSync._processGlobStar (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:380:10)    at GlobSync._process (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:130:10)    at GlobSync._processGlobStar (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:383:10)    at GlobSync._process (D:\EmployeeApp\EmployeeMobileAppGit\employeemobile-app\node_modules\glob\sync.js:130:10)
^
10:38:38 AM: Task execution finished.*

My project Gradle file is as follows.

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.
buildscript {
    ext {
        buildToolsVersion = "28.0.3"
        minSdkVersion = 16
        compileSdkVersion = 28
        targetSdkVersion = 28
        supportLibVersion = "28.0.0"
    }
    repositories {
        google()
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.4.2'
        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}
allprojects {
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
        maven {
            // All of React Native (JS, Obj-C sources, Android binaries) is installed from npm
            url("$rootDir/../node_modules/react-native/android")
        }
        maven {
            // Android JSC is installed from npm
            url("$rootDir/../node_modules/jsc-android/dist")
        }
        google()
        jcenter()
    }
}

My app/Gradle file is as follows.

apply plugin: "com.android.application"
import com.android.build.OutputFile
    project.ext.react = [
    entryFile: "index.js",
    enableHermes: false,  // clean and rebuild if changing
]
apply from: "../../node_modules/react-native/react.gradle"
/**
 * Set this to true to create two separate APKs instead of one:
 *   - An APK that only works on ARM devices
 *   - An APK that only works on x86 devices
 * The advantage is the size of the APK is reduced by about 4MB.
 * Upload all the APKs to the Play Store and people will download
 * the correct one based on the CPU architecture of their device.
 */
def enableSeparateBuildPerCPUArchitecture = false
/**
 * Run Proguard to shrink the Java bytecode in release builds.
 */
def enableProguardInReleaseBuilds = false
/**
 * The preferred build flavor of JavaScriptCore.
 *
 * For example, to use the international variant, you can use:
 * `def jscFlavor = 'org.webkit:android-jsc-intl:+'`
 *
 * The international variant includes ICU i18n library and necessary data
 * allowing to use e.g. `Date.toLocaleString` and `String.localeCompare` that
 * give correct results when using with locales other than en-US.  Note that
 * this variant is about 6MiB larger per architecture than default.
 */
def jscFlavor = 'org.webkit:android-jsc:+'
/**
 * Whether to enable the Hermes VM.
 *
 * This should be set on project.ext.react and mirrored here.  If it is not set
 * on project.ext.react, JavaScript will not be compiled to Hermes Bytecode
 * and the benefits of using Hermes will therefore be sharply reduced.
 */
def enableHermes = project.ext.react.get("enableHermes", false);
android {
    compileSdkVersion rootProject.ext.compileSdkVersion
    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }
    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.employeemobile"
        minSdkVersion rootProject.ext.minSdkVersion
        targetSdkVersion rootProject.ext.targetSdkVersion
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }
    splits {
        abi {
            reset()
            enable enableSeparateBuildPerCPUArchitecture
            universalApk false  // If true, also generate a universal APK
            include "armeabi-v7a", "x86", "arm64-v8a", "x86_64"
        }
    }
    signingConfigs {
        debug {
            storeFile file('debug.keystore')
            storePassword 'android'
            keyAlias 'androiddebugkey'
            keyPassword 'android'
        }
          release {
            if (project.hasProperty('MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_FILE')) {
                storeFile file(MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_FILE)
                storePassword MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_PASSWORD
                keyAlias MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_ALIAS
                keyPassword MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_PASSWORD
            }
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        debug {
            signingConfig signingConfigs.debug
        }
        release {
            // Caution! In production, you need to generate your own keystore file.
            // see https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/signed-apk-android.
            signingConfig signingConfigs.debug
            signingConfig signingConfigs.release
            minifyEnabled enableProguardInReleaseBuilds
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android.txt"), "proguard-rules.pro"
        }
    }
    // applicationVariants are e.g. debug, release
    applicationVariants.all { variant ->
        variant.outputs.each { output ->
            // For each separate APK per architecture, set a unique version code as described here:
            // https://developer.android.com/studio/build/configure-apk-splits.html
            def versionCodes = ["armeabi-v7a": 1, "x86": 2, "arm64-v8a": 3, "x86_64": 4]
            def abi = output.getFilter(OutputFile.ABI)
            if (abi != null) {  // null for the universal-debug, universal-release variants
                output.versionCodeOverride =
                        versionCodes.get(abi) * 1048576 + defaultConfig.versionCode
            }
        }
    }
    packagingOptions {
        pickFirst '**/armeabi-v7a/libc++_shared.so'
        pickFirst '**/x86/libc++_shared.so'
        pickFirst '**/arm64-v8a/libc++_shared.so'
        pickFirst '**/x86_64/libc++_shared.so'
        pickFirst '**/x86/libjsc.so'
        pickFirst '**/armeabi-v7a/libjsc.so'
    }
}
dependencies {
    implementation fileTree(dir: "libs", include: ["*.jar"])
    implementation "com.facebook.react:react-native:+"  // From node_modules
    if (enableHermes) {
      def hermesPath = "../../node_modules/hermesvm/android/";
      debugImplementation files(hermesPath + "hermes-debug.aar")
      releaseImplementation files(hermesPath + "hermes-release.aar")
    } else {
      implementation jscFlavor
    }
}
// Run this once to be able to run the application with BUCK
// puts all compile dependencies into folder libs for BUCK to use
task copyDownloadableDepsToLibs(type: Copy) {
    from configurations.compile
    into 'libs'
}
apply from: file("../../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/native_modules.gradle"); applyNativeModulesAppBuildGradle(project)

Answer 1

I think it's some permission problem. Run Cmd as admin then manually delete the files:

app/android/app/build/intermediates/signing_config/debug/out/signing-config.json
app/android/app/build/intermediates/signing_config/release/out/signing-config.json

solved the problem for me

Answer 2

Delete signing-config.json from \app\build\intermediates\signing_config\debug\out Then File->invalidate cache and restart. This worked for me.