ClassNotFound: android.view.ViewStructure with Support Library 26.0.2 - 27.0.0

Question

I see a crash on Samsung Galaxy S5 with Android 4.4.2

NoClassDefFoundError: android/view/ViewStructure

This has been happening since I updated the Support Library to 26.0.2. Now it's also happening on 27.0.0, even though I expected such issues to have been resolved in it. I see a single crash in Crashlytics shortly after submitting the app to Google Play (I'm rolling out to a small percentage of my users). I don't know what the exact steps to reproduce are. So far I've assumed it's probably when the app is started.

Related reports:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: android/graphics/drawable/Icon

ViewDebug.getExportedPropertyMethods java.lang.NoClassDefFound android/graphics/drawable/Icon

I am using Support library 27.0.0, compileSdkVersion 27, targetSdkVersion 25, buildToolsVersion '26.0.2', android plugin 2.3.3, gradle 3.3, Android Studio 3.0. (I'm guessing the issue is not related to the old versions of gradle and the plugin?...)

I can see ViewStructure is used in the support library in:

android.support.design.widget.TextInputLayout 
android.support.design.testutils.ViewStructureImpl

However, I am not using ViewStructure anywhere in my project.

Fatal Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: android/view/ViewStructure
       at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java)
       at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:656)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.getExportedPropertyMethods(ViewDebug.java:960)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.exportMethods(ViewDebug.java:1047)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewProperties(ViewDebug.java:997)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewProperties(ViewDebug.java:983)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpView(ViewDebug.java:900)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:855)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dump(ViewDebug.java:793)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dispatchCommand(ViewDebug.java:416)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$W.executeCommand(ViewRootImpl.java:6258)
       at android.view.IWindow$Stub.onTransact(IWindow.java:65)
       at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:404)
       at dalvik.system.NativeStart.run(NativeStart.java)
Caused by java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "android.view.ViewStructure" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/package.name-1.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app-lib/package.name-1, /vendor/lib, /system/lib]]
       at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:56)
       at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:497)
       at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:457)
       at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java)
       at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethods(Class.java:656)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.getExportedPropertyMethods(ViewDebug.java:960)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.exportMethods(ViewDebug.java:1047)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewProperties(ViewDebug.java:997)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewProperties(ViewDebug.java:983)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpView(ViewDebug.java:900)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:855)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dumpViewHierarchy(ViewDebug.java:867)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dump(ViewDebug.java:793)
       at android.view.ViewDebug.dispatchCommand(ViewDebug.java:416)
       at android.view.ViewRootImpl$W.executeCommand(ViewRootImpl.java:6258)
       at android.view.IWindow$Stub.onTransact(IWindow.java:65)
       at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:404)
       at dalvik.system.NativeStart.run(NativeStart.java)

Answer 1

The most likely cause for this issue is that the user is not a regular user, because this "should only occur if hierarchyviewer / ddm is connected."

More info can be found here:

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/68796830