Error:Execution failed for task ':app:compileDebugKotlin'. > Compilation error. See log for more details

Question

I got such error after a simple try of code refactoring. It has happened nor after some library was connected neither any changes in gradle. It looked like something in my code was wrong but the compiler could not found the issue. That's why I double checked all changes that I did and found that I had changed somehow method signature in the interface but had not changed it in class that implements it. I got this error twice during one day and decided to share my experience. I hope that it is a temporary compiler bug.

Solution 1 Possible solution is to go to File -> Settings -> Compiler -> and add "--stacktrace --debug" to Command-line Options. Read log and try to found the answer of what went wrong.

In new Android Studio 3.1.+, you can enable/disable console log details by pressing "Toggle View" on "Build" tab. There you can find the details. Pay attention that both modes can be useful for investigation of the problem's reason. See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/49717363/

Solution 2 Click on Gradle (on the right side bar) then under :app choose assembleDebug (or assembleYourFlavor if you use flavors). Error will show up in Run tab. See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/51022296

Solution 3 As a last resort. In the android studio, try Analyze -> Inspect Code -> Whole project. Wait until the inspection is over and then correct errors in "General" section and possible ones in other sections.

Note The kapt3 can be a source of such bugs. I removed apply plugin: 'kotlin-kapt' and added kapt { generateStubs = true } into android {} section of build.gradle. It seems that the previous version of the kapt generator is bugs free. (Update. It looks like a bug with kapt is gone on kotlin version 1.2.+)

I had misleading error messages similar to the ones posted in the question:

Compilation error. See log for more details

And:

org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':app:compileDebugKotlin'.
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:100)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:70)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.OutputDirectoryCreatingTaskExecuter.execute(OutputDirectoryCreatingTaskExecuter.java:51)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.execute(SkipUpToDateTaskExecuter.java:62)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskOutputCachingStateExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskOutputCachingStateExecuter.java:54)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ValidatingTaskExecuter.execute(ValidatingTaskExecuter.java:60)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.execute(SkipEmptySourceFilesTaskExecuter.java:97)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.execute(CleanupStaleOutputsExecuter.java:87)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskArtifactStateTaskExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskArtifactStateTaskExecuter.java:52)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:52)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:54)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteAtMostOnceTaskExecuter.java:43)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.execute(CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.java:34)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter$EventFiringTaskWorker$1.run(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:248)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:336)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:328)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:199)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:110)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter$EventFiringTaskWorker.execute(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:241)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskGraphExecuter$EventFiringTaskWorker.execute(DefaultTaskGraphExecuter.java:230)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.processTask(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:123)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.access$200(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:79)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:104)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker$1.execute(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:98)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.java:626)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.executeWithTask(DefaultTaskExecutionPlan.java:581)
    at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskPlanExecutor$TaskExecutorWorker.run(DefaultTaskPlanExecutor.java:98)
    at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:63)
    at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ManagedExecutorImpl$1.run(ManagedExecutorImpl.java:46)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ThreadFactoryImpl$ManagedThreadRunnable.run(ThreadFactoryImpl.java:55)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.gradle.api.GradleException: Compilation error. See log for more details
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.TasksUtilsKt.throwGradleExceptionIfError(tasksUtils.kt:16)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile.processCompilerExitCode(Tasks.kt:429)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile.callCompiler$kotlin_gradle_plugin(Tasks.kt:390)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile.callCompiler$kotlin_gradle_plugin(Tasks.kt:274)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.AbstractKotlinCompile.execute(Tasks.kt:233)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at org.gradle.internal.reflect.JavaMethod.invoke(JavaMethod.java:73)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.project.taskfactory.IncrementalTaskAction.doExecute(IncrementalTaskAction.java:46)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.project.taskfactory.StandardTaskAction.execute(StandardTaskAction.java:39)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.project.taskfactory.StandardTaskAction.execute(StandardTaskAction.java:26)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter$1.run(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:121)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:336)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor$RunnableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:328)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.execute(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:199)
    at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:110)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeAction(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:110)
    at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeActions(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:92)
    ... 32 more

Solution:

I solved it by

1. Clicking on Gradle (on the right side bar) ->
2. Then under :app
3. Then choose assembleDebug (or assembleYourFlavor if you use flavors)

In Picture:

1 & 2:

3:

Error will show up in Run: tab.

If you are using AS 3.1 the new build graphical console isn't very helpful for finding out the source of the problem.

you need to click on toggle view and see the logs in text format to see the error and if needed to Run with --stacktrace

In such case look at gradle console it will show the issue in detail with exact location which led to this compilation error.

In my case I was using Butterknife in one of my class and I had auto-converted that class to kotlin using android studio's utility

Log in Gradle Console

Executing tasks: [:app:assembleDebug]

Configuration on demand is an incubating feature.
Configuration 'compile' in project ':app' is deprecated. Use 'implementation' instead.
registerResGeneratingTask is deprecated, use registerGeneratedFolders(FileCollection)
:app:buildInfoDebugLoader
:app:preBuild UP-TO-DATE
:app:preDebugBuild UP-TO-DATE
:app:compileDebugAidl UP-TO-DATE
:app:compileDebugRenderscript UP-TO-DATE
:app:checkDebugManifest UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugBuildConfig UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugResValues UP-TO-DATE
:app:generateDebugResources UP-TO-DATE
:app:processDebugGoogleServices
Parsing json file: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/google-services.json
:app:mergeDebugResources UP-TO-DATE
:app:createDebugCompatibleScreenManifests UP-TO-DATE
:app:processDebugManifest
:app:splitsDiscoveryTaskDebug UP-TO-DATE
:app:processDebugResources
:app:kaptGenerateStubsDebugKotlin
Using kotlin incremental compilation
:app:kaptDebugKotlin
e: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/build/tmp/kapt3/stubs/debug/com/myproject/util/ConfirmationDialog.java:10: error: @BindView fields must not be private or static. (com.myproject.util.ConfirmationDialog.imgConfirmationLogo)
e: 

e:     private android.widget.ImageView imgConfirmationLogo;
e:                                      ^
e: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/build/tmp/kapt3/stubs/debug/com/myproject/util/ConfirmationDialog.java:13: error: @BindView fields must not be private or static. (com.myproject.util.ConfirmationDialog.txtConfirmationDialogTitle)
e: 

e:     private android.widget.TextView txtConfirmationDialogTitle;
e:                                     ^
e: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/build/tmp/kapt3/stubs/debug/com/myproject/util/ConfirmationDialog.java:16: error: @BindView fields must not be private or static. (com.myproject.util.ConfirmationDialog.txtConfirmationDialogMessage)
e: 

e:     private android.widget.TextView txtConfirmationDialogMessage;
e:                                     ^
e: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/build/tmp/kapt3/stubs/debug/com/myproject/util/ConfirmationDialog.java:19: error: @BindView fields must not be private or static. (com.myproject.util.ConfirmationDialog.txtViewPositive)
e: 

e:     private android.widget.TextView txtViewPositive;
e:                                     ^
e: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/build/tmp/kapt3/stubs/debug/com/myproject/util/ConfirmationDialog.java:22: error: @BindView fields must not be private or static. (com.pokkt.myproject.ConfirmationDialog.txtViewNegative)
e: 

e:     private android.widget.TextView txtViewNegative;
e:                                     ^
e: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/build/tmp/kapt3/stubs/debug/com/myproject/util/ExitDialog.java:10: error: @BindView fields must not be private or static. (com.myproject.util.ExitDialog.txtViewPositive)
e: 

e:     private android.widget.TextView txtViewPositive;
e:                                     ^
e: /Users/Downloads/myproject/app/build/tmp/kapt3/stubs/debug/com/myproject/util/ExitDialog.java:13: error: @BindView fields must not be private or static. (com.myproject.util.ExitDialog.txtViewNegative)
e: 

e:     private android.widget.TextView txtViewNegative;
e:                                     ^
e: java.lang.IllegalStateException: failed to analyze: org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3.diagnostic.KaptError: Error while annotation processing
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.analyzer.AnalysisResult.throwIfError(AnalysisResult.kt:57)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.jvm.compiler.KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler.compileModules(KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler.kt:144)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.jvm.K2JVMCompiler.doExecute(K2JVMCompiler.kt:167)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.jvm.K2JVMCompiler.doExecute(K2JVMCompiler.kt:55)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.common.CLICompiler.exec(CLICompiler.java:182)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.execCompiler(CompileServiceImpl.kt:397)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.access$execCompiler(CompileServiceImpl.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$compile$1$2.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:365)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$compile$1$2.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$doCompile$2$$special$$inlined$withValidClientOrSessionProxy$lambda$1.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:798)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$doCompile$2$$special$$inlined$withValidClientOrSessionProxy$lambda$1.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.common.DummyProfiler.withMeasure(PerfUtils.kt:137)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.checkedCompile(CompileServiceImpl.kt:825)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.access$checkedCompile(CompileServiceImpl.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$doCompile$2.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:797)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$doCompile$2.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.ifAlive(CompileServiceImpl.kt:1004)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.ifAlive$default(CompileServiceImpl.kt:865)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.doCompile(CompileServiceImpl.kt:791)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.access$doCompile(CompileServiceImpl.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$compile$1.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:364)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl$compile$1.invoke(CompileServiceImpl.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.ifAlive(CompileServiceImpl.kt:1004)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.ifAlive$default(CompileServiceImpl.kt:865)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.daemon.CompileServiceImpl.compile(CompileServiceImpl.kt:336)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.dispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:346)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:200)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:197)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport.serviceCall(Transport.java:196)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.handleMessages(TCPTransport.java:568)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run0(TCPTransport.java:826)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.lambda$run$0(TCPTransport.java:683)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run(TCPTransport.java:682)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3.diagnostic.KaptError: Error while annotation processing
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3.AnnotationProcessingKt.doAnnotationProcessing(annotationProcessing.kt:90)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3.AnnotationProcessingKt.doAnnotationProcessing$default(annotationProcessing.kt:42)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3.AbstractKapt3Extension.runAnnotationProcessing(Kapt3Extension.kt:205)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3.AbstractKapt3Extension.analysisCompleted(Kapt3Extension.kt:166)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3.ClasspathBasedKapt3Extension.analysisCompleted(Kapt3Extension.kt:82)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.resolve.jvm.TopDownAnalyzerFacadeForJVM$analyzeFilesWithJavaIntegration$2.invoke(TopDownAnalyzerFacadeForJVM.kt:89)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.resolve.jvm.TopDownAnalyzerFacadeForJVM.analyzeFilesWithJavaIntegration(TopDownAnalyzerFacadeForJVM.kt:99)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.resolve.jvm.TopDownAnalyzerFacadeForJVM.analyzeFilesWithJavaIntegration$default(TopDownAnalyzerFacadeForJVM.kt:76)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.jvm.compiler.KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler$analyze$1.analyze(KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler.kt:365)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.common.messages.AnalyzerWithCompilerReport.analyzeAndReport(AnalyzerWithCompilerReport.kt:105)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.jvm.compiler.KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler.analyze(KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler.kt:354)
    at org.jetbrains.kotlin.cli.jvm.compiler.KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler.compileModules(KotlinToJVMBytecodeCompiler.kt:139)
    ... 40 more


 FAILED
:app:buildInfoGeneratorDebug

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:kaptDebugKotlin'.
> Internal compiler error. See log for more details

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.

BUILD FAILED in 32s

16 actionable tasks: 7 executed, 9 up-to-date

As in my log it clearly shows issues are with declaration of variables with butterknife. So I looked into this issue and was able to solve it.

This error shows up when there is Kotlin Compilation Error.

Run the below command to find where there is Kotlin Compilation Error,

gradlew clean assembleDebug (for Windows)
./gradlew clean assembleDebug (for Linux and Mac)

It will show you the exact location on which line there is Kotlin Compilation Error.