Layout preview rendering problems in android studio(Android Studio 1.2)

Question

I have the following error in my preview window in the latest version of Android Studio (1.2) that stops me from being able to view the layout I am creating, I have tried restarting android studio several times as well as cleaning, rebuilding the project and restarting my computer

EDIT:

Some projects have the same error while other older projects work fine

The following classes could not be instantiated:
- android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActionBarOverlayLayout (Open Class, Show Exception, Clear Cache)

Exception Details

  java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:       android/support/v7/internal/widget/ActionBarOverlayLayout$1
    at android.support.v7.internal.widget.ActionBarOverlayLayout.<init>(ActionBarOverlayLayout.java:93)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.ViewLoader.createNewInstance(ViewLoader.java:413)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.ViewLoader.loadView(ViewLoader.java:105)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.LayoutlibCallback.loadView(LayoutlibCallback.java:177)
    at android.view.BridgeInflater.loadCustomView(BridgeInflater.java:214)
    at android.view.BridgeInflater.createViewFromTag(BridgeInflater.java:142)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:482)
    at android.view.LayoutInflater.inflate(LayoutInflater.java:414)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.bars.BridgeActionBar.<init>(BridgeActionBar.java:84)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.bars.AppCompatActionBar.<init>(AppCompatActionBar.java:56)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.RenderSessionImpl.createActionBar(RenderSessionImpl.java:1691)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.RenderSessionImpl.inflate(RenderSessionImpl.java:362)
    at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.Bridge.createSession(Bridge.java:321)
    at com.android.ide.common.rendering.LayoutLibrary.createSession(LayoutLibrary.java:350)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask$2.compute(RenderTask.java:497)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask$2.compute(RenderTask.java:485)
    at com.intellij.openapi.application.impl.ApplicationImpl.runReadAction(ApplicationImpl.java:894)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask.createRenderSession(RenderTask.java:485)
    at com.android.tools.idea.rendering.RenderTask.render(RenderTask.java:590)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.doRender(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:644)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.access$1700(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:79)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager$7$1.run(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:586)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager$2.run(CoreProgressManager.java:152)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.registerIndicatorAndRun(CoreProgressManager.java:452)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.executeProcessUnderProgress(CoreProgressManager.java:402)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressManagerImpl.executeProcessUnderProgress(ProgressManagerImpl.java:54)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.runProcess(CoreProgressManager.java:137)
    at org.jetbrains.android.uipreview.AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager$7.run(AndroidLayoutPreviewToolWindowManager.java:581)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.execute(MergingUpdateQueue.java:320)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.execute(MergingUpdateQueue.java:310)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue$2.run(MergingUpdateQueue.java:254)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.flush(MergingUpdateQueue.java:269)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.flush(MergingUpdateQueue.java:227)
    at com.intellij.util.ui.update.MergingUpdateQueue.run(MergingUpdateQueue.java:217)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.runSafely(QueueProcessor.java:238)
    at com.intellij.util.Alarm$Request$1.run(Alarm.java:351)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:439)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:895)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:918)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:695)

Answer 1

Try changing your base application theme using below code - in res/values/styles.xml

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
    <!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>

OR

Also you can try Switching the preview's API level to lower one from the preview configuration