react native build error: Unable to determine the current character, it is not a string, number, array, or object

Question

This is the error I got:

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* Where:
Script 'D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\@react-native-community\cli-platform-android\native_modules.gradle' line: 191

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating settings 'XXX'.
> 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: Attribute without valueLine: 26Column: 41Char: i    
at error (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\sax\lib\sax.js:651:10)    
at strictFail (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\sax\lib\sax.js:677:7)    
at SAXParser.write (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\sax\lib\sax.js:1340:13)    
at new XmlDocument (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\xmldoc\lib\xmldoc.js:261:15)
at readManifest (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\@react-native-community\cli-platform-android\build\config\readManifest.js:38:10)
at Object.projectConfig (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\@react-native-community\cli-platform-android\build\config\index.js:59:46)    
at Object.get project [as project] (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\react-native\node_modules\@react-native-community\cli\build\tools\config\index.js:134:65)    
at D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\react-native\node_modules\@react-native-community\cli\build\commands\config\config.js:8:452
at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)
at _objectSpread (D:\Mobile Projects\XXX\XXX\XXX\node_modules\react-native\node_modules\@react-native-community\cli\build\commands\config\config.js:8:392)

Here is package.json:

{
  "name": "XXX",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "start": "react-native start",
    "postinstall": "patch-package",
    "test": "jest",
    "lint": "eslint ."
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "@react-native-community/async-storage": "^1.6.1",
    "@react-native-community/cli-platform-android": "^2.9.0",
    "@react-native-community/netinfo": "^4.1.5",
    "native-base": "^2.13.5",
    "patch-package": "^6.1.2",
    "react": "^16.9.0",
    "react-native": "^0.60.5",
    "react-native-deep-linking": "^2.2.0",
    "react-native-image-gallery": "^2.1.5",
    "react-native-image-picker": "^1.0.1",
    "react-native-loading-spinner-overlay": "^1.0.1",
    "react-native-modal-filter-picker": "^1.3.4",
    "react-native-popup-dialog": "^0.18.3",
    "react-native-spinner-button": "^1.0.3",
    "react-native-swiper": "^1.5.14",
    "react-navigation": "^3.11.1",
    "react-scripts": "^3.1.1",
    "set-cookie-parser": "^2.3.8"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@babel/core": "^7.5.5",
    "@babel/runtime": "^7.5.5",
    "@react-native-community/eslint-config": "^0.0.5",
    "babel-jest": "^24.8.0",
    "babel-plugin-transform-remove-console": "^6.9.4",
    "eslint": "^6.1.0",
    "jest": "^24.8.0",
    "metro-react-native-babel-preset": "^0.56.0",
    "react-native-gesture-handler": "1.0.16",
    "react-test-renderer": "16.8.6"
  },
  "jest": {
    "preset": "react-native"
  }
}

This project was able to be built a couple of days ago. However, without any changes, I face the aforementioned error.

I googled and found the following pages:

react-native run-android: daemon startup failed

can't compile and run my react native app

I did tried both of them, but none of them worked.

Any Ideas??????

Answer 1

Solution 1: Delete the android/app/build folder and try to build again. It should work

Solution 2: run npm i --save @react-native-community/cli-platform-android

Answer 2

1. First make sure your are on cmd admin
2. run cd android && gradlew clean
3. If it give you error while gradlew clean then goto project/android/app/build/intermediates/ and delete signing_config folder
4. run gradlew clean
5. run react-native run-android

Answer 3

Try updating the Node to the version 10.17.0. It helped me.