React-native: [Android] App crash on release build with gradle:3.4.0 / gradle-wrapper:5.1.1 (debug is working)

[albat]

Hi,

I have an issue when launching an Android app with a release build (or a non-debug build) when using gradle:3.4.0 plugin and gradle-5.1.1 wrapper
The app crash directly after launch and I can see the following error in the logcat tab of Android Studio :
2019-05-15 11:16:39.412 31945-31961/? E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: create_react_context Process: com.testproject, PID: 31945 java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to load script. Make sure you're either running a Metro server (run 'react-native start') or that your bundle 'index.android.bundle' is packaged correctly for release. at com.facebook.react.bridge.CatalystInstanceImpl.jniLoadScriptFromAssets(Native Method) at com.facebook.react.bridge.CatalystInstanceImpl.loadScriptFromAssets(CatalystInstanceImpl.java:218) at com.facebook.react.bridge.JSBundleLoader$1.loadScript(JSBundleLoader.java:31) at com.facebook.react.bridge.CatalystInstanceImpl.runJSBundle(CatalystInstanceImpl.java:247) at com.facebook.react.ReactInstanceManager.createReactContext(ReactInstanceManager.java:1152) at com.facebook.react.ReactInstanceManager.access$900(ReactInstanceManager.java:123) at com.facebook.react.ReactInstanceManager$5.run(ReactInstanceManager.java:943) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:764)

The issue only happen with this version of Gradle plugin/wrapper and in release build.
If you do a debug build with the metro bundler started on your computer, it's working fine.
With the previous version (gradle plugin 3.1.1, gradle wrapper 4.10.2) it's working fine (debug and release).

I tested with
implementation "com.facebook.react:react-native:+"
and
implementation ("com.facebook.react:react-native:0.59.8"){force=true}
and it doesn't change anything

The issue happens on emulator and real devices.

React Native version: 0.59.8 (but also with previous version (tested with 0.58.6))
Gradle plugin version: 3.4.0
Gradle wrapper version: 5.1.1

Steps To Reproduce

1. react-native init TestProject --version 0.59.8
2. do a release build and install it on a device (emulator or not) and notice that it is working fine
3. dump gradle plugin from 3.3.1 to 3.4.0 and gradle wrapper from 4.10.2 to 5.1.1
4. do a release build and install it on a device (emulator or not) and notice that it is crashing

If you need something else or more tests, just let me know

Thanks in advance for your support

[kelset]

Hello there 👋

I think that the core of the issue lays here

dump gradle plugin from 3.3.1 to 3.4.0 and gradle wrapper from 4.10.2 to 5.1.1

I am pretty sure that react native can't use Gradle 5 for now - have you seen somewhere in the changelog mentioning that is supported (I may be wrong)?

Do you have any precise reasons for needing to use Gradle 5?

[kelset]

Also, it seems that it's probably the same issue described here: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/24854 so it seems to be related also to 3.4.0?

I'm closing this in favour of that other issue, but I'll ping internally if we are aware of these incompatibilities

[albat]

Do you have any precise reasons for needing to use Gradle 5?

It's the latest available version and Android Studio ask me to update my project so I tried ;-)

But indeed I haven't seen that we can use this version of Gradle yet.

Thanks for the reply

[curtismenmuir]

Seen same issue with RN 0.59.2. Android Studio upgraded gradle to version 5:

classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.3.2' (/android/build.gradle)
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.10.1-all.zip (gradle-wrapper.properties)

to

classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.4.0'
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-5.1.1-all.zip

Reverting these changes fixed the issue for me! Thanks for the help!