IssueTracker

When certain build features are used together, the resource shrinker mangles resource IDs. Resource ID integers in the resulting binary are wrong, which at runtime leads either to

• displaying a wrong string to the user - when the wrong ID happens to point to another existing resource (there's a good chance of that with big projects), or
• runtime crash (Resources$NotFoundException) - when there is simply no resource with that mangled ID

The behavior is not totally deterministic - some builds are fine, but sometimes, renaming the XML resource is enough (!) to get the crash. Sometimes, a clean build, AS restart, or invalidate caches & restart command fixes things, but only temporarily, until the next rename.

To reproduce, please run the attached project, distilled from a real-world project:

1. Switch the build variant of both modules to "profiling" which enables minification and resource shrinking.
2. Build and run the app. Then
   • if the app crashes, good, issue reproduced.
   • if it's fine (it shows "This string should be loaded from resources" message), rename the R.string.sample_string_resource resource to anything else, and try again.
3. The app crashes with android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: String resource ID #0x7f0d0027 (full stack trace below).

The issue can be mitigated by not using certain build features. Each one of the following fixes the problem independently:

• Setting isShrinkResources = false.
• Removing resourceConfigurations += "en".
• Removing the empty library module from the build (by removing it from settings.gradle.kts and build.gradle.kts).

Notes:

• Replicated on two different build machines (both Macs), run on Pixel 6 Pro with API 33 and Pixel 4 emulator with API 31.
• The content of the library module doesn't matter, but the fact that the build is multi-module seems to.
• I tried using older Android Gradle Plugin versions (8.0.0 and 7.4.1) but without luck.
• Overall, this feels like a build caching issue, but this is just a speculation, and deleting all caches (project, Gradle, AS, SDK...) doesn't help.
• The closest existing issue that I was able to find is this: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/243399322

Thanks, and let me know if I can help further. 🙏

Full stack trace:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.example.resshrinker/com.example.MainActivity}: android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: String resource ID #0x7f0d0027
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3635)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3792)
at android.app.servertransaction.LaunchActivityItem.execute(LaunchActivityItem.java:103)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2210)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:201)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:288)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7839)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:548)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1003)
Caused by: android.content.res.Resources$NotFoundException: String resource ID #0x7f0d0027
at android.content.res.Resources.getText(Resources.java:444)
at android.content.res.Resources.getString(Resources.java:537)
at com.example.MainActivity.onCreate(Unknown Source:16)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:8051)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:8031)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1329)
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3608)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3792)
at android.app.servertransaction.LaunchActivityItem.execute(LaunchActivityItem.java:103)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2210)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:201)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:288)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7839)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:548)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1003)

System info:

Android Studio Giraffe | 2022.3.1
Build #AI-223.8836.35.2231.10406996, built on June 29, 2023
Runtime version: 17.0.6+0-17.0.6b829.9-10027231 aarch64
VM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o.
macOS 13.5
GC: G1 Young Generation, G1 Old Generation
Memory: 8192M
Cores: 10
Metal Rendering is ON
Registry:
    external.system.auto.import.disabled=true
    debugger.new.tool.window.layout=true
    ide.text.editor.with.preview.show.floating.toolbar=false
    ide.instant.shutdown=false
    ide.experimental.ui=true

Non-Bundled Plugins:
    Statistic (4.2.7)
    com.developerphil.adbidea (1.6.12)