Build: 3.1 Canary 9, AI-173.4559767, 201801230325,

AI-173.4559767, JRE 1.8.0_152-release-1024-b02x64 JetBrains s.r.o, OS Windows 10(amd64) v10.0 , screens 2560x1440

Gradle plugin self creates library metadata under .idea/libraries/
But it can get itself to self-corrupted state from which it can't recover.

Here is how:
A library dependence is set in build.gradle:
dependencies{
implementation 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:11.8.0'
}
Studio makes file .idea/libraries/Gradle__com_google_android_gms_play_services_location_11_8_0.xml
pointing to cached library in .gradle/caches/transforms-1/files-1.1/play-services-location-11.8.0.aar/<uuid>/...
So far good. The <uuid> matches.

Now somehow something deleted cached folder .gradle/caches/transforms-1/files-1.1/play-services-location-11.8.0.aar/<uuid> (deleting cache should be recoverable right...), and Studio downloaded new cached version under different uuid.
Now problem: Studio still keeps old information in .idea/libraries/Gradle__com_google_android_gms_play_services_location_11_8_0.xml pointing to nonexisting cache folder, and no matter what I do (clean project, rebuild, restart), it doesn't notice the nonexisting cache folder, and keeps referencing it. Result is build failure as import com.google.android.gms.location.LocationServices doesn't find anything.
You can simulate this by deleting cached folder .gradle/caches/transforms-1/files-1.1/play-services-location-11.8.0.aar/<uuid> and restart Studio, you should see the problem.

I can recover only by deleting .idea/libraries/Gradle__com_google_android_gms_play_services_location_11_8_0.xml (or better entire .idea/libraries) and reloading project, in such case new correct Gradle__com_google_android_gms_play_services_location_11_8_0.xml file is created.

It's super-confusing to encounter similar failures, not knowing why build fails when it worked a while ago. Please fix.