Gradle project sync failed. Basic functionality (e.g. editing, debugging) will not work properly on Android Studio 4.2

Question

I encountered "Gradle project sync failed" on Android Studio 4.2 and some of the class members are mostly red. I have done some troubleshooting as below.

1. File->Sync Project with Gradle Files
2. File-> invalidates caches/restart
3. Restart Android Studio
4. Clean and Rebuild
5. Try deleting .gradle

However, the problem still persists. What went wrong actually?

Trace logfiles:

2021-05-12 17:50:44,928 [24467617]   WARN - ues.SyncIssueUsageReporterImpl - Multiple sync failures reported. Discarding: SDK_BUILD_TOOLS_TOO_LOW 
2021-05-12 17:50:44,928 [24467617]   WARN - ues.SyncIssueUsageReporterImpl - Multiple sync failures reported. Discarding: SDK_BUILD_TOOLS_TOO_LOW 
2021-05-12 17:50:44,929 [24467618]   INFO - adleSyncState$SyncStateUpdater - onFailure(RESOLVE_PROJECT:5, com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.model.ExternalSystemException: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.) 
2021-05-12 17:50:44,929 [24467618]   INFO - cState$SyncStateUpdaterService - stopTrackingTask(RESOLVE_PROJECT:5) 
2021-05-12 17:50:44,929 [24467618]   WARN - e.project.sync.GradleSyncState - Gradle sync failed: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'. (3 s 326 ms) 
2021-05-12 17:50:44,930 [24467619]   WARN - e.project.sync.GradleSyncState - A problem occurred configuring project ':app'. 
com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.model.ExternalSystemException: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.execution.GradleExecutionErrorHandler.createUserFriendlyError(GradleExecutionErrorHandler.java:153)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.AbstractProjectImportErrorHandler.createUserFriendlyError(AbstractProjectImportErrorHandler.java:46)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.BaseProjectImportErrorHandler.doGetUserFriendlyError(BaseProjectImportErrorHandler.java:181)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.BaseProjectImportErrorHandler.getUserFriendlyError(BaseProjectImportErrorHandler.java:45)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.BaseProjectImportErrorHandler.checkErrorsWithoutQuickFixes(BaseProjectImportErrorHandler.java:59)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver$1.getUserFriendlyError(GradleProjectResolver.java:798)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver$ProjectConnectionDataNodeFunction.fun(GradleProjectResolver.java:745)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver$ProjectConnectionDataNodeFunction.fun(GradleProjectResolver.java:720)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.execution.GradleExecutionHelper.lambda$execute$0(GradleExecutionHelper.java:128)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.GradleConnectorService.withGradleConnection(GradleConnectorService.java:246)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.execution.GradleExecutionHelper.execute(GradleExecutionHelper.java:114)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.resolveProjectInfo(GradleProjectResolver.java:142)
    at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.resolveProjectInfo(GradleProjectResolver.java:64)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.lambda$resolveProjectInfo$0(RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.java:37)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.AbstractRemoteExternalSystemService.execute(AbstractRemoteExternalSystemService.java:43)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.resolveProjectInfo(RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.java:36)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.wrapper.ExternalSystemProjectResolverWrapper.resolveProjectInfo(ExternalSystemProjectResolverWrapper.java:46)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.ExternalSystemResolveProjectTask.doExecute(ExternalSystemResolveProjectTask.java:102)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.AbstractExternalSystemTask.execute(AbstractExternalSystemTask.java:147)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.AbstractExternalSystemTask.execute(AbstractExternalSystemTask.java:133)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$2.executeImpl(ExternalSystemUtil.java:523)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$2.lambda$execute$1(ExternalSystemUtil.java:372)
    at com.intellij.openapi.project.DumbServiceHeavyActivities.suspendIndexingAndRun(DumbServiceHeavyActivities.java:20)
    at com.intellij.openapi.project.DumbServiceImpl.suspendIndexingAndRun(DumbServiceImpl.java:153)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$2.execute(ExternalSystemUtil.java:372)
    at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$4.run(ExternalSystemUtil.java:631)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager$TaskRunnable.run(CoreProgressManager.java:935)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.lambda$runProcessWithProgressAsync$5(CoreProgressManager.java:442)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressRunner.lambda$null$3(ProgressRunner.java:235)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.lambda$runProcess$2(CoreProgressManager.java:170)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.registerIndicatorAndRun(CoreProgressManager.java:629)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.executeProcessUnderProgress(CoreProgressManager.java:581)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressManagerImpl.executeProcessUnderProgress(ProgressManagerImpl.java:60)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.runProcess(CoreProgressManager.java:157)
    at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressRunner.lambda$submit$4(ProgressRunner.java:235)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$AsyncSupply.run(CompletableFuture.java:1700)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$PrivilegedThreadFactory$1$1.run(Executors.java:668)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$PrivilegedThreadFactory$1$1.run(Executors.java:665)
    at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$PrivilegedThreadFactory$1.run(Executors.java:665)
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)
Caused by: org.gradle.api.ProjectConfigurationException: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.

Answer 1

I had faced the same problem.

Solution:

If your Android Studio version is 4.2.2 and your app contains more than one modules then make sure to keep the targetSdkVersion and compileSdkVersion as same for all your build.gradle files(including your modules).

Answer 2

I have just experienced this issue seemingly out of thin air, and found the cause:

I updated the google play services ads module to: api 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads:20.1.0'

This causes the gradle sync to fail. Looking into the IDEA log I found the line com.android.tools.idea.gradle.project.sync.idea.issues.SdkPlatformNotFoundException: Module: 'my-module' platform 'android-28' not found.

So I updated my-module to use the targetSdkVersion 29 and the build works again.