java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV14

Question

All of a sudden, when I try to compile my project,and run my app, I start getting this runtime error-

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV14
            at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegate.create(AppCompatDelegate.java:93)
            at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegate.create(AppCompatDelegate.java:77)
            at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.getDelegate(AppCompatActivity.java:429)
            at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.onCreate(AppCompatActivity.java:57)
            at com.example.shubhamkanodia.bookmybook.MainActivity.onCreate(MainActivity.java:70)
            at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:5990)
            at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1106)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2278)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2387)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.access$800(ActivityThread.java:151)
            at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1303)
            at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
            at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:135)
            at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5254)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
            at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:903)
            at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:698)

Here's what I've tried doing:

1) Excluding support-v4 from all my dependencies and manually specifying an older version, support compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:21.+'.

What is interesting to note is that MainActivity is not my launcher activity. So the app works fine in the launcher activity.. But as soon as mainactivity opens, it fails.

My build.gradle is given below (i had to mess it up a little to fix another another design library bug, so don't mind the excludes )

     compile('com.google.android.gms:play-services-identity:7.5.0') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.android.support:palette-v7:22.2.0') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.nhaarman.listviewanimations:lib-core:3.1.0@aar') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    apt "org.androidannotations:androidannotations:$AAVersion"
    compile ("org.androidannotations:androidannotations-api:$AAVersion")
            {
                exclude module: 'support-v4'
                exclude module: 'support-v7'

            }
    compile('com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.2.0') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.android.support:cardview-v7:22.2.0') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.android.support:design:22.2.0') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile project(':cognalys')
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: 'Parse-*.jar')
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: 'ParseCrashReporting-*.jar')
    compile ('com.google.android.gms:play-services-plus:7.5.0'){
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile ('com.parse.bolts:bolts-android:1.+') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.squareup.picasso:picasso:2.5.2') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.github.ksoichiro:android-observablescrollview:1.5.1') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile ('me.dm7.barcodescanner:zbar:1.7.2') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.sothree.slidinguppanel:library:3.0.0') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile ('com.mcxiaoke.volley:library:1.0.+'){
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:21.+'
    compile ('jp.wasabeef:picasso-transformations:1.0.3@aar'){
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile ('jp.co.cyberagent.android.gpuimage:gpuimage-library:1.2.3@aar'){
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile ('com.daimajia.easing:library:1.0.1@aar') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    }
    compile('com.daimajia.androidanimations:library:1.1.3@aar') {
        exclude module: 'support-v4'
        exclude module: 'support-v7'

    } 

Answer 1

From all the exclusions you exposed, I have to say that what I read is that you just banned support-v4 and support-v7 from your application (even from design and appcompat).

So try to keep them at the end ^^

compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.2.0' // no exclusion