Cannot invoke "String.length()" because "<parameter1>" is null

[officalAbdulMalik]

ERROR:/Users/mac/.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/com.google.errorprone/error_prone_annotations/2.36.0/227d4d4957ccc3dc5761bd897e3a0ee587e750a7/error_prone_annotations-2.36.0.jar: D8: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "String.length()" because "" is null

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

• What went wrong:
  Execution failed for task ':app:mergeExtDexDebug'.

Could not resolve all files for configuration ':app:debugRuntimeClasspath'.
Failed to transform error_prone_annotations-2.36.0.jar (com.google.errorprone:error_prone_annotations:2.36.0) to match attributes {artifactType=android-dex, asm-transformed-variant=NONE, dexing-enable-desugaring=true, dexing-enable-jacoco-instrumentation=false, dexing-is-debuggable=true, dexing-min-sdk=24, org.gradle.category=library, org.gradle.libraryelements=jar, org.gradle.status=release, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime}.
> Execution failed for DexingNoClasspathTransform: /Users/mac/.gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/com.google.errorprone/error_prone_annotations/2.36.0/227d4d4957ccc3dc5761bd897e3a0ee587e750a7/error_prone_annotations-2.36.0.jar.
> Error while dexing.

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BUILD FAILED in 20s
Error: Gradle task assembleDebug failed with exit code 1

[aggeloskoutanis]

@officalAbdulMalik I had the same problem and I fixed it that way:

1. Go to android / build.gradle
2. Paste this force 'com.google.errorprone:error_prone_annotations:2.20.0' inside resolutionStrategy in configurations.all

So this part of your grade should be

    configurations.all {
        resolutionStrategy {
            force 'com.google.errorprone:error_prone_annotations:2.20.0'  
        }
    }

Note: This is a temporary fix