R cannot be resolved - Android error

Question

I just downloaded and installed the new Android SDK. I wanted to create a simple application to test drive it.

The wizard created this code:

package eu.mauriziopz.gps;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class ggps extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
    }
}

but Eclipse gives me the error

R cannot be resolved

on line

setContentView(R.layout.main);

Why?

PS: I do have an XML file named main.xml under res/layout/.

Answer 1

After tracking down this problem as well, I found this note in the Android documentation:

http://source.android.com/source/using-eclipse.html

*Note: Eclipse sometimes likes to add an "import android.R" statement at the top of your files that use resources, especially when you ask Eclipse to sort or otherwise manage imports. This will cause your make to break. Look out for these erroneous import statements and delete them.*

While going through the Android sample tutorials, I would often use the Ctrl + Shift + O command to "Organize Imports" and generate any missing import statements. Sometimes this would generate the incorrect import statement which would hide the R.java class that is automatically generated when you build.

Answer 2

Each time I had a problem with R not been generated, or even disappeared, this was due to some problem in the XML layout file that prevented the application from being built.

Answer 3

Whenever you get

R cannot be resolved

then check for the /res directory and there must be some file that have some error in it and that is preventing the application from being built. For example, it may be a layout file or it may be due to some missing resource is, but you already defined it in the XML file.

If you have any additional, even unused (!) or unreferenced (!) images in a folder like res/drawables-mdpi which do not comply to the file naming conventions (may contain only [a-z0-9_.]), the R.java class might not generate, causing the chain of events all the other posts referred to. Hope it helps!

Answer 4

my project have include a r.java.at the beginning ,R.layout.main work good.But,after adding some code it doesn't work,and the error is R.layout.main can't resolved.what's the problem?

Look at your imports. Chances are that the line:

import android.R;

will be there. If that's the case, remove it, so that your project will resolve R not with the default Android Resources class, but with the one auto-generated from your /res/ folder.

Answer 5

And another thing which may cause this problem:

I installed the new ADT (v. 22). It stopped creating gen folder which includes R.java. The solution was to also install new Android SDK Build Tools from Android SDK Manager.

Solution found here

Answer 6

R.java is a file that the Android Eclipse plugins creates while building your application. R.java is created under the "gen" directory. This file is generated from the information in the "res" directory. If you run select "Project" -> "Clean..." on the Eclipse menu, it will remove and then regenerate the R.java file.

The problem "R cannot be resolved" happens when you change your package name in the AndroidManifest.xml file. It uses your Android package name to create a subdirectory under the "gen" directory where it stores the R.java file.

Eclipse may have problems executing clean, because it is confused about where the R.java file is when you have changed the Android package name. You can either rename the subdirectory under gen to match your new package name, or you can change your package name back to the old name. Do the clean and then change the package name to the new name you want. This works best if you stop Eclipse from trying to build while you are changing the package name. Under the "Project" menu uncheck the option to "Build Automatically" and also when the "Clean..." dialog asks if it should "Start a build immediately" uncheck the box so it doesn't try to build while you are changing the package name. After you have changed the name you can turn "Build Automatically" back on again.

Note that if your AndroidManifest.xml file package name does not match your Java package name, Eclipse will end up automatically adding an "import <your Android package name>.R;" line in all your .java files that have any references to R. If you change your AndroidManifest.xml package name, sometimes Eclipse does not update all of these added imports. If that happens, use the Eclipse refactoring (ALT + Shift + R) to change the import statement in one of your Java files to your new AndroidManifest.xml package name. It is best to do this while you have disabled "Build Automatically".

Answer 7

What Will said was right

R is an automatically generated class that holds the constants used to identify your >resources. If you don't have an R.java file (it would be gen/eu.mauriziopz.gps/R.java in >Eclipse with the 1.5 SDK) I would recommend closing and reopening your project or going to >Project > Build all (and selecting "Build Automatically" while there as recommended by >Josef). If that doesn't work than try making a new project, if the problem is recreated than >post here again and we'll go into more detail.

but I've found out that there was another problem that was causing the first one. The tools in the SDK directory didn't have the permissions to be executed, so it was like the didn't exist for Eclipse, thus it didn't build the R.java file.

So modifying the permission and selecting "Build Automatically" solved the problem.

Answer 8

R is an automatically generated class that holds the constants used to identify your resources. If you don't have an R.java file (it would be gen/eu.mauriziopz.gps/R.java in Eclipse with the 1.5 SDK) I would recommend closing and reopening your project or going to Project > Build all (and selecting "Build Automatically" while there as recommended by Josef). If that doesn't work than try making a new project, if the problem is recreated than post here again and we'll go into more detail.

Answer 9

Close all files, clean project, restart Eclipse.

Answer 10

It is worth checking in AndroidManifest.xml. The attribute package has the correct value.

That is:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="your.correct.package.name"
   ...

After you change that, the R.java will be re-generated.

Answer 11

This error can also be caused by adding an activity to a namespace that is different to the root namespace for your package.

For example, if com.example.myapp is the root namespace for your package, you can then add an activity to the com.example.myapp.activities namespace.

This will produce the "R cannot be resolved" error.

To fix the import the R in the default namespace in your activity should be:

import com.example.myapp.R;

Answer 12

Along with the great suggestions in the previous answers, make sure your Android target is set:

1. Right-click on your project
2. Choose Properties
3. Choose Android in the left menu
4. Tick a box next to the appropriate Project Build Target.
5. Click Apply and OK

Edit: A year later I found another cause. I had a .jpg image in my drawable folder with the same name as a .png image. Referencing this image in my code must have confused the program and it gave the "R cannot be resolved" error.

Answer 13

Make sure you installed the Android build tool form sdk manager

project right click properties-> Java BuildPath select Library and add android-support.jar the follow these step.

Go to Project->Properties->Java Build Path than select Order and export tab. Set android-support .jar library checked and up it into top of the list. And clean and rebuild..It works for most of the cases

Answer 14

I just had this problem for the millionth time and realized what was causing it: I created an XML file with uppercase letters in the name. All your XML filenames in /res must match [a-z0-9\\._].

Answer 15

Simplest solution - Sometimes you just need to save the XML file you were working on to get the autogenerator to kick in.

Save the file (e.g. main.xml) then delete the R.java file and see if the regenerated R.java resolves the R resolve problem.

Answer 16

Check the XML file names. Be sure that they're all in lowercase.

Also make sure that any image resource names are also all in LOWER CASE. I had a capital letter in the name of my jpg file, and it caused the R unresolved error right across my project.

Answer 17

R is a generated class. If you are using the Android Development Tools (ADT) it is generated whenever the project is built. You may have 'Build Automatically' turned off.

Answer 18

This error cropped up on my x64 Linux Mint installation. It turned out that the result was a failure in the ADB binary, because the ia32-libs package was not installed. Simply running apt-get install ia32-libs and relaunching Eclipse fixed the error.

If your x64 distro does not have ia32-libs, you'll have to go Multiarch.

Check #4 and #5 on this post: http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=277883#p277883

Hope this helps someone.

Answer 19

You may need to update/install SDK tools. Relaunch Android SDK Manager again and install a new item: Android SDK Build-tools.one by one delete,fix which one work for you.

Answer 20

I had this problem as well. It turned out that I had inadvertently deleted the "app_name" string resource from the strings.xml file, which was causing a silent error. Once I added it back, the R class was generated successfully and everything was back up and running.

Answer 21

You may need to update SDK tools. Relaunch Android SDK Manager again and install a new item: Android SDK Build-tools.

Answer 22

Try to make your new XML layout file name lower case. For example, use my_file.xml instead of myFile.xml.

Answer 23

Yet another reason R.java might not get autogenerated is if you have directories like res/drawable-hdpi, res/drawable-mdpi, or res/drawable-ldpi.

1.6+ seems to be OK with these directories, but 1.5 doesn't want them. When I removed those directories, R.java started autogenerating for me again.

Answer 24

Often times this is because of the MinSDK version number you supplied when creating the project. Example:

If you want 2.1 to be the minimum, Android 2.1 is actually API Level 7.

You can see what I am talking about when you browse the SDK you downloaded and installed. Navigate to the place you installed the SDK to (C:\android-sdk-windows for example) and open the folder named "platforms". You will see something like "android-7" listed as a folder, and if you open that there is a source.properties file that, when opened with a text editor, will show you the corresponding platform version.

When you create a project, and you must select a "Build Target" API, the last column in that list named "API Level" shows the number you are looking for when populating the MinSDK setting.

This is probably one of the most common mistakes that results in the R.java file not being created under Project > gen > packagename > R.java.

Answer 25

Remove main.out.xml. I'm new to this and don't yet know what this file is used for, but removing it cleared the problem.

Answer 26

First check is there any error in any xml layout or not, if then resolve it first.

Otherwise remove junit dependency from project and rebuild the project.

Answer 27

In case anyone is interested (I might be saving your life here), I had the error, R.xml cannot be resolved, slightly different on a GLS project. Hmmmm. After looking in R.java, I found an auto-generated class, XML.java, (I think) was not there.

Solution? It needed a new folder in res: res\xml and a file called default_values.xml in there. Then all was OK.

Just in case you have not got that file, it's:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
</PreferenceScreen>

Answer 28

Just go to Android Top menu list. click on Build Menu, in under Build click on Rebuild Project.

Answer 29

So I have run into this problem multiple times when switching build targets. Usually doing a Project >> Clean worked for me. This last time, however, it did not. Finally I tried to open my default.properties file, located under the root project folder. I received an error message stating that it was out of sync with the file system. I actually deleted it and copied a coworkers version which allowed eclipse to rebuild my R file. I will paste what it looks like below. It is named 'default.properties'.

# This file is automatically generated by Android Tools.
# Do not modify this file -- YOUR CHANGES WILL BE ERASED!
# 
# This file must be checked in Version Control Systems.
# 
# To customize properties used by the Ant build system use,
# "build.properties", and override values to adapt the script to your
# project structure.

# Indicates whether an apk should be generated for each density.
split.density=false
# Project target.
target=android-3

Answer 30

I had the examples of Android 8 and was trying to use Android 7 SDK. When I closed the project and reopened the application folder and chose to use Android 8 SDK, it was able to find the R file. Hope this helps.