Getting an error with react-native-safe-area-context build.gradle file and compileSdkVersion is not specified

Question

I am getting this Error message while building my react native project.

BUILD FAILED in 4s

error Failed to install the app. Make sure you have the Android development environment set up: https://reactnative.dev/docs/environment-setup.
Error: Command failed: gradlew.bat app:installDebug -PreactNativeDevServerPort=8081

FAILURE: Build completed with 2 failures.

1: Task failed with an exception.
-----------
* Where:
Build file 'C:\Users\sawan\OneDrive\Desktop\Unsplash\app\node_modules\react-native-safe-area-context\android\build.gradle' line: 28

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating project ':react-native-safe-area-context'.
> Could not initialize class org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.plugin.KotlinGradleBuildServices

* Try:
> Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace.
> Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
> Run with --scan to get full insights.
==============================================================================

2: Task failed with an exception.
-----------
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred configuring project ':react-native-safe-area-context'.
> com.android.builder.errors.EvalIssueException: compileSdkVersion is not specified. Please add it to build.gradle

* Try:
> Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace.
> Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
> Run with --scan to get full insights.
==============================================================================

Its saying error is in this file: C:\Users\sawan\OneDrive\Desktop\Unsplash\app\node_modules\react-native-safe-area-context\android\build.gradle

//rest of the code ...
android {
compileSdkVersion getExtOrDefault('compileSdkVersion', 30)

// Used to override the NDK path/version on internal CI or by allowing
// users to customize the NDK path/version from their root project (e.g. for M1 support)
if (rootProject.hasProperty("ndkPath")) {
    ndkPath rootProject.ext.ndkPath
}
if (rootProject.hasProperty("ndkVersion")) {
    ndkVersion rootProject.ext.ndkVersion
}

defaultConfig {
    minSdkVersion getExtOrDefault('minSdkVersion', 16)
    targetSdkVersion getExtOrDefault('targetSdkVersion', 28)
    versionCode 1
    versionName "1.0"
    buildConfigField "boolean", "IS_NEW_ARCHITECTURE_ENABLED", isNewArchitectureEnabled().toString()

    ndk {
         abiFilters (*reactNativeArchitectures())
     }
}// rest of the code ....

Here is my build.gradle file from \android

buildscript {
ext {
    buildToolsVersion = "33.0.0"
    minSdkVersion = 21
    compileSdkVersion = 33
    targetSdkVersion = 33

    // We use NDK 23 which has both M1 support and is the side-by-side NDK version from AGP.
    ndkVersion = "23.1.7779620"
    // kotlin_version = '1.5.20' //
}
repositories {
    google()
    mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
    classpath("com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.3.1")
    classpath("com.facebook.react:react-native-gradle-plugin")
    // classpath("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:$kotlin_version") //
}}

Don't know if error is in this path or the build.gradle file

Answer 1

It's related to "gradle cache".

Just clean the gradle cache, like:

rm -rf ~/.gradle

and then

yarn android

or

npx react-native run-android

Originally posted by me (@Pranav-yadav) here: https://github.com/th3rdwave/react-native-safe-area-context/issues/391#issuecomment-1565925679

P.S.: After cleaning the gradle cache, the first time you'll build, it'll download the required gradle files so, will consume "more" bandwidth for the first build. Afterwards it'll build as usual.