Module was compiled with an incompatible version of Kotlin. The binary version of its metadata is x.x.x, expected version is x.x.x

Question

I keep getting errors regarding Kotlin in my React Native app. I'm trying to build the app and create a signed bundle - I was able to do it two weeks ago without any issues, since then I haven't changed my android/app/build.gradle or android/build.gradle files, except for bumping the versionCode.

I've tried playing around with versions under Tools->Kotlin and I've also invalidated the cache in Android Studio.

Here's the error message:

Module was compiled with an incompatible version of Kotlin. The binary version of its metadata is 1.8.0, expected version is 1.6.0.

Here's my android/build.gradle:

import org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.condition.Os

// Top-level build file where you can add configuration options common to all sub-projects/modules.

buildscript {
    ext {
        buildToolsVersion = findProperty('android.buildToolsVersion') ?: '31.0.0'
        minSdkVersion = Integer.parseInt(findProperty('android.minSdkVersion') ?: '21')
        compileSdkVersion = Integer.parseInt(findProperty('android.compileSdkVersion') ?: '33')
        targetSdkVersion = Integer.parseInt(findProperty('android.targetSdkVersion') ?: '33')
        if (findProperty('android.kotlinVersion')) {
            kotlinVersion = findProperty('android.kotlinVersion')
        }
        frescoVersion = findProperty('expo.frescoVersion') ?: '2.5.0'

        if (System.properties['os.arch'] == 'aarch64') {
            // For M1 Users we need to use the NDK 24 which added support for aarch64
            ndkVersion = '24.0.8215888'
        } else {
            // Otherwise we default to the side-by-side NDK version from AGP.
            ndkVersion = '21.4.7075529'
        }
    }
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath('com.android.tools.build:gradle:7.1.1')
        classpath('com.facebook.react:react-native-gradle-plugin')
        classpath('de.undercouch:gradle-download-task:5.0.1')
        // NOTE: Do not place your application dependencies here; they belong
        // in the individual module build.gradle files
    }
}

allprojects {
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
        maven {
            // All of React Native (JS, Obj-C sources, Android binaries) is installed from npm
            url(new File(['node', '--print', "require.resolve('react-native/package.json')"].execute(null, rootDir).text.trim(), '../android'))
        }
        maven {
            // Android JSC is installed from npm
            url(new File(['node', '--print', "require.resolve('jsc-android/package.json')"].execute(null, rootDir).text.trim(), '../dist'))
        }

        google()
        mavenCentral {
            // We don't want to fetch react-native from Maven Central as there are
            // older versions over there.
            content {
                excludeGroup 'com.facebook.react'
            }
        }
        maven { url 'https://www.jitpack.io' }
    }
}

I'm a bit hesitant to modify build.gradle since it was working before!

I upgraded Gradle from 7.3 to 8.5 due to another mysterious error: Gradle DSL method not found: compile()

As far as code changes, I upgraded a few dependencies with a fresh yarn install and otherwise only cosmetic front-end changes that I don't think could have any affect at all.

Any help is appreciated.