Gradle sync failed: Unable to start the daemon process(issue resolved)

Help/Discuss
1

Hi everyone,

It seems that the right solution can’t be found in this forum or googled out from other web sites. I’d like to research and write down my findings in this post.
Here are the solutions found in gradle forum. However, they cannot resolve the problem.

  1. add this line of code in gradle.properties
    org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
    quoted from “Android Studio: Unable to start the daemon process”
  2. add this line of code in gradle.properties
    org.gradle.daemon=true
    quoted from “Unable to start the daemon process after update android studio”
2

This post is to put error in details.

First, I use gradle -v at command line to show the environment info

Gradle 4.1
Groovy: 2.4.11
Ant: Apache Ant™ version 1.9.6 compiled on June 29 2015
JVM: 1.8.0_152-release (JetBrains s.r.o 25.152-b01)
OS: Windows 10 10.0 amd64

Second, I’d like to paste the error image in the grade build under android studio

Gradle sync failed: Unable to start the daemon process.
This problem might be caused by incorrect configuration of the daemon.
For example, an unrecognized jvm option is used.
Please refer to the user guide chapter on the daemon at
https://docs.gradle.org/4.1/userguide/gradle_daemon.html
Please read the following process output to find out more:
-----------------------
Consult IDE log for more details (Help | Show Log)

Third, I explored the log file and pasted the detail exception messages.
This is very long, but I can’t attach files as a new user. Therefore, I can only paste some of the log info.

2017-11-11 08:49:40,703 [ thread 10] INFO - .project.GradleProjectResolver - Gradle project resolve error
org.gradle.tooling.GradleConnectionException: Could not run build action using Gradle distribution ‘https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.1-all.zip’.
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.ExceptionTransformer.transform(ExceptionTransformer.java:55)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.ExceptionTransformer.transform(ExceptionTransformer.java:29)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.ResultHandlerAdapter.onFailure(ResultHandlerAdapter.java:41)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.async.DefaultAsyncConsumerActionExecutor$1$1.run(DefaultAsyncConsumerActionExecutor.java:57)
at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:63)
at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.StoppableExecutorImpl$1.run(StoppableExecutorImpl.java:46)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.BlockingResultHandler.getResult(BlockingResultHandler.java:46)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.DefaultBuildActionExecuter.run(DefaultBuildActionExecuter.java:60)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.doResolveProjectInfo(GradleProjectResolver.java:258)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.access$200(GradleProjectResolver.java:79)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver$ProjectConnectionDataNodeFunction.fun(GradleProjectResolver.java:902)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver$ProjectConnectionDataNodeFunction.fun(GradleProjectResolver.java:886)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.execution.GradleExecutionHelper.execute(GradleExecutionHelper.java:218)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.resolveProjectInfo(GradleProjectResolver.java:139)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.resolveProjectInfo(GradleProjectResolver.java:79)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.lambda$resolveProjectInfo$0(RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.java:37)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.AbstractRemoteExternalSystemService.execute(AbstractRemoteExternalSystemService.java:59)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.resolveProjectInfo(RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.java:37)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.wrapper.ExternalSystemProjectResolverWrapper.resolveProjectInfo(ExternalSystemProjectResolverWrapper.java:45)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.ExternalSystemResolveProjectTask.doExecute(ExternalSystemResolveProjectTask.java:66)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.AbstractExternalSystemTask.execute(AbstractExternalSystemTask.java:139)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.AbstractExternalSystemTask.execute(AbstractExternalSystemTask.java:125)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$3.execute(ExternalSystemUtil.java:388)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$5.run(ExternalSystemUtil.java:445)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager$TaskRunnable.run(CoreProgressManager.java:726)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.lambda$runProcess$1(CoreProgressManager.java:176)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.registerIndicatorAndRun(CoreProgressManager.java:556)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.executeProcessUnderProgress(CoreProgressManager.java:501)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressManagerImpl.executeProcessUnderProgress(ProgressManagerImpl.java:66)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.runProcess(CoreProgressManager.java:163)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressManagerImpl$1.run(ProgressManagerImpl.java:137)
at com.intellij.openapi.application.impl.ApplicationImpl$2.run(ApplicationImpl.java:334)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: org.gradle.api.GradleException: Unable to start the daemon process.
This problem might be caused by incorrect configuration of the daemon.
For example, an unrecognized jvm option is used.
Please refer to the user guide chapter on the daemon at https://docs.gradle.org/4.1/userguide/gradle_daemon.html
Please read the following process output to find out more:

at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.bootstrap.DaemonGreeter.parseDaemonOutput(DaemonGreeter.java:34)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonStarter.startProcess(DefaultDaemonStarter.java:151)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonStarter.startDaemon(DefaultDaemonStarter.java:134)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonConnector.startDaemon(DefaultDaemonConnector.java:205)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonConnector.connect(DefaultDaemonConnector.java:127)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DaemonClient.execute(DaemonClient.java:138)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DaemonClient.execute(DaemonClient.java:92)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.DaemonBuildActionExecuter.execute(DaemonBuildActionExecuter.java:60)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.DaemonBuildActionExecuter.execute(DaemonBuildActionExecuter.java:41)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.execute(LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.java:60)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.execute(LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.java:34)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ProviderConnection.run(ProviderConnection.java:143)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ProviderConnection.run(ProviderConnection.java:128)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.DefaultConnection.run(DefaultConnection.java:208)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.CancellableConsumerConnection$CancellableActionRunner.run(CancellableConsumerConnection.java:99)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.AbstractConsumerConnection.run(AbstractConsumerConnection.java:62)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.ParameterValidatingConsumerConnection.run(ParameterValidatingConsumerConnection.java:53)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.DefaultBuildActionExecuter$1.run(DefaultBuildActionExecuter.java:71)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.LazyConsumerActionExecutor.run(LazyConsumerActionExecutor.java:84)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.CancellableConsumerActionExecutor.run(CancellableConsumerActionExecutor.java:45)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.ProgressLoggingConsumerActionExecutor.run(ProgressLoggingConsumerActionExecutor.java:58)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.RethrowingErrorsConsumerActionExecutor.run(RethrowingErrorsConsumerActionExecutor.java:38)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.async.DefaultAsyncConsumerActionExecutor$1$1.run(DefaultAsyncConsumerActionExecutor.java:55)
at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:63)
at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.StoppableExecutorImpl$1.run(StoppableExecutorImpl.java:46)
... 3 more

2017-11-11 08:49:40,854 [ thread 10] WARN - nal.AbstractExternalSystemTask - Unable to start the daemon process.
This problem might be caused by incorrect configuration of the daemon.
For example, an unrecognized jvm option is used.
Please refer to the user guide chapter on the daemon at https://docs.gradle.org/4.1/userguide/gradle_daemon.html
Please read the following process output to find out more:

com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.model.ExternalSystemException: Unable to start the daemon process.
This problem might be caused by incorrect configuration of the daemon.
For example, an unrecognized jvm option is used.
Please refer to the user guide chapter on the daemon at https://docs.gradle.org/4.1/userguide/gradle_daemon.html
Please read the following process output to find out more:

at com.android.tools.idea.gradle.project.sync.idea.ProjectImportErrorHandler.getUserFriendlyError(ProjectImportErrorHandler.java:85)
at com.android.tools.idea.gradle.project.sync.idea.AndroidGradleProjectResolver.getUserFriendlyError(AndroidGradleProjectResolver.java:414)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.AbstractProjectResolverExtension.getUserFriendlyError(AbstractProjectResolverExtension.java:158)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver$ProjectConnectionDataNodeFunction.fun(GradleProjectResolver.java:906)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver$ProjectConnectionDataNodeFunction.fun(GradleProjectResolver.java:886)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.execution.GradleExecutionHelper.execute(GradleExecutionHelper.java:218)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.resolveProjectInfo(GradleProjectResolver.java:139)
at org.jetbrains.plugins.gradle.service.project.GradleProjectResolver.resolveProjectInfo(GradleProjectResolver.java:79)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.lambda$resolveProjectInfo$0(RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.java:37)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.AbstractRemoteExternalSystemService.execute(AbstractRemoteExternalSystemService.java:59)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.resolveProjectInfo(RemoteExternalSystemProjectResolverImpl.java:37)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.remote.wrapper.ExternalSystemProjectResolverWrapper.resolveProjectInfo(ExternalSystemProjectResolverWrapper.java:45)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.ExternalSystemResolveProjectTask.doExecute(ExternalSystemResolveProjectTask.java:66)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.AbstractExternalSystemTask.execute(AbstractExternalSystemTask.java:139)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.service.internal.AbstractExternalSystemTask.execute(AbstractExternalSystemTask.java:125)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$3.execute(ExternalSystemUtil.java:388)
at com.intellij.openapi.externalSystem.util.ExternalSystemUtil$5.run(ExternalSystemUtil.java:445)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager$TaskRunnable.run(CoreProgressManager.java:726)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.lambda$runProcess$1(CoreProgressManager.java:176)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.registerIndicatorAndRun(CoreProgressManager.java:556)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.executeProcessUnderProgress(CoreProgressManager.java:501)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressManagerImpl.executeProcessUnderProgress(ProgressManagerImpl.java:66)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.CoreProgressManager.runProcess(CoreProgressManager.java:163)
at com.intellij.openapi.progress.impl.ProgressManagerImpl$1.run(ProgressManagerImpl.java:137)
at com.intellij.openapi.application.impl.ApplicationImpl$2.run(ApplicationImpl.java:334)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

Caused by: org.gradle.api.GradleException: Unable to start the daemon process.
This problem might be caused by incorrect configuration of the daemon.
For example, an unrecognized jvm option is used.
Please refer to the user guide chapter on the daemon at https://docs.gradle.org/4.1/userguide/gradle_daemon.html
Please read the following process output to find out more:

at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.bootstrap.DaemonGreeter.parseDaemonOutput(DaemonGreeter.java:34)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonStarter.startProcess(DefaultDaemonStarter.java:151)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonStarter.startDaemon(DefaultDaemonStarter.java:134)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonConnector.startDaemon(DefaultDaemonConnector.java:205)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DefaultDaemonConnector.connect(DefaultDaemonConnector.java:127)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DaemonClient.execute(DaemonClient.java:138)
at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.client.DaemonClient.execute(DaemonClient.java:92)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.DaemonBuildActionExecuter.execute(DaemonBuildActionExecuter.java:60)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.DaemonBuildActionExecuter.execute(DaemonBuildActionExecuter.java:41)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.execute(LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.java:60)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.execute(LoggingBridgingBuildActionExecuter.java:34)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ProviderConnection.run(ProviderConnection.java:143)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ProviderConnection.run(ProviderConnection.java:128)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.DefaultConnection.run(DefaultConnection.java:208)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.CancellableConsumerConnection$CancellableActionRunner.run(CancellableConsumerConnection.java:99)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.AbstractConsumerConnection.run(AbstractConsumerConnection.java:62)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.ParameterValidatingConsumerConnection.run(ParameterValidatingConsumerConnection.java:53)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.DefaultBuildActionExecuter$1.run(DefaultBuildActionExecuter.java:71)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.LazyConsumerActionExecutor.run(LazyConsumerActionExecutor.java:84)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.CancellableConsumerActionExecutor.run(CancellableConsumerActionExecutor.java:45)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.ProgressLoggingConsumerActionExecutor.run(ProgressLoggingConsumerActionExecutor.java:58)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.connection.RethrowingErrorsConsumerActionExecutor.run(RethrowingErrorsConsumerActionExecutor.java:38)
at org.gradle.tooling.internal.consumer.async.DefaultAsyncConsumerActionExecutor$1$1.run(DefaultAsyncConsumerActionExecutor.java:55)
at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:63)
at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.StoppableExecutorImpl$1.run(StoppableExecutorImpl.java:46)
... 3 more

2017-11-11 08:49:40,872 [ thread 10] WARN - ect.sync.idea.ProjectSetUpTask - Unable to start the daemon process.
This problem might be caused by incorrect configuration of the daemon.
For example, an unrecognized jvm option is used.
Please refer to the user guide chapter on the daemon at https://docs.gradle.org/4.1/userguide/gradle_daemon.html
Please read the following process output to find out more:

Consult IDE log for more details (Help | Show Log)
2017-11-11 08:49:40,874 [ thread 10] INFO - e.project.sync.GradleSyncState - Gradle sync failed: Unable to start the daemon process.
This problem might be caused by incorrect configuration of the daemon.
For example, an unrecognized jvm option is used.
Please refer to the user guide chapter on the daemon at https://docs.gradle.org/4.1/userguide/gradle_daemon.html
Please read the following process output to find out more:

Consult IDE log for more details (Help | Show Log) (51s 792ms)
2017-11-11 08:49:41,798 [d thread 1] INFO - #com.jetbrains.cidr.lang - Clearing symbols finished in 0 s.
2017-11-11 08:49:41,871 [d thread 1] INFO - #com.jetbrains.cidr.lang - Loading symbols finished in 0 s.
2017-11-11 08:49:41,923 [d thread 1] INFO - #com.jetbrains.cidr.lang - Building symbols finished in 0 s.
2017-11-11 08:49:41,935 [d thread 1] INFO - #com.jetbrains.cidr.lang - Saving symbols finished in 0 s.
2017-11-11 09:09:37,215 [se-915-b01] INFO - ide.actions.ShowFilePathAction -
Exit code 1

3

This post is to summarize the findings.(Issue resolved)

  1. First I’d like to understand how gradle works in Android Studio environment. I noticed one interesting JVM setting logged after IDE starts:

2017-11-11 08:46:08,848 [se-915-b01] INFO - #com.intellij.idea.Main - JVM Args: -Xms256m -Xmx1280m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=240m -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB=50 -Dsun.io.useCanonCaches=false -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Djna.nosys=true -Djna.boot.library.path= -da -Djb.vmOptionsFile=C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\bin\studio64.exe.vmoptions,C:\Users\username\.AndroidStudio3.0\studio64.exe.vmoptions -Xbootclasspath/a:C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\lib\boot.jar -Didea.platform.prefix=AndroidStudio -Didea.jre.check=true -Didea.paths.selector=AndroidStudio3.0 -XX:ErrorFile=C:\Users\username\java_error_in_studio_%p.log -XX:HeapDumpPath=C:\Users\username\java_error_in_studio.hprof

Is there any unrecognized JVM options in them? As I have no idea about those JVM Args, I have to learn JVM Args first. This seems not a path I can follow immediately.

  1. Then I noticed the first line when Gradle goes wrong in the log file:
    .project.GradleProjectResolver - Gradle project resolve error
    org.gradle.tooling.GradleConnectionException: Could not run build action using Gradle distribution ‘https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.1-all.zip’.
    I suspect that there’s something wrong with it and the first thing I need to learn is how Gradle works in Android Studio.
    I’m now reading
    https://developer.android.com/studio/build/index.html
    and
    https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/gradle-plugin.html#updating-plugin

Based on those reading material, I checked how gradle wrapper takes effect, but everything looks fine. The gradle-wrapper.property file is correctly set and the grade zip file can be downloaded without any problem.

  1. Then I tried local gradle distribution by downloading the gradle folder manually to a specific folder under android folder. The error message is changed to Could not run build action using Gradle distribution ‘C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\gradle\gradle 4.1’. Android studio is following my configuration but it cannot access the distribution folder.

  2. I also checked Android Gradle plugin 3.0.0 and all Gradle build scripts and make sure they are the same as official release. Nothing works.

  3. Finally I find somebody mentioned that “Run Android as administrator” sometimes can resolve the issue. Yes, it might be because Android just can’t properly write something without administrator rights. This time it works. Bingo!