Android 14 emulator: App crashes with java.lang.SecurityException: "Writable dex file is not allowed. "

[dangrima90]

Describe the bug
Currently trying to run an application in an Android 14 emulator is resulting in a crash on launch with the following error:

System.err: Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Writable dex file '/data/user/0/com.test.MobileApp/code_cache/secondary-dexes/com.caverock.androidsvg.SVGExternalFileResolver_vendor_184168_42_SVGExternalFileResolver.jar' is not allowed.

Looking at the links below, the error points to an update that is needed here in relation to Android 14+ security updates:

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/77050791
• Writable dex file is not allowed tiann/FreeReflection#56
• [Bug] java.lang.SecurityException: "Writable dex file is not allowed. " error on Android 14 emulator. firebase/firebase-unity-sdk#865 (fixed via: https://github.com/firebase/firebase-unity-sdk/releases/tag/v11.5.0).

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run application using Android 14

Expected behavior
App not to crash

Stack traces

System.err: Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Writable dex file '/data/user/0/com.test.MobileApp/code_cache/secondary-dexes/com.caverock.androidsvg.SVGExternalFileResolver_vendor_184168_42_SVGExternalFileResolver.jar' is not allowed.

Device
If the problem only occurs on some devices, please include the following info.

• Device(s): On our production logs we've seen plenty of Pixel devices and a few Samsung Devices
• Android version or API level: Android 14 (API Level 34)

Additional context

This is in a NativeScript Vue application which is using ui-svg library. Issue doesn't seem to be related with NativeScript or the library itself.

[dangrima90]

In case it helps I also found this documentation in relation to Android 14. It seems to point to the exception being shown in my case: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/14/behavior-changes-14

[lewebsimple]

Any update on this issue ?

[Mahalakshmi274]

Facing the same issue, any update on this issue? @BigBadaboom @dangrima90

[dangrima90]

@lewebsimple and @Mahalakshmi274 In my case the issue was resolved via a NativeScript Android Runtime update. (NativeScript/android#1790). Which was released with NativeScript 8.6.0 (https://github.com/NativeScript/android/releases/tag/v8.6.0).

I don't know if you are using NativeScript but it could be a similar issue. If you are using NativeScript make sure that you use 8.6.0+ that should solve the issue.

[Mahalakshmi274]

@dangrima90 Thank you
App crash issue was resolved after updating Nativescript to the latest version and updating runtimes, core, and webpack to the latest versions.