Conflict with firebase 11.8.0 and google-services plugin 3.1.2

Question

I have an apparent conflict with firebase 11.8.0 and google-services plugin 3.1.2. The build fails recommending that I use version 11.4.2 of firebase instead.

Relevant extracts of my gradle build files:

Root build.gradle

buildscript {
    repositories {
        google()
        ...
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.google.gms:google-services:3.1.2'
        ...
    }
}

app build.gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'
repositories {
    google()
    ....
}
dependencies {
    implementation "com.google.firebase:firebase-core:11.8.0"
    ....
}

I've correctly generated the firebase app files:

./app/src/debug/google-services.json
./app/src/release/google-services.json

When I build with ./gradlew clean assembleDebug, the build fails with this error:

> Task :app:processDebugGoogleServices FAILED
Found com.google.firebase:firebase-core:11.8.0, but version 11.4.2 is needed for the google-services plugin.


FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:processDebugGoogleServices'.
> Please fix the version conflict either by updating the version of the google-services plugin (information about the latest version is available at https://bintray.com/android/android-tools/com.google.gms.google-services/) or updating the version of com.google.android.gms to 11.4.2.

Answer 1

The solution is to move this line to the bottom of the app build.gradle file (it shouldn't be at the top):

apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'

This is specified in the documentation:

https://firebase.google.com/docs/android/setup

Then, in your module Gradle file (usually the app/build.gradle), add the apply plugin line at the bottom of the file to enable the Gradle plugin:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

android {
  // ...
}

dependencies {
  // ...
  compile 'com.google.firebase:firebase-core:11.8.0'

  // Getting a "Could not find" error? Make sure you have
  // added the Google maven respository to your root build.gradle
}

// ADD THIS AT THE BOTTOM
apply plugin: 'com.google.gms.google-services'