when upgrading to android-studio 3.4.x/gradle build plugin 3.4.x /gradle 5.3 ... wondering if its an issue with the android plugin.
ERROR: No value has been specified for property 'manifestOutputDirectory'.
My gradle script does not use manifest related variables, nor has it changed the manifest. The version before my upgrade is Android-Studio: 3.3/Gradle pulgin: 3.3.2/Gradle: 5.3
First Update(20190508)：Fix method(temporary)
Find a temporary fix method, but the method of correcting the error is still unknown. Ways to avoid: I am a Mac OS X system: Click Android Studio->Preperences...->Experimental uncheck: Only sync the active variant.
I have studied the documentation. This feature can improve the compilation speed. If I find the fix method, I still want to continue to check “Only sync the active variant”.
Second Update(20190518)：
Looking through some documents did not find a solution.
But probably find some recurring conditions for your reference.
The process of this problem is to take the initiative to start Gradle's project synchronization operation. For example, two places in the figure will occur when clicked. If there is a problem, you need to uncheck "Only sync the active variant."
However, after successfully compiling and installing, check "Only sync the active variant.", this problem will not appear again, even if you change the build.gradle file, the top notification that needs to be synchronized again, do not click "Sync now", directly use run 'app' or debug 'app', Android-studio will automatically perform the synchronization and then compile and run, and this problem will not occur again.
At first I thought that changing the code of build.gradle can correct this problem. Now I feel like Android-studio or gradle-plugin has some problems in executing project sync. I hope that the subsequent version will solve this problem.
Third Update(20190821)：
Android-studio 3.5.0/ gradle build plugin 3.5.0/ gradle 5.4.1
Current latest stable version fixed this issue.
Enable “Only sync the active variant” is ok.
Click Android Studio->Preperences->Experimental then you have to uncheck - Only sync the active variant.
I just upgraded to AS 3.4 and had the same issue. This occurs when cold starting the application. Build > Make Project works fine, as does building from the command-line.
Disabling Gradle feature "Only sync the active variant" did the trick for me.
In Android Studio: File > Settings > Experimental > Gradle -> uncheck "Only sync the active variant" checkbox.
On clean PC installation I tried every trick here and nothing worked. I noticed there was logged message that licence was not accepted. I opened SDK manager, downloaded some packages that prompted me to accept licence and it started to sync.
Same with @user3407078 answer.
In my case. This is due the Android Studio 3.5 updates, and I haven't installed or accepted the license & agreement for the build tools & SDK platform 29.
Checking the license for package Android SDK Build-Tools 29.0.2 in ~/Library/Android/sdk/licenses
Warning: License for package Android SDK Build-Tools 29.0.2 not accepted.
Checking the license for package Android SDK Platform 29 in ~/Library/Android/sdk/licenses
Warning: License for package Android SDK Platform 29 not accepted.
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* What went wrong:
A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.
> No value has been specified for this provider.
In my case the problem was I opted in for incremental option
To solve the problem
open gradle.properties file and remove line
kapt.incremental.apt=true //remove or comment this line
Could be missing Java JDK, might want to check tha
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56033532/android-studio-3-4-0-3-4-2-gradle-error-no-value-has-been-specified-for-propert