Do I know if I need Multi-Dex enabled? (ClassNotFoundException)

Question

Suddenly and seemingly for no reason at all, the following error starts presenting itself. After fighting it all day, I discovered enabling Multi-Dex resolved it. Is this er

Answer 1

First, you can count the method references (and see other useful insight) using the APK Analyzer tool. It is shipped with Android Studio; you can find it under the Build menu and it's also available from the command line with apkanalyzer.

Second, you will get a build error indicating you need to use multi dex. It looks like:

trouble writing output: Too many field references: 131000; max is 65536. You may try using --multi-dex option.

More here: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/multidex.html