Error inflating WebView XML

Question

I found a crash report on Crashlytics in a Samsung SM G920F (Galaxy S6), version 5.1.1 (on all other devices I didn\'t retrieve same error).

java.lang.Runtim         


        

Answer 1

This crash problem happens on Android 5.0 and 5.1 Lollipop (API 21/22), when using version 1.1.0 of some AndroidX Jetpack libraries:

implementation "androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.1.0"

or

implementation "androidx.preference:preference:1.1.0"

It happens when your device does not have Google Chrome browser or "Android System WebView" installed from the Google Play Store. Some stock emulators that don't have Google Play Services installed will therefore experience this problem.

How to Solve

Updating to a higher AndroidX version, like 1.2.0-alpha03 will fix it, as mentioned here:

Error inflating class android.webkit.WebView Crash on Lollipop when opening PDF

implementation "androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.2.0-alpha03"

Or use a custom fix in AppCompatActivity.applyOverrideConfiguration(). See: android.view.InflateException Error inflating class android.webkit.WebView

See also:

• WebView Crash on Android 5-5.1 (API 21-22) Resources$NotFoundException: String resource ID #0x2040002
• https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/141132133 -- "webview crashes with appcompat1.1.0"