How to enable multidexing with the new Android Multidex support library

I want to use the new Multidex support library to break the method limit for one of my apps.

With Android Lollipop Google introduced a multidex support library that makes it easy to multidex.

What steps are needed to use this library and to build my app with multidex support?

Edit:

Android 5.0 (API level 21) and higher uses ART which supports multidexing. Therefore, if your minSdkVersion is 21 or higher, the multidex support library is not needed.

---

Modify your build.gradle:

android {
    compileSdkVersion 22
    buildToolsVersion "23.0.0"

         defaultConfig {
             minSdkVersion 14 //lower than 14 doesn't support multidex
             targetSdkVersion 22

             // Enabling multidex support.
             multiDexEnabled true
         }
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.3'
}

If you are running unit tests, you will want to include this in your Application class:

public class YouApplication extends Application {

    @Override
    protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
        super.attachBaseContext(base);
        MultiDex.install(this);
    }

}

Or just make your application class extend MultiDexApplication

public class Application extends MultiDexApplication {

}

For more info, this is a good guide.

The following steps are needed to start multi dexing:

Add android-support-multidex.jar to your project. The jar can be found in your Android SDK folder /sdk/extras/android/support/multidex/library/libs

Now you either let your apps application class extend MultiDexApplication

public class MyApplication extends MultiDexApplication

or you override attachBaseContext like this:

protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
 super.attachBaseContext(base);
 MultiDex.install(this);
}

I used the override approach because that does not mess with the class hierarchy of your application class.

Now your app is ready to use multi dex. The next step is to convince gradle to build a multi dexed apk. The build tools team is working on making this easier, but for the moment you need to add the following to the android part of your apps build.gradle

   dexOptions {
      preDexLibraries = false
   }

And the following to the general part of your apps build.gradle

afterEvaluate {
   tasks.matching {
      it.name.startsWith('dex')
   }.each { dx ->
      if (dx.additionalParameters == null) {
         dx.additionalParameters = ['--multi-dex']
      } else {
         dx.additionalParameters += '--multi-dex'
      }
   }
}

More info can be found on Alex Lipovs blog.

SIMPLY, in order to enable multidex, you need to ...

android {
compileSdkVersion 21
buildToolsVersion "21.1.0"

defaultConfig {
    ...
    minSdkVersion 14
    targetSdkVersion 21
    ...

    // Enabling multidex support.
    multiDexEnabled true
}
...
}

dependencies {
implementation 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.0'
}

also you must change your manifest file. In your manifest add the MultiDexApplication class from the multidex support library to the application element like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="com.example.android.multidex.myapplication">
   <application
       ...
       android:name="android.support.multidex.MultiDexApplication">
       ...
   </application>
</manifest>

Here is an up-to-date approach as of October 2020, with Android X. This comes from Android's documentation, "Enable multidex for apps with over 64K methods."

For minSdk >= 21

You do not need to do anything. All of these devices use the Android RunTime (ART) VM, which supports multidex natively.

For minSdk < 21

In your module-level build.gradle, ensure that the following configurations are populated:

android {
    defaultConfig {
	    multiDexEnabled true
    }
}

dependencies {
	implementation 'androidx.multidex:multidex:2.0.1'
}

You need to install explicit multidex support. The documentation includes three methods to do so, and you have to pick one.

For example, in your src/main/AndroidManifest.xml, you can declare MultiDexApplication as the application:name:

<manifest package="com.your.package"
          xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <application android:name="androidx.multidex.MultiDexApplication" />
</manifest>

In your build.gradle add this dependency:

compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1'

again in your build.gradle file add this line to defaultConfig block:

multiDexEnabled true

Instead of extending your application class from Application extend it from MultiDexApplication ; like :

public class AppConfig extends MultiDexApplication {

now you're good to go! And in case you need it, all MultiDexApplication does is

public class MultiDexApplication extends Application {
    @Override
    protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
        super.attachBaseContext(base);
        MultiDex.install(this);
    }
}

build.gradle

multiDexEnabled true
implementation 'androidx.multidex:multidex:2.0.1'

AndroidManifest.xml

<application
	android:name="androidx.multidex.MultiDexApplication"

Step 1: Change build.grade

defaultConfig {
    ...
    // Enabling multidex support.
    multiDexEnabled true
}

dependencies {
    ...
    compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.0'
}

Step 2: Setting on the Application class

public class MyApplication extends Application {
    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        MultiDex.install(this);
    }
}

Step 3: Change grade.properties

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8

It will work!. Thanks.

First you should try with Proguard (This clean all code unused)

android {
    compileSdkVersion 25
    buildToolsVersion "25.0.2"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 16
        targetSdkVersion 25
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"

        testInstrumentationRunner "android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
        multiDexEnabled true
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled true
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
}

Add to AndroidManifest.xml:

android:name="android.support.multidex.MultiDexApplication" 

OR

MultiDex.install(this);

in your custom Application's attachBaseContext method

or your custom Application extend MultiDexApplication

add multiDexEnabled = true in your build.gradle

defaultConfig {
    multiDexEnabled true
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.0'
    }
}

With androidx, the classic support libraries no longer work.

Simple solution is to use following code

In your build.gradle file

android{
  ...
  ...
  defaultConfig {
     ...
     ...
     multiDexEnabled true
  }
  ...
}

dependencies {
  ...
  ...
  implementation 'androidx.multidex:multidex:2.0.1'
}

And in your manifest just add name attribute to the application tag

<manifest ...>
    <application
        android:name="androidx.multidex.MultiDexApplication"
     ...
     ...>
         ...
         ...
    </application>
</manifest>

If your application is targeting API 21 or above multidex is enables by default.

Now if you want to get rid of many of the issues you face trying to support multidex - first try using code shrinking by setting minifyEnabled true.

If you want to enable multi-dex in your project then just go to gradle.builder

and add this in your dependencie

 dependencies {
   compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.0'}

then you have to add

 defaultConfig {
...
minSdkVersion 14
targetSdkVersion 21
...

// Enabling multidex support.
multiDexEnabled true}

Then open a class and extand it to Application If your app uses extends the Application class, you can override the oncrete() method and call

   MultiDex.install(this) 

to enable multidex.

and finally add into your manifest

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.android.multidex.myapplication">
    <application
   ...
     android:name="android.support.multidex.MultiDexApplication">
   ...
   </application>
 </manifest> 

All answers above are awesome

Also add this otherwise your app will crash like mine without any reason

compileOptions {
    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
}

just adding this snipped in the build.gradle also works fine

android {
   compileSdkVersion 22
   buildToolsVersion "23.0.0"

     defaultConfig {
         minSdkVersion 14 //lower than 14 doesn't support multidex
         targetSdkVersion 22

         **// Enabling multidex support.
         **multiDexEnabled true****
     }
}

Multi_Dex.java

public class Multi_Dex extends Application {
    @Override
    protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
        super.attachBaseContext(base);
        MultiDex.install(this);
    }
}