Android data binding not working (compileSdkVersion 31)

Question

I'm trying to implement data binding in my app and failing miserably. I can't seem to find anyone with a similar problem, so I'm hoping someone here has an idea as to why this is happening.

When I follow this tutorial from Android Kotlin Fundamentals with the provided starter app, data binding works perfectly, no problems at all. But when I do the same thing in my own project, it won't compile. I think there is something wrong with generating the needed files.

From what I've gathered, it has something to do with the compile sdk version. If I make a new project with this build.gradle file, everything works, so I know it's not a spelling error or a missing tag.

plugins {
    id 'com.android.application'
    id 'kotlin-android'
    }

android {
    compileSdkVersion 30
    buildToolsVersion "30.0.3"defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.example.databinding"
        minSdkVersion 22
        targetSdkVersion 30
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"

        testInstrumentationRunner "androidx.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner"
    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }

    buildFeatures {
        dataBinding true
    }

    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }
    kotlinOptions {
        jvmTarget = '1.8'
    }
   }

   dependencies {

    implementation "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:$kotlin_version"
    implementation 'androidx.core:core-ktx:1.3.2'
    implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.2.0'
    implementation 'com.google.android.material:material:1.4.0'
    implementation 'androidx.constraintlayout:constraintlayout:2.1.2'
    implementation 'androidx.navigation:navigation-fragment-ktx:2.3.5'
    implementation 'androidx.navigation:navigation-ui-ktx:2.3.5'
    implementation 'androidx.legacy:legacy-support-v4:1.0.0'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.+'
    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.3'
    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.4.0'
}

BUT! When I update things according to Android Studio's recommendations, everything stops working. These are the only things that change in the file:

    compileSdkVersion 31
    targetSdkVersion 31

    implementation 'androidx.core:core-ktx:1.7.0'
    implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.4.0'

I can see data binding related folders/files appear in app > build > generated in file explorer, so there is something happening, but nothing shows up in Android Studio. I've tried everything mentioned here. How can I fix this?

Android data binding not working (compileSdkVersion 31)

0 Answers