Npm Appium server with Espresso driver: No static method lifecycleEventObserver

Hello. I’m not able to start a test automation in Appium using Espresso driver. With UiAutomator2 it works fine. Appium server is giving me the following error: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: No static method lifecycleEventObserver. full appium server log

The automation project was created in IntelliJ IDEA. It is in Kotlin \ Gradle, uses Appium lib 7.4.1 and server 1.19.1 (installed through npm). I’m on Windows 10. Android SDK Tools and Emulator are up to date. Java version is 8.

The .apk project was created in Android Studio. It is a fresh .apk project, created by Android Studio template. There’s nothing customized or external dependencies. Here’s its build.gradle file

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

android {
    compileSdkVersion 30
    buildToolsVersion "30.0.2"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.example.sampleApp"
        minSdkVersion 30
        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'
//        }
//    }
    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:1.2.1'
    implementation 'androidx.constraintlayout:constraintlayout:2.0.4'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.+'
    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.2'
    androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.espresso:espresso-core:3.3.0'
}

More details are found here: https://discuss.appium.io/t/appium-server-1-19-1-still-getting-lifecycleeventobserver-error-when-using-espresso-driver/32569/9

It seems there are conflicting dependencies between Appium Espresso driver and the .apk. As a workaround, I was told to mess around with Espresso’s dependencies in Appium npm module, but I’m a little clueless about it. There’s nothing much on Google about this bug. I need help… thank you!

When using the Desktop Appium server (Appium Desktop), I get a different error: https://github.com/appium/appium-espresso-driver/issues/640

[mihai169dev]

I have managed to fix my problem by adding this desired capability: “espressoBuildConfig”: “{ “additionalAppDependencies”: [ “com.google.android.material:material:1.0.0”, “androidx.lifecycle:lifecycle-extensions:2.1.0” ] }” }

[Redth]

The build config sounds reasonable, but to be honest I’m not sure how anybody can use the espresso driver with this bug? Does it only hit this code path under certain conditions? The default template seems broken to me.