"The method 'update' was called on null" during hot reload

Whenever I make a change to any flutter projects in VS Code, the hot reload feature will fail returning the message below. It also causes the app to load a white screen on the device whenever I try to start debugging.

NoSuchMethodError: The method 'update' was called on null.
Receiver: null
Tried calling: update(bundle: Instance of '_ManifestAssetBundle', bundleDirty: false, bundleFirstUpload: true, dillOutputPath: null, fileFilter: Instance of '_CompactLinkedHashSet<String>', firstBuildTime: Instance of 'DateTime', fullRestart: false, generator: Instance of 'ResidentCompiler', mainPath: "C:\\Workspace\\flutter_test_app\\lib\\main.dart", pathToReload: "C:\\Workspace\\flutter_test_app\\lib\\main.dart.incremental.dill", projectRootPath: "C:\\Workspace\\flutter_test_app", target: "lib\\main.dart")

Here is a printout of the flutter doctor -v command:

[√] Flutter (Channel beta, v0.9.4, on Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600], locale en-US)
    • Flutter version 0.9.4 at C:\Development\flutter
    • Framework revision f37c235c32 (4 weeks ago), 2018-09-25 17:45:40 -0400
    • Engine revision 74625aed32
    • Dart version 2.1.0-dev.5.0.flutter-a2eb050044

[√] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK 27.0.3)
    • Android SDK at C:\Users\*********\AppData\Local\Android\sdk
    • Android NDK location not configured (optional; useful for native profiling support)
    • Platform android-27, build-tools 27.0.3
    • Java binary at: C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\jre\bin\java
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_152-release-1136-b06)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[√] Android Studio (version 3.2)
    • Android Studio at C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio
    • Flutter plugin version 29.1.1
    • Dart plugin version 181.5656
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_152-release-1136-b06)

[√] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2018.1)
    • IntelliJ at C:\Program Files\JetBrains\IntelliJ IDEA 2018.1.3
    • Flutter plugin version 28.0.2
    • Dart plugin version 181.4892.1

[√] VS Code, 64-bit edition (version 1.28.2)
    • VS Code at C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code
    • Flutter extension version 2.19.0

[!] Connected devices
    • Device ZY223GWFRR is offline.

! Doctor found issues in 1 category.

[mrgoonie]

Same issue here, Hot Reload doesn’t work on VS Code anymore 😢

[DanTup]

I’ve changed the title on this issue to avoid confusion. The issue reported here is different to the current issue of Hot Reload not working in VS Code 1.32. That issue is covered here:

https://github.com/Dart-Code/Dart-Code/issues/1518

This was a regression VS Code 1.32 (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/69534) which has since been fixed but not released. I’ve verified the fix works building VS Code from source, and it should go into an Insiders build today. It’s tagged as important and for a recovery build so I’m hoping there will be a new VS Code release this week to fix it.

In the meantime, you should downgrade to VS Code 1.31 using the download links at the top of the 1.31 release notes page or wait for today’s Insiders build (due soon?) if you don’t mind using that.