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docs: cover AGP 9 gradle.properties and build.gradle version declarations #605

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docs: cover AGP 9 gradle.properties and build.gradle version declarat…
andredestro Aug 28, 2026
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docs: address review feedback on AGP 9 gradle sections
andredestro Sep 1, 2026
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38 changes: 38 additions & 0 deletions docs/main/updating/9-0.md
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Expand Up @@ -115,6 +115,25 @@ Once it's updated, Android Studio can assist with some of the updates related to

![APG Upgrade Assistant](../../../static/img/v6/docs/android/agp-upgrade-assistant.png)

### Clean up gradle.properties

AGP 9 changed the defaults of several `gradle.properties` flags, and the AGP Upgrade Assistant writes them back explicitly so your build keeps the AGP 8 behavior. A Capacitor app needs none of them: most are deprecated and will be removed in AGP 10, and a couple actively break a Capacitor 9 build (`android.builtInKotlin=false` turns off the Kotlin support that AGP 9 now bundles, and `android.sdk.defaultTargetSdkToCompileSdkIfUnset=false` stops AGP from inferring `targetSdkVersion`). Remove them:

```diff
# gradle.properties

- android.defaults.buildfeatures.resvalues=true
- android.sdk.defaultTargetSdkToCompileSdkIfUnset=false
- android.enableAppCompileTimeRClass=false
- android.usesSdkInManifest.disallowed=false
- android.uniquePackageNames=false
- android.dependency.useConstraints=true
- android.r8.strictFullModeForKeepRules=false
- android.r8.optimizedResourceShrinking=false
- android.builtInKotlin=false
- android.newDsl=false
```

### Update Android Project Variables

In your `variables.gradle` file, update your values to the following new minimums
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -164,6 +183,25 @@ buildTypes {
}
```

### Declare dependency versions in your app's build.gradle
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andredestro marked this conversation as resolved.

Your `app/build.gradle` references version variables that are declared in the root project's `variables.gradle`, and relies on Gradle walking up the project hierarchy to resolve them. That implicit lookup is deprecated in Gradle 9.6 and becomes an error in Gradle 10, so declare them explicitly at the top of the file:

```diff
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'

+ def androidxAppCompatVersion = rootProject.ext.androidxAppCompatVersion
+ def androidxCoordinatorLayoutVersion = rootProject.ext.androidxCoordinatorLayoutVersion
+ def coreSplashScreenVersion = rootProject.ext.coreSplashScreenVersion
+ def junitVersion = rootProject.ext.junitVersion
+ def androidxJunitVersion = rootProject.ext.androidxJunitVersion
+ def androidxEspressoCoreVersion = rootProject.ext.androidxEspressoCoreVersion

android {
```

Those are the variables the Capacitor template declares. If your app references any other variable from `variables.gradle`, for example a dependency version used by a local plugin, declare it here too.

### Migrate core-ktx to core

`androidx.core:core` 1.19.0 merges every extension function previously shipped in `core-ktx` into `core` itself, turning `core-ktx` into an empty compatibility artifact. If your app (or an old/community plugin it depends on) still explicitly depends on `core-ktx` with a version older than `1.19.0`, you may hit a duplicate class error at build time; remove it, or depend on `core` instead:
Expand Down