Android Rendering Problems Couldn't resolve resource @string/app_name

Question

I'm new to android programming and I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I try to make a button like this in the xml file:

<Button
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/btnText"
    android:id="@+id/button"
    android:layout_centerVertical="true"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />

This works fine, without the android:text="@string/btnText" part...

My strings.xml file looks like this:

<string name="btnText">GO!</string>

I get this error message: Rendering Problems Couldn't resolve resource @string/app_name (2 similar errors not shown)

The problem is that the button text says @string/btnText instead of GO!

1. Clean and build your project. 2. Check if the Strings you've used are present in strings.xml — TheLostMind, Jun 30 '14 at 07:33
Clean and build didn't work at all. And as you can see I've invoked he string tag in the strings.xml file. — Casper Lindberg, Jun 30 '14 at 08:04
delete your bin and gen folders and try a clean build again.. — TheLostMind, Jun 30 '14 at 09:34
I didn't find those folders but I guess it's just a bug or something. When I tried a new project it worked. Thanks for the help anyway! — Casper Lindberg, Jun 30 '14 at 09:47
try to restart your Eclipse or Intellij,maybe it will be OK http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8874262/android-failed-to-convert-drawable-picture-into-a-drawable — hsw117, Aug 20 '14 at 16:01

SMBiggs · Answer 1 · 2018-12-03T21:26:02.533

18

[Note that this answer was written in 2016 for Android Studio 2.0! Android Studio has changed significantly since then. This answer helped a lot of people at the time, but may no longer be relevant.]

It's possible that the layout preview started drawing before all the files were processed. Android Studio and Eclipse both frequently suffer from tool synchronization problems.

In many cases, simply refreshing the layout preview will solve this problem (of course I'm assuming that you do have the string app_name defined). The arrow marks the refresh button (so many buttons!).

edited Dec 03 '18 at 21:26

answered Jan 12 '16 at 22:10

SMBiggs

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It looks like Android Studio 2.3 no longer has the refresh button as displayed above. Sorry, folks! – SMBiggs Apr 23 '17 at 21:56

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 30 '14 at 13:41

I had the same problem with all 5 buttons in my main activity - searched all over the place for what might be wrong, didn't find anything - so I decided to run it on a physical device - all buttons displayed as wanted (didn't give them any function at this stage though) and when I got back to the layout window, the error just wasn't there anymore - you might give that a try...

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 21 '17 at 08:56

1

I had the same issue, I tried closing android studio and open it again and it works!

answered May 21 '17 at 08:56

Oussama

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Android Rendering Problems Couldn't resolve resource @string/app_name

3 Answers3

[Note that this answer was written in 2016 for Android Studio 2.0! Android Studio has changed significantly since then. This answer helped a lot of people at the time, but may no longer be relevant.]

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