Android application (APK) files contain executable bytecode files in the form of Dalvik Executable (DEX) files, which contain the compiled code used to run your app. The Dalvik Executable specification limits the total number of methods that can be referenced within a single DEX file to 65,536—including Android framework methods, library methods, and methods in your own code. In the context of computer science, the term Kilo, K, denotes 1024 (or 2^10). Because 65,536 is equal to 64 X 1024, this limit is referred to as the '64K reference limit'.
Getting past this limit requires that you configure your app build process to generate more than one DEX file, known as a multidex configuration
Change your Gradle build configuration to enable multidex
android {
compileSdkVersion 21
buildToolsVersion "21.1.0"
defaultConfig {
...
minSdkVersion 14
targetSdkVersion 21
...
// Enabling multidex support.
multiDexEnabled true
}
...
}
dependencies {
compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.0'
}
In your manifest add the MultiDexApplication class from the multidex support library to the application element.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.android.multidex.myapplication">
<application
...
android:name="android.support.multidex.MultiDexApplication">
...
</application>
</manifest>
