How to Fix "Duplicate class ... found in modules" in React Native & Expo

If you've been developing with React Native or Expo for a while, chances are you've had a project that suddenly refuses to build for what seems like no reason. Maybe you installed a new package. Maybe you upgraded Expo. Maybe you only changed a single dependency. You confidently run your Android build, expecting it to compile like always... Instead, Gradle greets you with something like this: Execution failed for task ':app:checkDebugDuplicateClasses'. Duplicate class androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelLazy found in modules lifecycle-viewmodel-2.8.2.aar and lifecycle-viewmodel-ktx-2.6.1.aar Duplicate class com.google.android.gms.internal.measurement.zzab found in modules play-services-measurement-base-22.0.0.aar and play-services-measurement-impl-21.6.2.aar Duplicate class ... At first glance, the error looks straightforward: there are duplicate classes . Easy enough, right? Not exactly. In reality, this is one of those Android build errors that can send you down a rabbit hole of Gradle files, dependency trees and Stack Overflow threads, only to realize the real cause was something completely different. Let's break down what's actually happening and, more importantly, how to fix it. Why this error happens Every Android library included in your project contains compiled Java or Kotlin classes. When Gradle builds your application, it combines all of those libraries into a single APK or AAB. If two different dependencies contain the exact same class, Gradle doesn't know which version should be packaged. Instead of guessing, it stops the build with a Duplicate class error. The difficult part is that the dependency causing the conflict usually isn't the one shown in the error. Very often, it's another package pulling in an older or incompatible version behind the scenes. The most common causes After seeing this error many times, these are usually the culprits. 1. Two libraries depend on different versions of the same package This is by far the most common scenario. For example: