Flutter | Unable to build Debug APK for Android

I am a newbie to flutter and trying to build the apk that can be installed on my android device. I am able to build the release apk using the following command:

flutter build apk

To debug certain features of my app, I need to build the debug apk:

flutter build apk –debug

This fails with the following error on command prompt:

ERROR:<<myProjectDir>>buildpath_provider_androidintermediatesruntime_library_classes_jardebugclasses.jar: D8: java.lang.NullPointerException: 
Cannot invoke "String.length()" because "<parameter1>" is null
ERROR:<<myProjectDir>>buildflutter_secure_storageintermediatesruntime_library_classes_jardebugclasses.jar: D8: java.lang.NullPointerException: 
Cannot invoke "String.length()" because "<parameter1>" is null
ERROR:<<myProjectDir>>buildfile_pickerintermediatesruntime_library_classes_jardebugclasses.jar: D8: java.lang.NullPointerException: 
Cannot invoke "String.length()" because "<parameter1>" is null

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:mergeLibDexDebug'.
> Could not resolve all files for configuration ':app:debugRuntimeClasspath'.
   > Failed to transform classes.jar (project :file_picker) to match attributes {artifactType=android-dex, asm-transformed-variant=NONE, 
com.android.build.api.attributes.AgpVersionAttr=7.3.0, com.android.build.api.attributes.BuildTypeAttr=debug, c
om.android.build.gradle.internal.attributes.VariantAttr=debug, dexing-enable-desugaring=true, dexing-enable-jacoco-instrumentation=false, 
dexing-is-debuggable=true, dexing-min-sdk=21, org.gradle.libraryelements=jar, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime}.
      > Execution failed for DexingWithClasspathTransform: <<myProjectDir>>buildfile_pickerintermediatesruntime_library_classes_jardebugclasses.jar.
         > Error while dexing.
   > Failed to transform classes.jar (project :flutter_secure_storage) to match attributes {artifactType=android-dex, asm-transformed-variant=NONE, 
com.android.build.api.attributes.AgpVersionAttr=7.3.0, com.android.build.api.attributes.BuildTypeAttr=debug, com.android.build.gradle.internal.attributes.VariantAttr=debug, dexing-enable-desugaring=true, dexing-enable-jacoco-instrumentation=false, dexing-is-debuggable=true, dexing-min-sdk=21, org.gradle.libraryelements=jar, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime}.
      > Execution failed for DexingWithClasspathTransform: <<myProjectDir>>buildflutter_secure_storageintermediatesruntime_library_classes_jardebugclasses.jar.
         > Error while dexing.
   > Failed to transform classes.jar (project :path_provider_android) to match attributes {artifactType=android-dex, asm-transformed-variant=NONE, 
com.android.build.api.attributes.AgpVersionAttr=7.3.0, com.android.build.api.attributes.BuildTypeAttr=debug, com.android.build.gradle.internal.attributes.VariantAttr=debug, dexing-enable-desugaring=true, dexing-enable-jacoco-instrumentation=false, dexing-is-debuggable=true, dexing-min-sdk=21, org.gradle.libraryelements=jar, org.gradle.usage=java-runtime}.
      > Execution failed for DexingWithClasspathTransform: <<myProjectDir>>buildpath_provider_androidintermediatesruntime_library_classes_jardebugclasses.jar.
         > Error while dexing.

* Try:
> Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace.
> Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
> Run with --scan to get full insights.
> Get more help at https://help.gradle.org.

BUILD FAILED in 22s
Running Gradle task 'assembleDebug'...                             24.3s
Gradle task assembleDebug failed with exit code 1

flutter doctor

Doctor summary (to see all details, run flutter doctor -v):
[√] Flutter (Channel stable, 3.22.2, on Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.4529], locale en-IN)
[√] Windows Version (Installed version of Windows is version 10 or higher)
[√] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 34.0.0)
[√] Chrome - develop for the web
[√] Visual Studio - develop Windows apps (Visual Studio Community 2022 17.10.0)
[!] Android Studio (not installed)
[√] IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition (version 2024.1)
[√] Connected device (4 available)
[√] Network resources

! Doctor found issues in 1 category.

My app/build.gradle:

plugins {
    id "com.android.application"
    id "kotlin-android"
    // The Flutter Gradle Plugin must be applied after the Android and Kotlin Gradle plugins.
    id "dev.flutter.flutter-gradle-plugin"
}

def localProperties = new Properties()
def localPropertiesFile = rootProject.file("local.properties")
if (localPropertiesFile.exists()) {
    localPropertiesFile.withReader("UTF-8") { reader ->
        localProperties.load(reader)
    }
}

def flutterVersionCode = localProperties.getProperty("flutter.versionCode")
if (flutterVersionCode == null) {
    flutterVersionCode = "1"
}

def flutterVersionName = localProperties.getProperty("flutter.versionName")
if (flutterVersionName == null) {
    flutterVersionName = "1.0"
}

android {
    namespace = "com.example.untitled"
    compileSdk = flutter.compileSdkVersion
    ndkVersion = flutter.ndkVersion

    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }

    defaultConfig {
        // TODO: Specify your own unique Application ID (https://developer.android.com/studio/build/application-id.html).
        applicationId = "com.example.untitled"
        // You can update the following values to match your application needs.
        // For more information, see: https://docs.flutter.dev/deployment/android#reviewing-the-gradle-build-configuration.
        minSdk = flutter.minSdkVersion
        targetSdk = flutter.targetSdkVersion
        versionCode = flutterVersionCode.toInteger()
        versionName = flutterVersionName
      //  multiDexEnabled true

    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            // TODO: Add your own signing config for the release build.
            // Signing with the debug keys for now, so `flutter run --release` works.
            signingConfig = signingConfigs.debug
        }
    }
}

flutter {
    source = "../.."
}

My android/build.gradle:

allprojects {
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
}

rootProject.buildDir = "../build"
//rootProject.buildDir = "E:\build\backEnd"

subprojects {
    project.buildDir = "${rootProject.buildDir}/${project.name}"
}
subprojects {
    project.evaluationDependsOn(":app")
}

tasks.register("clean", Delete) {
    delete rootProject.buildDir
}

//configurations.all {
  //  resolutionStrategy {
    //    force("androidx.core:core-ktx:1.9.0")
   // }
//}

gradle.properties:

    org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx4G -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError
    android.useAndroidX=true
    android.enableJetifier=true

gradle-wrapper.properties:

    distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
    distributionPath=wrapper/dists
    zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
    zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
    distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.7-all.zip

settings.gradle:

pluginManagement {
    def flutterSdkPath = {
        def properties = new Properties()
        file("local.properties").withInputStream { properties.load(it) }
        def flutterSdkPath = properties.getProperty("flutter.sdk")
        assert flutterSdkPath != null, "flutter.sdk not set in local.properties"
        return flutterSdkPath
    }()

    includeBuild("$flutterSdkPath/packages/flutter_tools/gradle")

    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
        gradlePluginPortal()
    }
}

plugins {
    id "dev.flutter.flutter-plugin-loader" version "1.0.0"
    id "com.android.application" version "7.3.0" apply false
    id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.android" version "1.7.10" apply false
}

include ":app"

local.properties:
flutter.sdk=e:\myApp\flutter
sdk.dir=E:\myApp\android
flutter.buildMode=debug
flutter.versionName=1.0.0
flutter.versionCode=1

JDK Version:

openjdk version "21.0.3" 2024-04-16 LTS OpenJDK Runtime Environment
Corretto-21.0.3.9.1 (build 21.0.3+9-LTS) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM
Corretto-21.0.3.9.1 (build 21.0.3+9-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)

Gradle Version:

---

Gradle 8.7

Build time: 2024-03-22 15:52:46 UTC Revision:
650af14d7653aa949fce5e886e685efc9cf97c10

Kotlin: 1.9.22 Groovy: 3.0.17 Ant: Apache Ant(TM)
version 1.10.13 compiled on January 4 2023 JVM: 21.0.3
(Amazon.com Inc. 21.0.3+9-LTS) OS: Windows 10 10.0 amd64

Things that I have tried so far:

• Clearing gradle cache

• Following code in both app and andriod build.gradle (one by one)

  configurations.all {
  resolutionStrategy {
  force("androidx.core:core-ktx:1.9.0")
  }
  }

My hunch is this problem is either due to incompatibility (of what) or some missing configuration.

PS: The Web Build works fine