DexIndexOverflowException issue after updating to latest appcompat and support library

Question

I'm using the below settings through gradle:

compileSdkVersion 21
ANDROID_BUILD_MIN_SDK_VERSION=14
ANDROID_BUILD_TARGET_SDK_VERSION=21
ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=21.0.2
ANDROID_BUILD_SDK_VERSION=21

I also have the following settings in my gradle file:

compile 'com.android.support:support-annotations:21.0.0'
compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:21.0.0'
compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:21.0.0'

I always get the error UNEXPECTED TOP LEVEL EXCEPTION.
But when I make the 21.0.0 to 20.0.0 it works fine...but i'm not able to access any of the Android API 21 options. Is there something i'm doing wrong here? How do I get it to compile without this exception? I do not have the support jars anywhere else outside of other grade projects (facebook etc.).

Here is the full stack trace:

UNEXPECTED TOP-LEVEL EXCEPTION:
com.android.dex.DexIndexOverflowException: method ID not in [0, 0xffff]: 65536
    at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger$6.updateIndex(DexMerger.java:502)
    at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger$IdMerger.mergeSorted(DexMerger.java:283)
    at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.mergeMethodIds(DexMerger.java:491)
    at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.mergeDexes(DexMerger.java:168)
    at com.android.dx.merge.DexMerger.merge(DexMerger.java:189)
    at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.mergeLibraryDexBuffers(Main.java:454)
    at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.runMonoDex(Main.java:302)
    at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.run(Main.java:245)
    at com.android.dx.command.dexer.Main.main(Main.java:214)
    at com.android.dx.command.Main.main(Main.java:106)

Answer 1

This message sounds like your project is too large.

You have too many methods. There can only be 65536 methods for dex.

Since the gradle plugin 0.14.0 and the Build Tools 21.1.0 you can use the multidex support.

Just add these lines in the build.gradle:

android {

    defaultConfig {
        ...

        // Enabling multidex support.
        multiDexEnabled true
    }
    ...
}

dependencies {
  compile 'com.android.support:multidex:1.0.1'
}

Also 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>

If you are using a own Application class, change the parent class from Application to MultiDexApplication.