Can't start Android Studio Layout Inspector: "Unexpected error: empty view hierarchy"

android android-studio-3.0 layout-inspector
Marchy picture Marchy · Jun 7, 2017 · Viewed 13.8k times · Source

Can't seem to launch Layout Inspector on Android Studio 3.0 (Canary 3)

When connected to my device and app running, choosing Tools > Android > Layout Inspector comes up with the following error dialog:

"Error obtaining view hierarchy: Unexpected error: empty view hierarchy"

enter image description here

Any setup I'm missing? I have Developer Options enabled on the device.

Answer

JavierSP1209 picture JavierSP1209 · May 30, 2018

In general I've this behavior when something is "moving" in the view so the layout inspector cannot retrieve a simple layout, that's why pausing a video will work but if you have something more complex like camera preview or Google Map is harder, not sure how to work around this

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