Hey everyone,
I’ve been running into a persistent issue over the past few days while trying to package my Unreal Engine 5.6 project into an APK for Android. After waiting around 40 minutes for the initial setup (SDK, NDK, etc.) to complete, Gradle kicks in—but then crashes with several errors:
The core issue seems to be that Gradle is looking for a nonexistent version of the Android Gradle Plugin: com.android.tools.build:gradle:8.5.2 — which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t exist in any repository. It feels like UE is auto-injecting this version internally. I tried consulting multiple AI assistants, and they all suggested modifying build.gradle and other related Gradle files (which I did), updating AGP from 3.5.3 to 8.6.0.
However, Unreal Engine keeps overwriting it back to 3.5.3 during packaging. Even stranger—Gradle is searching for 8.5.2, but the file lists 3.5.3. That mismatch alone breaks the build.
I’ve tested with a clean project, reconfigured paths, combed through YouTube tutorials (including UE 5.6-specific ones), and searched Reddit, Twitter/X, and multiple forums—still found no one else facing this exact issue.
Here’s my current setup:
UE version: 5.6
Platforms: Android
SDK path: C:\Users[Myusername]\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk
NDK path: C:\Users[Myusername]\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\ndk
SDK API level: android-35
NDK API level: android-26
OS: Windows 10
Target SDK: 35
Min SDK: 26
If anyone knows how to fix this, please help me. I really need help!