Gradlew could not start your build // It has already been locked by this process

The error message “Gradlew could not start your build” indicates that there is an issue with the Gradle wrapper or the build setup. This kind of issue arises in react native while generating an APK file. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.

1. Clean Build:

Open the terminal on your project directory and then go to the Android directory. Try running a clean build by using the following command:

cd android
./gradlew clean build

2. Stop the Gradle server and Re run

Sometimes caches of different applications can cause the “Gradlew could not start your build”. Therefore stop the gradlew using the below command and re-run the gradlew.

./gradlew --stop

3. Check Gradle Wrapper Files:

Make sure that the Gradle wrapper files are present in your project. These files include gradlew (or gradlew.bat on Windows) and the gradle directory. If they are missing, you can generate them by running the following command in the terminal or command prompt (in the project directory):

gradle wrapper

I hope this blog post helped to fix the gradlew could not start issue. We are also available on YouTube and social media. You can also follow the video given below.