Android Studio - Failed to apply plugin [id 'com.android.application']

I faced the same issue in Android Studio version 3.5.3. This is how i fixed it.

I updated the dependecy com.android.tools.build:gradle in my project level build.gradle file from a lower version to 3.5.3 as below.

classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.5.3'

I then went ahead and edited the value of distributionUrl in gradle-wrapper.properties file as below. This file is in the directory /gradle/wrapper/ from the root of your project folder.

distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-5.4.1-all.zip

Updated June 24, 2020

You need to update to the latest gradle version to solve this issue.

Please make sure you are on the latest Android Studio

and then update your project level build.gradle by updating this dependency

buildscript {
    repositories {
        google()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.0.0'
    }
}

It might show a popup asking your permission to update gradle, please update and it will download the latest distribution automatically and the issue will be resolved.

Or else you can

Get Latest Gradle 5.6.4 from here and Add it manually

If you don't want to download it manually:

Open YourProject > gradle > wrapper > gradle-wrapper.properties and replace

distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-version-number-all.zip

With

distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-6.1.1-all.zip

Rebuild the project or just run gradle sync again.

I found the simplest answer to this.

Just go gradle.properties file and change the enableUnitTestBinaryResources from true to false

android.enableUnitTestBinaryResources=false

The snapshot is shown below

Delete gradle cache files. It can be in path like C:\Users\username\.gradle\caches for Windows users. For UNIX based operating systems it will be ~/.gradle/caches.