System.loadLibrary(...) couldn't find native library in my case

To root cause (and maybe solve your issue in the same time), here is what you can do:

  1. Remove the jni folder and all the .mk files. You don't need these nor the NDK if you aren't compiling anything.

  2. Copy your libcalculate.so file inside <project>/libs/(armeabi|armeabi-v7a|x86|...) . When using Android Studio, it's <project>/app/src/main/jniLibs/(armeabi|armeabi-v7a|x86|...), but I see you're using eclipse.

  3. Build your APK and open it as a zip file, to check that your libcalculate.so file is inside lib/(armeabi|armeabi-v7a|x86|...).

  4. Remove and install your application

  5. Run dumpsys package packages | grep yourpackagename to get the nativeLibraryPath or legacyNativeLibraryDir of your application.

  6. Run ls on the nativeLibraryPath you had or on legacyNativeLibraryDir/armeabi, to check if your libcalculate.so is indeed there.

  7. If it's there, check if it hasn't been altered from your original libcalculate.so file: is it compiled against the right architecture, does it contain the expected symbols, are there any missing dependencies. You can analyze libcalculate.so using readelf.

In order to check step 5-7, you can use my application instead of command lines and readelf: Native Libs Monitor

PS: It's easy to get confused on where .so files should be put or generated by default, here is a summary:

  • libs/CPU_ABI inside an eclipse project

  • jniLibs/CPU_ABI inside an Android Studio project

  • jni/CPU_ABI inside an AAR

  • lib/CPU_ABI inside the final APK

  • inside the app's nativeLibraryPath on a <5.0 device, and inside the app's legacyNativeLibraryDir/CPU_ARCH on a >=5.0 device.

Where CPU_ABI is any of: armeabi, armeabi-v7a, arm64-v8a, x86, x86_64, mips, mips64. Depending on which architectures you're targeting and your libs have been compiled for.

Note also that libs aren't mixed between CPU_ABI directories: you need the full set of what you're using, a lib that is inside the armeabi folder will not be installed on a armeabi-v7a device if there are any libs inside the armeabi-v7a folder from the APK.


In gradle, after copying all files folders to libs/

jniLibs.srcDirs = ['libs']

Adding the above line to sourceSets in build.gradle file worked. Nothing else worked whatsoever.


In my case i must exclude compiling sources by gradle and set libs path

android {

    ...
    sourceSets {
        ...
        main.jni.srcDirs = []
        main.jniLibs.srcDirs = ['libs']
    }
....