react-native: Failed to apply plugin 'com.facebook.react'

We are running into this also when upgrading to RN 0.73.0 - would love to know how this was resolved for you.

Hey @C2418M31, 2 days ago I stumbled upon the same error. The explanation is the following, the new Gradle Version throws this error when there are updates on languageVersion, which is set through this configs in the gradle:

android {
 compileOptions {
            sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_[any version]
            targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_[any version]
        }

        kotlinOptions {
            jvmTarget = "[kotlin_version]"
        }
}

It’s because the new React Native version has already the base version set, you can check this out in your project node module folder: node_modules/@react-native/gradle-plugin/src/main/kotlin/com/facebook/react/utils/JdkConfiguratorUtils.kt.

You have two ways to solve it, chose one of them:

1. Patch the React Native gradle configs by commenting out the lines setting the version

internal object JdkConfiguratorUtils {

  fun configureJavaToolChains(input: Project) {
    // Check at the app level if react.internal.disableJavaVersionAlignment is set.
    if (input.hasProperty(INTERNAL_DISABLE_JAVA_VERSION_ALIGNMENT)) {
      return
    }
    input.rootProject.allprojects { project ->
      // Allows every single module to set react.internal.disableJavaVersionAlignment also.
      if (project.hasProperty(INTERNAL_DISABLE_JAVA_VERSION_ALIGNMENT)) {
        return@allprojects
      }
      val action =
          Action<AppliedPlugin> {
            /*project.extensions.getByType(AndroidComponentsExtension::class.java).finalizeDsl { ext
              ->
              ext.compileOptions.sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_17
              ext.compileOptions.targetCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_17
            }*/ -> these lines out
          }
      project.pluginManager.withPlugin("com.android.application", action)
      project.pluginManager.withPlugin("com.android.library", action)
      project.pluginManager.withPlugin("org.jetbrains.kotlin.android") {
        // project.extensions.getByType(KotlinTopLevelExtension::class.java).jvmToolchain(17) -> this line out
      }
      project.pluginManager.withPlugin("org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm") {
       // project.extensions.getByType(KotlinTopLevelExtension::class.java).jvmToolchain(17) -> this line out
      }
    }
  }
}
``` (not recommended)
2. Remove these declarations for version update from your gradle file.
3. Use a different Gradle Version that does not throw this error, check here with version does not do that https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/upgrading_version_8.html

@harrymash2006 could you shed me some light which module caused this error? I simply upgraded react-native from 0.72.5 to 0.73.1 and started getting this error