How Can I Solve This Error Error:a Problem Occurred Configuring Project ':app'. In Android Studio

My android gradle build fails with a helpful error message

          $ gradle  FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.  * What went wrong: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'. > failed to find Build Tools revision 24.4.1

I looked at the SDK version that Android Studio thinks I have installed.

enter image description here

It reports I have 24.4.1 installed, which agrees with my build.gradle file.

Also, I have tried installing the sdk with ./android list sdk -a; ./android update sdk -a -u -t 1 but still the failure persists.

I even tried putting a bogus local.properties file

          sdk.dir=/home/admin/DEADBEEF

which gives

          $ gradle  FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.  * What went wrong: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'. > The SDK directory '/home/admin/DEADBEEF' does not exist.

Also, the stacktrace doesn't seem to be much help because I didn't find this source file. So now I've started digging through the googlesource for DefaultSdkLoader

          $ gradle --stacktrace  FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.  * What went wrong: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'. > failed to find Build Tools revision 24.4.1  * Try: Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.  * Exception is: org.gradle.api.ProjectConfigurationException: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.         at org.gradle.configuration.project.LifecycleProjectEvaluator.addConfigurationFailure(LifecycleProjectEvaluator.java:79)         at org.gradle.configuration.project.LifecycleProjectEvaluator.notifyAfterEvaluate(LifecycleProjectEvaluator.java:74)         at org.gradle.configuration.project.LifecycleProjectEvaluator.evaluate(LifecycleProjectEvaluator.java:61)         at org.gradle.api.internal.project.AbstractProject.evaluate(AbstractProject.java:510)         at org.gradle.api.internal.project.AbstractProject.evaluate(AbstractProject.java:90)         at org.gradle.execution.TaskPathProjectEvaluator.configureHierarchy(TaskPathProjectEvaluator.java:47)         at org.gradle.configuration.DefaultBuildConfigurer.configure(DefaultBuildConfigurer.java:35)         at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher$2.run(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:125)         at org.gradle.internal.Factories$1.create(Factories.java:22)         at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:90)         at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:52)         at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuildStages(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:122)         at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.access$200(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:32)         at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher$1.create(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:99)         at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher$1.create(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:93)         at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:90)         at org.gradle.internal.progress.DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.run(DefaultBuildOperationExecutor.java:62)         at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.doBuild(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:93)         at org.gradle.initialization.DefaultGradleLauncher.run(DefaultGradleLauncher.java:82)         at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter$DefaultBuildController.run(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:94)         at org.gradle.tooling.internal.provider.ExecuteBuildActionRunner.run(ExecuteBuildActionRunner.java:28)         at org.gradle.launcher.exec.ChainingBuildActionRunner.run(ChainingBuildActionRunner.java:35)         at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:43)         at org.gradle.launcher.exec.InProcessBuildActionExecuter.execute(InProcessBuildActionExecuter.java:28)         at org.gradle.launcher.exec.ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.execute(ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.java:78)         at org.gradle.launcher.exec.ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.execute(ContinuousBuildActionExecuter.java:48)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ExecuteBuild.doBuild(ExecuteBuild.java:52)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:36)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.WatchForDisconnection.execute(WatchForDisconnection.java:37)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ResetDeprecationLogger.execute(ResetDeprecationLogger.java:26)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.RequestStopIfSingleUsedDaemon.execute(RequestStopIfSingleUsedDaemon.java:34)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput$2.call(ForwardClientInput.java:74)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput$2.call(ForwardClientInput.java:72)         at org.gradle.util.Swapper.swap(Swapper.java:38)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.ForwardClientInput.execute(ForwardClientInput.java:72)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.health.DaemonHealthTracker.execute(DaemonHealthTracker.java:47)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.LogToClient.doBuild(LogToClient.java:66)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:36)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.EstablishBuildEnvironment.doBuild(EstablishBuildEnvironment.java:72)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.BuildCommandOnly.execute(BuildCommandOnly.java:36)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.health.HintGCAfterBuild.execute(HintGCAfterBuild.java:41)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.api.DaemonCommandExecution.proceed(DaemonCommandExecution.java:120)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.exec.StartBuildOrRespondWithBusy$1.run(StartBuildOrRespondWithBusy.java:50)         at org.gradle.launcher.daemon.server.DaemonStateCoordinator$1.run(DaemonStateCoordinator.java:246)         at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:54)         at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.StoppableExecutorImpl$1.run(StoppableExecutorImpl.java:40) Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: failed to find Build Tools revision 24.4.1         at com.android.builder.sdk.DefaultSdkLoader.getTargetInfo(DefaultSdkLoader.java:93)         at com.android.build.gradle.internal.SdkHandler.initTarget(SdkHandler.java:89)         at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin.ensureTargetSetup(BasePlugin.java:673)         at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin.createAndroidTasks(BasePlugin.java:610)         at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin$10$1.call(BasePlugin.java:566)         at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin$10$1.call(BasePlugin.java:563)         at com.android.builder.profile.ThreadRecorder$1.record(ThreadRecorder.java:55)         at com.android.builder.profile.ThreadRecorder$1.record(ThreadRecorder.java:47)         at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin$10.execute(BasePlugin.java:562)         at com.android.build.gradle.BasePlugin$10.execute(BasePlugin.java:559)         at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$ActionInvocationHandler.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:93)         at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch$ActionInvocationHandler.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:82)         at org.gradle.internal.event.AbstractBroadcastDispatch.dispatch(AbstractBroadcastDispatch.java:44)         at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:79)         at org.gradle.internal.event.BroadcastDispatch.dispatch(BroadcastDispatch.java:30)         at org.gradle.messaging.dispatch.ProxyDispatchAdapter$DispatchingInvocationHandler.invoke(ProxyDispatchAdapter.java:93)         at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy10.afterEvaluate(Unknown Source)         at org.gradle.configuration.project.LifecycleProjectEvaluator.notifyAfterEvaluate(LifecycleProjectEvaluator.java:67)         ... 52 more

Before DefaultSdkLoader can use a build tool to compile the project, the

          com.android.sdklib.repository.local.LocalSdk#scanBuildTools

is called using your SDK directory. A new BuildToolInfo is created, which uses PKG_BUILD_TOOLS type to find build tools. So, I just looked in my build-tools folder in my android SDK and, lo! There are no build tools for 24.4.1