I had a similar problem since upgrading to RN 43. I have not yet found a solution, but I realized that a pure necessity will occur before a successful build.
The best solution for me so far is a batch script to run a project that includes gradlew clean
@echo on cd (path to project/android folder) && ^ gradlew clean && ^ cd (path to project root folder) && ^ react-native run-android
commands: 1.cd (path to the project folder / android) 2.gradlew clean 3. cd .. 4.react-native run-android
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