'Android Studio 3.2 layout "preview" not emulating material design components properly
I've been updating my project to target sdk-api28 and I started setting up the latest MaterialComponents, but I'm now having issues with the layout Previewer within Android Studio.
The Preview just won't display the correct design for the material components, eg. adding style="@style/Widget.MaterialComponents.TextInputLayout.OutlinedBox" on a TextInputLayout view won't change the design (no outlines) in the emulated preview, but it does look okay when running on a phone (got outlines).
Here's how it should and does look when running on phones:

But here's a screenshot of how it looks in the Android studio's Preview.

I'm having this issue on any project, and even on the Shrine tutorial app with the same setup from MDC Codelabs (MDC-103(Java) - Shrine).
This happens only on the preview. Any of these projects, when running on a phone or on the emulator within Studio, look okay.
As much as I could 'think through' this, the issue is I believe somehow connected to my Android Studio, emulator, or maybe build tools versions? Please, could someone point out if I'm missing something very simple?
My Android Studio (sdk, tools etc) versions that I have installed:
- Android Studio
3.2.1 - Android Emulator
28.0.16 - Android Platform Version:
API 28: Android 9 (Pie) revision 6 - Android SDK Platform-Tools
28.0.1 - Android SDK Tools
26.1.1
Solution 1:[1]
This issue happaned to me in android studio 3.2.
after one day everything gose fine.
what i do was invalidate and restart. reset android studio default settings
the clean. and exit android studio and open it again. and it works fine
this is a bug not related to you only.
Solution 2:[2]
While some users who experienced similar issues, could solve this with cleaning out Android Studio cache and config, this didn't work for me.
After looking into various possible fixes and tips, I solved this by updating to Android Studio 3.4 Canary which is the latest non-guaranteed-stable version of Android Studio, which you can get by either downloading a Preview release (here: developer.android.com) or changing your update preference (within Android Studio) ie. Update channel to Dev channel or Canary channel within Android Studio Settings > Appearance & Behaviour > System settings > Updates
I do think that this might not be a proper fix, but it's the only thing that worked out for me and solved the layout (design) preview not being able to display correct design.
If someone else runs into a similar issue, make sure to first try out clearing cache, using the Invalidate and restart under File menu or any other method. The Invalidate and restart feature clears out cache and restarts android studio, after which it will have to sync again and check for all dependencies, Sdk, tools etc.
Also to avoid this issue, before trying out anything else make sure you have proper and latest SDK Build-tools, Emulator, SDK Platform-tools, SDK Tools versions installed.
I'll leave this here as an answer for now, and update it if any new solutions come around.
Solution 3:[3]
Sorry, I'm here 3 years late... But this was my solution for this render problem... It has Material.Light theme by default. If you change it to Light.Bridge the problem is solved!
Hope it helps some one
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow
| Solution | Source |
|---|---|
| Solution 1 | Ramzy Hassan |
| Solution 2 | eja |
| Solution 3 | Antonio Labra |

