I was trying to create a release apk file from Android but when I create a release apk with PNG image I'm getting Duplicate Resource error. Initially I thought this is happening because I made a mistake in the existing project but when I created a new project with a single Image component itself I'm getting the Duplicate Resource error. Here are the steps I followed
- Create a app - 
react-native init demo - Create a assets folder in the project root folder.
 - Add a 
PNGimage inside the assets folder. - Now implement the 
Imagecomponent with the abovePNGimage. - Now bundle it using the cmd
 
react-native bundle --platform android --dev false --entry-file index.js --bundle-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --assets-dest android/app/src/main/res/
- Then generate release apk using 
Generate Signed APKfromAndroid Studio. 
This will throw the following error:
[drawable-mdpi-v4/assets_mario] /Users/jeffreyrajan/Tutorials/RN/errorCheck/android/app/src/main/res/drawable-mdpi/assets_mario.png [drawable-mdpi-v4/assets_mario] /Users/jeffreyrajan/Tutorials/RN/errorCheck/android/app/build/generated/res/react/release/drawable-mdpi-v4/assets_mario.png: Error: Duplicate resources
:app:mergeReleaseResources FAILED
FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:mergeReleaseResources'.
> [drawable-mdpi-v4/assets_mario] /Users/jeffreyrajan/Tutorials/RN/errorCheck/android/app/src/main/res/drawable-mdpi/assets_mario.png   [drawable-mdpi-v4/assets_mario] /Users/jeffreyrajan/Tutorials/RN/errorCheck/android/app/build/generated/res/react/release/drawable-mdpi-v4/assets_mario.png: Error: Duplicate resources
* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output. Run with --scan to get full insights.
* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org
BUILD FAILED in 22s
Note: When you generate a release apk without any PNG image you will not get any error, it will create you the release apk.
Here are the other files code.
App.js
import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {Platform, StyleSheet, Image, View} from 'react-native';
export default class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Image source={require('./assets/mario.png')} />
      </View>
    );
  }
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1
  },
  welcome: {
    fontSize: 20,
    textAlign: 'center',
    margin: 10,
  },
  instructions: {
    textAlign: 'center',
    color: '#333333',
    marginBottom: 5,
  },
});
package.json
{
  "name": "errorCheck",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "private": true,
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start",
    "test": "jest"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "react": "16.6.0-alpha.8af6728",
    "react-native": "0.57.4"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "babel-jest": "23.6.0",
    "jest": "23.6.0",
    "metro-react-native-babel-preset": "0.49.0",
    "react-test-renderer": "16.6.0-alpha.8af6728"
  },
  "jest": {
    "preset": "react-native"
  }
}
Any solution for this?
Update:
Here are the other details
classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.1.4'
ext {
        buildToolsVersion = "27.0.3"
        minSdkVersion = 16
        compileSdkVersion = 27
        targetSdkVersion = 26
        supportLibVersion = "27.1.1"
    }
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-4.4-all.zip
Tried with Android Studio 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.1, 3.1.4 & 3.2