build apk java heap space_Android Studio - Gradle build failing - Java Heap Space

Android Studio 2.2.3. I've been building an APK for android with my current project with success until very recently. As far as I know, nothing was changed except a data file, and my "Build APK" step mysteriously started failing with this message in the gradle console:

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:

Execution failed for task ':VrSamples:Native:myproject:Projects:Android:packageDebug'.

> Java heap space

and in my "messages" window I see this error:

Error:Execution failed for task ':VrSamples:Native:myproject:Projects:Android:packageDebug'.

> Java heap space

mple, the following line, in the gradle.properties file, sets the maximum Java heap size to 1,024 MB:

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1024m

Read Gradle's configuration guideRead about Java's heap size

I've tried many things:

Reset version control to previous version I know was generating APK's fine

Re-clone the entire project in a new location to rule out and intermetiate files that might be pulled in with the .gitignore, to guarantee it's a fresh build

Rebooted my computer

re-installed android studio

Run the clean step, rebuilt, manually deleted intermediate files

Added org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx1024m to my gradle.properties file

increased the 1024m to 4096m

manually increased the -Xmx value in both Android Studio\bin\studio.exe.vmoptions and the 64-bit equivalent

I'm puzzled as to why I'm suddenly hitting this issue now, and why I can't seem to be able to re-create the APK's I've been building without problems until recently. As far as I'm aware, I also haven't updated any libraries either.

Would appreciate any suggestions to resolve this issue, tips on how to debug this kind of thing down the road, etc.