What causes "More than one bind annotation on " in JakeWharton/butterknife?

Inspect the field named in the message and delete all but one ButterKnife annotation

JakeWharton/butterknife · error · IllegalStateException

More than one bind annotation on

Error message

More than one bind annotation on

What it means

The reflective binder processes each declared field through parseBindView, parseBindBitmap, parseBindColor, and so on in sequence, counting how many unbinders were produced. More than one means the field carries multiple ButterKnife bind annotations (e.g. @BindView and @BindString together), which is ambiguous, so an IllegalStateException is thrown at bind time.

Source

Thrown at butterknife-reflect/src/main/java/butterknife/ButterKnife.java:189

        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseBindDrawable(target, field, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseBindFloat(target, field, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseBindFont(target, field, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseBindInt(target, field, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseBindString(target, field, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        if (unbinders.size() - unbinderStartingSize > 1) {
          throw new IllegalStateException(
              "More than one bind annotation on " + targetClass.getName() + "." + field.getName());
        }
      }

      for (Method method : targetClass.getDeclaredMethods()) {
        Unbinder unbinder;

        unbinder = parseOnCheckedChanged(target, method, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseOnClick(target, method, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseOnEditorAction(target, method, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

        unbinder = parseOnFocusChange(target, method, source);
        if (unbinder != null) unbinders.add(unbinder);

View on GitHub (pinned to fcdebedf32)

Solutions

Inspect the field named in the message and delete all but one ButterKnife annotation
If you need multiple values, split them into separate fields each with a single annotation

Example fix

// before
@BindView(R.id.avatar) @BindBitmap(R.drawable.avatar) ImageView avatar;

// after
@BindView(R.id.avatar)
ImageView avatar;

@BindBitmap(R.drawable.avatar)
Bitmap avatarBitmap;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Before bind, assert each field carries at most one ButterKnife annotation
for (Field f : target.getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {
  int count = 0;
  for (Annotation a : f.getAnnotations()) {
    if (a.annotationType().getName().startsWith("butterknife.")) count++;
  }
  if (count > 1) throw new IllegalStateException("Multiple bind annotations on " + f);
}

Prevention

One ButterKnife annotation per field, always
When changing a field's annotation, delete the old one in the same edit
Enable IDE inspections for duplicate annotations

When it happens

Trigger: Stacking annotations on one field, such as @BindView(R.id.title) @BindString(R.string.title) TextView title; a quick-fix IDE action adding a second bind annotation without removing the first.

Common situations: Changing a field from one resource type to another (e.g. @BindBitmap to @BindView) and leaving both annotations; copy-paste of annotated fields.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of JakeWharton/butterknife@fcdebedf32 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dcfab13745f68e61. Report an issue: GitHub.