@capacitor/google-maps throwing error "Plugin failed to load" during start-up

[shipley-dcc]

Bug Report

Plugin(s)

@capacitor/google-maps@5.4.1 and @6.0.0-rc.0

Capacitor Version

💊   Capacitor Doctor  💊 

Latest Dependencies:

  @capacitor/cli: 6.1.0
  @capacitor/core: 6.1.0
  @capacitor/android: 6.1.0
  @capacitor/ios: 6.1.0

Installed Dependencies:

  @capacitor/ios: not installed
  @capacitor/android: 6.1.0
  @capacitor/core: 6.1.0
  @capacitor/cli: 6.1.0

[success] Android looking great! 👌

Platform(s)

Android

Current Behavior

When starting the app on Android I get the following error stopping the Google Maps plugin from working:

NativePlugin com.capacitorjs.plugins.googlemaps.CapacitorGoogleMapsPlugin failed to load com.getcapacitor.PluginLoadException: Unable to load plugin instance. Ensure plugin is publicly accessible
at com.getcapacitor.PluginHandle.load(PluginHandle.java:107)
at com.getcapacitor.PluginHandle.<init>(PluginHandle.java:65)
at com.getcapacitor.Bridge.registerPlugin(Bridge.java:684)
at com.getcapacitor.Bridge.registerAllPlugins(Bridge.java:640)
at com.getcapacitor.Bridge.<init>(Bridge.java:221)
at com.getcapacitor.Bridge.<init>(Unknown Source:0)
at com.getcapacitor.Bridge$Builder.create(Bridge.java:1559)
at com.getcapacitor.BridgeActivity.load(BridgeActivity.java:48)
at com.getcapacitor.BridgeActivity.onCreate(BridgeActivity.java:42)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:8305)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:8284)
at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1418)
at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3627)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:3783)
at android.app.servertransaction.LaunchActivityItem.execute(LaunchActivityItem.java:101)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.executeCallbacks(TransactionExecutor.java:135)
at android.app.servertransaction.TransactionExecutor.execute(TransactionExecutor.java:95)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:2308)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
at android.os.Looper.loopOnce(Looper.java:201)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:288)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7932)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:548)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:942)

Expected Behavior

No error and the Google Maps plugin loads as normal

Code Reproduction

Maps Sample App
(FYI - You'll need to add a valid Google Maps API key in the AndroidManifest.xml and the two environment files. Just search for <-- INSERT MAPS API KEY HERE -->)

Other Technical Details

IDE: VS Code 1.90.1 and Android Studio Jellyfish 2023.3.1 Patch 1
OS: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS 64-bit
Node v20.12.2
NPM 10.8.1

Additional Context

None

[shipley-dcc]

I had the api key outside the application tag in the manifest.

[ionitron-bot]

Thanks for the issue! This issue is being locked to prevent comments that are not relevant to the original issue. If this is still an issue with the latest version of the plugin, please create a new issue and ensure the template is fully filled out.