Debugging a release signed APK

[megaderek]

Should it be possible to debug a signed release APK?

I have my release builds signed as part of the ant build process but I found that in release mode VisualGDB will automatically set android:debuggable=”false” in the AndroidManifest.xml

I tried setting it to true then write protecting AndroidManifest.xml before hitting F5 which prevents the flag being modified and the build will occur but then VisualGDB will refuse to launch the debugger.

I want to to test some Google In-App Billing code (preferably with debugging support) and they say that test builds need to be signed with the same key as the APK uploaded to the developer console.

[ket]

Hi,

Debugging of release builds is normally not possible, the Android OS checks the flags as well and the debugging symbols are stripped from release builds anyway.
Do you only need to use your key to sign the debug build instead of the automatically generated debug key?
If that is the case then you could try signing the unaligned debug build (retained in bin) manually with your key and using that apk for debugging.

[megaderek]

Hi thanks I tried signing the debug version but jarsigner refused saying there was an incorrect size of something in the APK.

I just did a test and it looks like I can run the debug build from the debugger and my Google IAB code can query product details successfully. (Not sure if purchases will work with an unsigned debug build) however I ended up making a console window in my app so I can see debug trace statements without the debugger if needed.

[Author]

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