No way of testing android release in emulator environment

[reilem]

I recently released a flutter app, and android users are reporting that it crashes on launch. The app works fine in emulators in debug/development mode but I cannot test the release mode anywhere because I don't have an android device. I have tried:

• Installing the apk via: flutter build apk && flutter install
• Drag and dropping the built apk onto the emulator
• Using an x86_64 emulator
• Installing the app via the play store in the emulator (play store complains that the app is not compatible with current device)

I there ANY way I can test my app? Or do I just have to conclude that my app will never work on android? Thanks in advance.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a new project
2. flutter run --release
   Output:

Using hardware rendering with device Android SDK built for x86. If you get graphics artifacts, consider enabling software rendering with "--enable-software-rendering".
Release mode is not supported for emulators.

[✓] Flutter (Channel beta, v1.1.8, on Mac OS X 10.14.3 18D109, locale en-GB)
    • Flutter version 1.1.8 at /Users/Reinert/Documents/Coding/Flutter/sdk/flutter
    • Framework revision 985ccb6d14 (7 weeks ago), 2019-01-08 13:45:55 -0800
    • Engine revision 7112b72cc2
    • Dart version 2.1.1 (build 2.1.1-dev.0.1 ec86471ccc)

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 28.0.3)
    • Android SDK at /Users/Reinert/Library/Android/sdk
    • Android NDK location not configured (optional; useful for native profiling support)
    • Platform android-28, build-tools 28.0.3
    • ANDROID_HOME = /Users/Reinert/Library/Android/sdk
    • Java binary at: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-9.0.4.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java
    • Java version Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 9.0.4+11)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] iOS toolchain - develop for iOS devices (Xcode 10.1)
    • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer
    • Xcode 10.1, Build version 10B61
    • ios-deploy 1.9.4
    • CocoaPods version 1.5.3

[!] Android Studio (version 3.3.1)
    • Android Studio at /Users/Reinert/Applications/JetBrains Toolbox/Android Studio.app/Contents
    • Flutter plugin version 33.1.1
    • Dart plugin version 182.5215
    ✗ Unable to find bundled Java version.
    • Try updating or re-installing Android Studio.

[✓] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2018.3.4)
    • IntelliJ at /Users/Reinert/Applications/JetBrains Toolbox/IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.app
    • Flutter plugin version 32.0.3
    • Dart plugin version 183.5429.25

[!] VS Code (version 1.31.1)
    • VS Code at /Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents
    ✗ Flutter extension not installed; install from
      https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Dart-Code.flutter

[✓] Connected device (1 available)
    • Android SDK built for x86 • emulator-5554 • android-x86 • Android 9 (API 28) (emulator)

[zoechi]

Not sure what you are asking here.
There are services that allow you to run the app on various devices like https://aws.amazon.com/device-farm/ (just the first I found)

[reilem]

To me it just seems odd that such a big framework cannot produce apks that work on an emulator. All my previous native android and react-native release version apps have always worked on an emulator. I understand that there is some issue with certain libraries missing on the emulator but just thought I would report this to you guys since it seems like something that should be fixed in the long run (if that is even possible of course).

Thanks for the link, but these solutions are often expensive and not really a solution since they often also use VMs and emulators which will run in to the same problems as my local emulator. For that price I might as well buy an android device.

If the fact that people who do not own android devices cannot test release modes of their flutter app is not a concern to you guys then feel free to close this issue I guess. I was eventually able to fix the actual issue thanks to the help of a couple of friends with android phones. I love everything about flutter and it's the best cross platform framework i've worked with so far, it's just a little "disappointing" that I had to resolve my issue this way.

[RaviKavaiya]

@reilem You are absolutely right about this.
I agree with you. Though I have android device, it's NOT always feasible for me to test always in device.
Of course, I need to test on emulator. So, there should be a way to be able to run an app on Emulator in Release mode.

@zoechi Sir, I see that this issue is around 3 MONTHS OLD, but till now, there is no SATISFACTORY answer.

Thanks.

[ollyde]

It's a nightmare when you're trying to test IAP on Google Play as you're not allowed to use debug APKs. The emulator supports Google Play now but that's useless since we can't even use a release APK.

Also, all this talk about app bundles and uploading multiple APKs, it's 2019. No one cares about 2mb's you've saved.

Sucks.

[nmwilk]

@reilem you can install the app-release.apk (generated by flutter build apk) onto an emulator using adb:

adb install build/app/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk with an emulator active. Works for me on Mac using x86 (not x86_64) emulator - if that helps.

[ragu-swaminathan]

Drag and drop of APK installs successfully in the emulator(Pixel 2 with 8.1). But unable to launch. It keep on crashing when launched app from home. Any suggestions will be useful.

[Marek00Malik]

Any actions are available here?

[IoanaAlexandru]

You can build the apk via flutter build apk, then drag and drop the apk file (it should be at build/app/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk) onto the emulator. It should install and work fine, just make sure you don't already have the app installed (the debug version) before doing this.

If this doesn't work for you, you may want to make sure it's not an issue with your app by testing a fresh Flutter app generated by Android Studio when you create a new project.