“flutter build apk” for release in Flutter crashed when open the Apps

Question

I already set up for build app release like pro-guard, icon, manifest etc without flavor. I migrated dir /android to AndroidX because if not, failed to build app release when run flutter build apk. So I migrate it and success. Like below:

rifafauzi6@Anonymous-X456UR:/media/rifafauzi6/NM/Materi/BackUp Aplikasi Android/Flutter Project/vallery$ flutter build apk
You are building a fat APK that includes binaries for android-arm, android-arm64.
If you are deploying the app to the Play Store, it's recommended to use app bundles or split the APK to reduce the APK size.
    To generate an app bundle, run:
        flutter build appbundle --target-platform android-arm,android-arm64
        Learn more on: https://developer.android.com/guide/app-bundle
    To split the APKs per ABI, run:
        flutter build apk --target-platform android-arm,android-arm64 --split-per-abi
        Learn more on:  https://developer.android.com/studio/build/configure-apk-splits#configure-abi-split
Initializing gradle...                                              1.3s
Resolving dependencies...                                           2.9s
Running Gradle task 'assembleRelease'...                                
Running Gradle task 'assembleRelease'... Done                      59.6s
Built build/app/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk (16.1MB).

Then after success, I install it with two ways:

Using flutter install

rifafauzi6@Anonymous-X456UR:/media/rifafauzi6/NM/Materi/BackUp Aplikasi Android/Flutter Project/vallery$ flutter install
Initializing gradle...                                              1.3s
Resolving dependencies...                                           2.5s
Installing app.apk to SM A600G...
Installing build/app/outputs/apk/app.apk...                        16.4s

Using manual, go to that dir, and install it.

I already try flutter build apk --split-per-abi then like above I install it with two ways too. But still crashing when I open the app before showing the splash screen. This is the manifest for release apps in dir main:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="my_package">

    <!-- io.flutter.app.FlutterApplication is an android.app.Application that
         calls FlutterMain.startInitialization(this); in its onCreate method.
         In most cases you can leave this as-is, but you if you want to provide
         additional functionality it is fine to subclass or reimplement
         FlutterApplication and put your custom class here. -->
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

    <application
        android:name="io.flutter.app.FlutterApplication"
        android:label="Vallery"
        android:usesCleartextTraffic="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_vallery">
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:launchMode="singleTop"
            android:theme="@style/LaunchTheme"
            android:configChanges="orientation|keyboardHidden|keyboard|screenSize|locale|layoutDirection|fontScale|screenLayout|density|uiMode"
            android:hardwareAccelerated="true"
            android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustResize">
            <!-- This keeps the window background of the activity showing
                 until Flutter renders its first frame. It can be removed if
                 there is no splash screen (such as the default splash screen
                 defined in @style/LaunchTheme). -->
            <meta-data
                android:name="io.flutter.app.android.SplashScreenUntilFirstFrame"
                android:value="true" />
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

And this is the output of flutter doctor -v:

[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, v1.7.8+hotfix.4, on Linux, locale en_US.UTF-8)
    • Flutter version 1.7.8+hotfix.4 at /media/rifafauzi6/NM/Materi/flutter
    • Framework revision 20e59316b8 (8 weeks ago), 2019-07-18 20:04:33 -0700
    • Engine revision fee001c93f
    • Dart version 2.4.0


[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 29.0.2)
    • Android SDK at /home/rifafauzi6/Android/Sdk
    • Android NDK location not configured (optional; useful for native profiling support)
    • Platform android-29, build-tools 29.0.2
    • Java binary at: /opt/android-studio/jre/bin/java
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_202-release-1483-b49-5587405)
    • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Android Studio (version 3.5)
    • Android Studio at /opt/android-studio
    • Flutter plugin version 39.0.3
    • Dart plugin version 191.8423
    • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_202-release-1483-b49-5587405)

[✓] VS Code (version 1.38.0)
    • VS Code at /usr/share/code
    • Flutter extension version 3.3.0

[✓] Connected device (1 available)
    • SM A600G • 5200e3e7f01e45f3 • android-arm • Android 9 (API 28)

• No issues found!

Can someone help me? Because I need to install it (release apk) first into real device before I upload to Play Store.

Answer 1

in my case on release mode apk app crashed issue fix when i was put below code into my build.gradle file

buildTypes {
    release {
        // TODO: Add your own signing config for the release build.
        // Signing with the debug keys for now, so `flutter run --release` works.
        signingConfig signingConfigs.release
        shrinkResources true
        minifyEnabled true
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'

    }
}

Answer 2

For me it was the gradle version. I changed

classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:4.1.1'

to

classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.5.0'

in android/build.gradle.

Answer 3

Try

flutter build apk --no-shrink

Update

flutter build apk --release --split-per-abi --no-shrink

This solved my problem

Answer 4

If you generated your release build and it is crashing when you install the apk on your Android Device, make sure you followed instructions properly as mentioned in https://flutter.dev/docs/deployment/android.

This involves, making the required changes in the app/build.gradle

Adding key.properties file

and then finally generating your release apk.

Answer 5

This is crashed because of setup project for release app like proguard etc.