Cannot find local variable while debugging

Question

I'm trying to debug my application with the option Java Field Watchpoints. My variable is found first time it appears in my code (its initialisation) but right after that I've got this error:

Cannot find local variable 'variableName'

and I can't follow its modifications then.

I've been searching around and modified my gradle file as this:

   buildTypes {
       release {
           minifyEnabled false
           proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
       }
       debug {
           minifyEnabled false
           debuggable true
           testCoverageEnabled = true
       }
   }

My active build variant is debug (not release) so the error is not coming from here. I am using Android Studio 3.6 Canary 11

Does anyone encounter the same problem?

Answer 1

It could be a optimization by some part of the tool chain, like removing dead code, escape analysis, or indeed a bug in the runtime, see for some of the possibilities: https://www.guardsquare.com/en/blog/proguard-and-r8

Maybe unit testing your code and annotating it with debug logging will prove to be more successful.