Debug Ionic application with android:debuggable="false"

Question

A have installed my Ionic application on real device. The app is released, signed and has android:debuggable="false". I faced some problems on that specific device and I need to debug it (not to create and install new --debug build).

Is there some way to debug it? To "attach" it somehow to a keystore to be authorised, or something else...? Any ideas?

Answer 1

I am still trying to find a better way, but so far I am able to debug my Ionic app (a signed --release build) running on a real device via the Chrome (desktop) console, by specifying:

<application android:debuggable="true">

directly in the AndroidManifest.xml file. The attribute in not overwritten when I build the project with the Ionic CLI.

What I would prefer is to set the attribute from the config.xml file, so I don't have to add it again manually in AndroidManifest.xml when I remove/add the platform.

Answer 2

You can add this in your config.xml to solve it.

<platform name="android">
    <edit-config file="app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml" mode="merge" target="/manifest/application" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
        <application android:debuggable="true" />
    </edit-config>

Then, you can debug in Chrome.