How To Debug An App Upgrade In Android Studio On A Usb Connected Device

I have the production release of my Google Play Store app on my phone and have an updated version of the app in Android Studio. I would like to test the upgrade process, but have

Solution 1:

Because you're starting with an APK that is Debuggable=false, your work-around that includes building an update to the app using the same process as your production release process and getting a Logcat with all processes is probably the best you can do.

Rebuilding from Previous Source Control Version

One option would be to pull the specific version of the app out of your source control system and build it with Debuggable=true, and use that generated APK as your starting point instead of using the APK from the Play Store.

For the Future

Instead of making only one APK release version and uploading that to Play Store, make two versions. One version would be signed and uploaded as usual. And with the exact same source code, make another APK that has Debuggable=true. Rename each file with the version number. Then, later, if you ever want to try an upgrade from any version to any version, you can do that, and still have debugging capability.