# Debugging Proguard configuration issues

DevFeed: [Debugging Proguard configuration issues](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/debugging-proguard-configuration-issues-38645.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://krossovochkin.com/posts/2021_01_18_debugging_proguard_configuration_issues/>)

Published: 2021-01-18T00:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Vasya Drobushkov](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/vasya-drobushkov.md>)

Topics: [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/debugging.md>), [Android](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/android.md>), [APK](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/apk.md>), [obfuscation](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/obfuscation.md>), [builds](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/builds.md>)

Tags: [android](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/android.md>), [apk](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apk.md>), [article](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/article.md>), [build](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/build.md>), [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debugging.md>), [obfuscation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/obfuscation.md>)

## AI overview

A tutorial on diagnosing Android release-build bugs caused by Proguard/R8 configuration. It outlines the roles of obfuscation, code optimization, and resource optimization, and recommends using crash logs and APK contents to investigate issues.

## Source excerpt

Introduction It might happen so that there is a bug in your release build while in debug everything works fine. In many cases, it might be an issue with Proguard/R8 configuration. Of course, it is better to test your code thoroughly, properly configure Proguard if you, let's say, load some classes only via reflection and so on. But reality sometimes strikes and bugs might go to production. In this case, the first thing that is needed is to find a bug and fix it. And only then have some retrospective to mitigate such situations in the future. When the bug is in production already every minute counts, therefore it is important to have some plan. Proguard configuration seems complex to someone who didn't work with it, so I recommend to take a look at its main features. Most of the time I'd say that issue is easy can be found and fixed by analyzing crash report logs. But sometimes the log is not that clear. In this article I'd like to introduce the plan to find what part of "Proguard" causing an issue, so you can debug more effectively.