fix: shorebird release android failed

[ChidSamiappan]

Description
I am trying to release the Flutter POC app very first time. flutter doctor and shorebird doctor was 100% sccuess.

A clear and concise description of what the bug is.
Warning: Flutter support for your project's Gradle version (8.14.0) will soon be dropped. Please upgrade your Gradle version to a version of at least 9.1.0 soon.
Alternatively, use the flag "--android-skip-build-dependency-validation" to bypass this check.

Potential fix: Your project's gradle version is typically defined in the gradle wrapper file. By default, this can be found at /Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties.
For more information, see https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/gradle_wrapper.html.

Warning: Flutter support for your project's Android Gradle Plugin version (Android Gradle Plugin version 8.11.1) will soon be dropped. Please upgrade your Android Gradle Plugin version to a version of at least Android Gradle Plugin version 9.0.1 soon.
Alternatively, use the flag "--android-skip-build-dependency-validation" to bypass this check.

Potential fix: Your project's AGP version is typically defined in the plugins block of the settings.gradle file (/Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/android/settings.gradle), by a plugin with the id of com.android.application.
If you don't see a plugins block, your project was likely created with an older template version. In this case it is most likely defined in the top-level build.gradle file (/Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/android/build.gradle) by the following line in the dependencies block of the buildscript: "classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:'".

Warning: Flutter support for your project's Kotlin version (2.2.20) will soon be dropped. Please upgrade your Kotlin version to a version of at least 2.3.20 soon.
Alternatively, use the flag "--android-skip-build-dependency-validation" to bypass this check.

Potential fix: Your project's KGP version is typically defined in the plugins block of the settings.gradle file (/Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/android/settings.gradle), by a plugin with the id of org.jetbrains.kotlin.android.
If you don't see a plugins block, your project was likely created with an older template version, in which case it is most likely defined in the top-level build.gradle file (/Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/android/build.gradle) by the ext.kotlin_version property.

Font asset "MaterialIcons-Regular.otf" was tree-shaken, reducing it from 1645184 to 1368 bytes (99.9% reduction). Tree-shaking can be disabled by providing the --no-tree-shake-icons flag when building your app.
Running Gradle task 'bundleRelease'... 25.6s
Shorebird build trace written to /Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/build/shorebird/debug/build-trace-android.json. View at
https://ui.perfetto.dev
Release app bundle failed to strip debug symbols from native libraries.
Please run flutter doctor and ensure that the Android toolchain does not
report any issues.

Otherwise, file an issue at https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues.
Failed to build AAB.
Command: flutter build appbundle --release --target-platform=android-arm,android-arm64,android-x64 --shorebird-trace=/Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/build/shorebird/debug/build-trace-android.json
Reason: Exited with code 1.

Steps To Reproduce
1.Shorebird CLI to be installed - Completed Successfully
2.Create Flutter POC project - I have created only for android
3.Shorebird account creation - Completed Successfully
4.Shorebird init in the POC root - Completed Successfully
5.Trying to generate the build using 'shorebird release android' getting above errors.

Expected Behavior
'shorebird release android' should work and build to be generated.

Screenshots NA

Additional Context
Flutter build creation working fine

flutter build apk --release
Warning: SDK processing. This version only understands SDK XML versions up to 3 but an SDK XML file of version 4 was encountered. This can happen if you use versions of Android Studio and the command-line tools that were released at different times.
Font asset "MaterialIcons-Regular.otf" was tree-shaken, reducing it from 1645184 to 1368 bytes (99.9% reduction). Tree-shaking can be disabled by providing the --no-tree-shake-icons flag when building your app.
Running Gradle task 'assembleRelease'... 35.2s
✓ Built build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk (41.9MB)

Highlighting Errors here :-
Release app bundle failed to strip debug symbols from native libraries.
Please run flutter doctor and ensure that the Android toolchain does not
report any issues.

Otherwise, file an issue at https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues.
Failed to build AAB.
Command: flutter build appbundle --release --target-platform=android-arm,android-arm64,android-x64 --shorebird-trace=/Users/Shared/POC/sblearningapp/shorebirdapp/build/shorebird/debug/build-trace-android.json
Reason: Exited with code 1.

[AbhishekDoshi26]

Thanks for the detailed report, the full logs help a lot here.

This one isn't Shorebird. shorebird release android wraps flutter build appbundle under the hood, and the failure is happening inside that Flutter step.

Worth noting: you tested flutter build apk --release, which works, but that's a different command from what Shorebird actually runs. Could you try this directly, with no Shorebird involved?

flutter build appbundle --release

I'd expect it to fail with the same error. That would confirm this is a Flutter issue rather than anything on our side.

This is a known and fairly widely reported Flutter bug. The signature is exactly what you're seeing: APK builds fine, AAB fails at the strip step. Some of the open issues:

• Flutter 3.44.0: build appbundle fails after Gradle success with "failed to strip debug symbols from native libraries" on Windows flutter/flutter#186806 (Flutter 3.44.0)
• Release app bundle build fails with "failed to strip debug symbols from native libraries" despite correct NDK 27 version and config flutter/flutter#173682
• [Bug] flutter build appbundle fails with "strip debug symbols" error on Windows, even after clean install and with --no-shrink flutter/flutter#172148
• Flutter 3.32.4 - Cannot build aab - Release app bundle failed to strip debug symbols from native libraries. flutter/flutter#170585

One detail from #186806 that matches your log closely: Gradle itself completes successfully and produces the bundle, and the failure happens in Flutter's post-processing step afterwards. Your log shows the same thing, Running Gradle task 'bundleRelease'... 25.6s succeeds, then the strip fails.

Two things worth looking at on your end:

1. The SDK XML warning in your APK build output

Warning: SDK processing. This version only understands SDK XML versions up to 3 but an SDK XML file of version 4 was encountered.

That points to a mismatch between your Android Studio version and your command-line tools, they were released at different times. Worth updating both to matching versions, since the strip step depends on the NDK toolchain and a mismatch there is a plausible contributor.

2. NDK version

What does flutter doctor -v show for your NDK, and do you have ndkVersion set explicitly in android/app/build.gradle? Several people in those issues found NDK version or path problems behind this.

If flutter build appbundle --release fails on its own, the Flutter issues above are the right place to track it. Happy to keep helping either way, just let us know what that command does.

[AbhishekDoshi26]

@ChidSamiappan wanted to checkin, did you get a chance to review the above steps?

[AbhishekDoshi26]

Closing as no response.