Unable to debug android in RN v0.79.2

[saravanan-dm]

Description

I recently upgraded my app to React Native 0.79.2.
After the update, the "Open DevTools" option is missing from the Android developer menu — on iOS it still works fine.

On Android, I now see "Connect to the bundler to debug JavaScript" instead (screenshot attached).

It feels like something might be off with the Metro server integration.
Has anyone else run into this issue?

Steps to reproduce

1. Install the app
2. Press j from terminal (this step also not working for android) I have to shake the device / emulator to open the dev menu
3. Not seeing "Open DevTools" option

React Native Version

0.79.2

Output of npx @react-native-community/cli info

info Connecting to the development server...
adb: error: cannot bind listener: Address already in use
warn Failed to connect to development server using "adb reverse": Command failed: /Users/saravanan/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb -s VGFALRNNIXXXXXX reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081
info Starting the app on "VGFALRNNIXXXXXX"...
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] cmp=com.simpl.android.staging/com.simpl.android.MainActivity }
✨  Done in 244.04s.

Screenshots and Videos

No response

[react-native-bot]

Warning

Missing reproducer: We could not detect a reproducible example in your issue report. Reproducers are mandatory and we can accept only one of those as a valid reproducer:

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[devanshsaini11]

@saravanan-dm It's working fine on sample app I created using npx @react-native-community/cli@latest init AwesomeProject --version 0.79.2. It looks like you might have missed few changes while upgrade, you can leverage RN Upgrade Helper and see if it helps.

If issue still persists kindly provide a valid repro using Reproducer Template

[saravanan-dm]

I created a new sample project and debugging works fine on both Android and iOS. The issue only occurs in my main project. Interestingly, the same setup works on my colleagues’ machines, and they can debug without issues.

I don’t think this is related to my recent RN upgrade — I also have a separate workspace (without the upgrade changes, used for day-to-day fixes), and the problem exists there too.

What I’ve Debugged So Far

• On Android, DEV is resolving to false, which breaks debugging.
• I tried forcing it to true in MainApplication.java, but no luck:

@Override public boolean getUseDeveloperSupport() { return true; // return BuildConfig.DEBUG; }

If I open Android Studio directly and build, I get this error:

Android Studio - Node error

`> Task :app:createBundleDevelopmentDebugJsAndAssets FAILED
Execution failed for task ':app:createBundleDevelopmentDebugJsAndAssets'.

A problem occurred starting process 'command 'node''

• Try:

Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.
Run with --scan to get full insights.
Get more help at https://help.gradle.org.

• Exception is:
  org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskExecutionException: Execution failed for task ':app:createBundleDevelopmentDebugJsAndAssets'.
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.lambda$executeIfValid$1(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:130)
  at org.gradle.internal.Try$Failure.ifSuccessfulOrElse(Try.java:293)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.executeIfValid(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:128)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.execute(ExecuteActionsTaskExecuter.java:116)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ProblemsTaskPathTrackingTaskExecuter.execute(ProblemsTaskPathTrackingTaskExecuter.java:40)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.FinalizePropertiesTaskExecuter.execute(FinalizePropertiesTaskExecuter.java:46)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.ResolveTaskExecutionModeExecuter.execute(ResolveTaskExecutionModeExecuter.java:51)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.execute(SkipTaskWithNoActionsExecuter.java:57)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.execute(SkipOnlyIfTaskExecuter.java:74)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.execute(CatchExceptionTaskExecuter.java:36)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter$1.executeTask(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:77)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter$1.call(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:55)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter$1.call(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:52)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:210)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$CallableBuildOperationWorker.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:205)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$2.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:67)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner$2.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:60)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:167)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner.execute(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:60)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.DefaultBuildOperationRunner.call(DefaultBuildOperationRunner.java:54)
  at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.execution.EventFiringTaskExecuter.execute(EventFiringTaskExecuter.java:52)
  at org.gradle.execution.plan.LocalTaskNodeExecutor.execute(LocalTaskNodeExecutor.java:42)
  at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$InvokeNodeExecutorsAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:331)
  at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$InvokeNodeExecutorsAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:318)
  at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$BuildOperationAwareExecutionAction.lambda$execute$0(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:314)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.CurrentBuildOperationRef.with(CurrentBuildOperationRef.java:85)
  at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$BuildOperationAwareExecutionAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:314)
  at org.gradle.execution.taskgraph.DefaultTaskExecutionGraph$BuildOperationAwareExecutionAction.execute(DefaultTaskExecutionGraph.java:303)
  at org.gradle.execution.plan.DefaultPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.execute(DefaultPlanExecutor.java:459)
  at org.gradle.execution.plan.DefaultPlanExecutor$ExecutorWorker.run(DefaultPlanExecutor.java:376)
  at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:64)
  at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.AbstractManagedExecutor$1.run(AbstractManagedExecutor.java:48)
  Caused by: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: A problem occurred starting process 'command 'node''
  at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.execExceptionFor(DefaultExecHandle.java:241)
  at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.setEndStateInfo(DefaultExecHandle.java:218)
  at org.gradle.process.internal.DefaultExecHandle.failed(DefaultExecHandle.java:396)
  at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.lambda$run$3(ExecHandleRunner.java:102)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.CurrentBuildOperationRef.with(CurrentBuildOperationRef.java:85)
  at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:101)
  at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ExecutorPolicy$CatchAndRecordFailures.onExecute(ExecutorPolicy.java:64)
  at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.AbstractManagedExecutor$1.run(AbstractManagedExecutor.java:48)
  Caused by: net.rubygrapefruit.platform.NativeException: Could not start 'node'
  at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:27)
  at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.WrapperProcessLauncher.start(WrapperProcessLauncher.java:36)
  at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.startProcess(ExecHandleRunner.java:122)
  at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.lambda$run$0(ExecHandleRunner.java:80)
  at org.gradle.internal.operations.CurrentBuildOperationRef.with(CurrentBuildOperationRef.java:85)
  at org.gradle.process.internal.ExecHandleRunner.run(ExecHandleRunner.java:79)
  ... 2 more
  Caused by: java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "node" (in directory "/Users/saravanan/Documents/workspace/react-native/simpl_v4/SimplMobileApp"): error=2, No such file or directory
  at net.rubygrapefruit.platform.internal.DefaultProcessLauncher.start(DefaultProcessLauncher.java:25)
  ... 7 more
  Caused by: java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory
  ... 8 more

Deprecated Gradle features were used in this build, making it incompatible with Gradle 9.0.

You can use '--warning-mode all' to show the individual deprecation warnings and determine if they come from your own scripts or plugins.

For more on this, please refer to https://docs.gradle.org/8.13/userguide/command_line_interface.html#sec:command_line_warnings in the Gradle documentation.

BUILD FAILED in 56s
1009 actionable tasks: 167 executed, 842 up-to-date`

If I open Android Studio from the terminal, I don’t see the above error, and I can run the app — but I still cannot debug it on Android.

Environment Setup (.zshrc)

`export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/emulator
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools
export PATH="/usr/local/opt/openjdk@17/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="/usr/local/opt/node@16/bin:$PATH"
export NVM_DIR=~/.nvm
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="$HOME/.nvm/versions/node/v20.9.0/bin:$PATH"
source $(brew --prefix nvm)/nvm.sh

export PATH="/Users/saravanan/.flashlight/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(rbenv init - zsh)"
`

It looks like something in my Node/ENV setup is broken. Since Android Studio started from the terminal can find node, but Android Studio launched directly cannot, I suspect it’s not picking up my shell environment.

[cortinico]

I created a new sample project and debugging works fine on both Android and iOS. The issue only occurs in my main project. Interestingly, the same setup works on my colleagues’ machines, and they can debug without issues.

If this is the case, than this is clearly a problem with your machine and not a bug in React Native. Closing as we keep this issue tracker only for bugs with React Native that have a valid reproducer