AndroidNativeLibrary not getting included in Release [Android]

[J0nathan550]

Android framework version

net9.0-android

Affected platform version

VS 2022

Description

Hello, when I debug my application it works just fine, but in Release my AndroidNativeLibrary gets trimmed away.

Is there any solution to this?

.csproj of Android:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
	<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
	<TargetFramework>net9.0-android</TargetFramework>
	<SupportedOSPlatformVersion>21</SupportedOSPlatformVersion>
	<Nullable>enable</Nullable>
	<ApplicationId>com.tyrrrz.youtubedownloader</ApplicationId>
	<ApplicationVersion>1</ApplicationVersion>
	<ApplicationDisplayVersion>1.0.0.0</ApplicationDisplayVersion>
	<AndroidPackageFormat>apk</AndroidPackageFormat>
	<AndroidEnableProfiledAot>false</AndroidEnableProfiledAot>
  </PropertyGroup>

	<ItemGroup>
    <AndroidResource Include="Icon.png">
      <Link>Resources\drawable\Icon.png</Link>
    </AndroidResource>
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Avalonia.Android" Version="11.3.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Xamarin.AndroidX.Core.SplashScreen" Version="1.0.1.16" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\YoutubeDownloader.Core\YoutubeDownloader.Core.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="..\YoutubeDownloader\YoutubeDownloader.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

	<PropertyGroup>
		<DownloadFFmpegAndroid>true</DownloadFFmpegAndroid>
	</PropertyGroup>

	<!-- Include FFmpeg binaries for different Android architectures -->
	<ItemGroup>
		<!-- ARM (32-bit)
		<AndroidAsset Include="arm\ffmpeg" Condition="Exists('arm\ffmpeg')">
			<Link>assets\arm\ffmpeg</Link>
		</AndroidAsset>-->

		<!-- ARM64 (64-bit) -->

		<!-- Remove for now, as these architectures are not commonly used in Android development anymore
		<AndroidAsset Include="armv7-a\ffmpeg" Condition="Exists('armv7-a\ffmpeg')">
			<Link>assets\armv7-a\ffmpeg</Link>
		</AndroidAsset>

		<AndroidAsset Include="arm-v7n\ffmpeg" Condition="Exists('arm-v7n\ffmpeg')">
			<Link>assets\arm-v7n\ffmpeg</Link>
		</AndroidAsset>
		-->
		
		<!-- x86 (32-bit Intel)
		<AndroidAsset Include="i686\ffmpeg" Condition="Exists('i686\ffmpeg')">
			<Link>assets\i686\ffmpeg</Link>
		</AndroidAsset>-->

		<!-- x86_64 (64-bit Intel) -->
		<AndroidNativeLibrary Include="x86_64\ffmpeg" Condition="Exists('x86_64\ffmpeg')">
			<Link>libs\x86_64\ffmpeg</Link>
			<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
		</AndroidNativeLibrary>

		<AndroidNativeLibrary Include="arm64-v8a\ffmpeg" Condition="Exists('arm64-v8a\ffmpeg')">
			<Link>libs\arm64-v8a\ffmpeg</Link>
			<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
		</AndroidNativeLibrary>

	</ItemGroup>

	<!-- Target to download FFmpeg binaries for Android -->
	<Target Name="DownloadFFmpegAndroid" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild" Condition="$(DownloadFFmpegAndroid) AND !Exists('arm64-v8a\ffmpeg') AND !Exists('arm\ffmpeg')">

		<!-- Download all architectures by default for maximum compatibility -->
		<Exec Command="pwsh -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File $(ProjectDir)/Download-FFmpeg-Android.ps1 -DownloadAll -OutputPath $(ProjectDir)" LogStandardErrorAsError="true" ContinueOnError="false" />
	</Target>
	
</Project>

FFMPEGInitializer:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using YoutubeDownloader.Framework;
using YoutubeDownloader.ViewModels.Dialogs;

namespace YoutubeDownloader.Android;

public static class AndroidFFmpegInitializer
{
    public static async void Initialize()
    {
        var extractedPath = await ExtractFFmpegFromAssetsAsync();
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(extractedPath))
        {
            Core.Downloading.FFmpeg.SetCustomPath(extractedPath);
        }
    }

    private static async Task<string?> ExtractFFmpegFromAssetsAsync()
    {
        try
        {
            var appInfo = global::Android.App.Application.Context.ApplicationInfo;
            var path = Path.Combine(appInfo!.NativeLibraryDir!, "ffmpeg");
            return path;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            DialogManager dialogManager = new();
            MessageBoxViewModel messageBoxViewModel = new()
            {
                Title = "FFmpeg Extraction Error",
                Message = $"Failed to extract FFmpeg from assets. Please ensure the file exists in the assets directory.\n{ex.Message}",
                DefaultButtonText = "OK"
            };
            await dialogManager.ShowDialogAsync(messageBoxViewModel);
            Debug.WriteLine($"FFmpeg extraction failed: {ex.Message}");
            return null;
        }
    }
}

AndroidManifest:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:installLocation="auto" package="com.tyrrrz.youtubedownloader" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0.0.0">
	<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
	<application android:label="YoutubeDownloader" android:icon="@drawable/Icon" />
</manifest>

Steps to Reproduce

NONE

Did you find any workaround?

NONE

Relevant log output

NONE

[jonathanpeppers]

AndroidNativeLibrary gets trimmed away.

Nothing trims @(AndroidNativeLibrary), this isn't a trimming feature. Is it just not making it to the final app?

So, a couple of questions:

• Is the file missing from your .apk/.aab? Is it ffmpeg or ffmpeg.so?
• Can you share a .binlog of a cleaned build: https://aka.ms/binlog

[J0nathan550]

@jonathanpeppers hey! in APK when I open archive using winrar, I can see that it's actually inside, but code in release doesn't want to "recognise" it. Debug can. Unsure why it's like this.

My guess is that I don't have enough permissions in release to use ffmpeg.

I am not sure which dotnet uses special permissions, but only one I saw that is unique is:

com.tyrrrz.youtubedownloader.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION

Here is example of what is inside of release. And how program behave on Release and Debug.

2025-06-18.17-08-32.mp4

[jonathanpeppers]

I have a theory, and unfortunately, it might be Android behavior...

See:

• Split custom assets by device ABI? google/bundletool#190

bundletool (Android tool for app bundles) only supports native assets with a prefix of lib and suffix of .so. It assumes these are native libraries that can be loaded via system.loadLibrary() in Java.

Are you deploying to Google Play with an app bundle?

Or is this also not working when deploying the .apk locally? You can set AndroidPackageFormat=apk in your .csproj to test.

[J0nathan550]

I am not uploading to Google Play, just for github releases (apk).

I did not checked how it behave if you manually install apk and use application, but I believe logic will be the same.

[J0nathan550]

Either code race (strange), permission issue, or simple strange bug.

[jonathanpeppers]

To help us track this down:

• Try building with AndroidPackageFormat=apk
• Share the error message (stack trace or adb logcat output)
• Share the .apk if possible

If the file you specified makes it to the app, then the problem must be Android behavior at runtime.

[J0nathan550]

Will send soon :)

[J0nathan550]

I tested manually release APK and logic is the same.

Here is repository (fork): https://github.com/J0nathan550/YoutubeDownloader

Here is APK release, debug (Google Drive): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19bklk94KN_XXw5PviSLMjH67nrCEtgW0?usp=sharing

[J0nathan550]

Permissions are not a problem. Setted everything related to file management didn't helped.