1. Detect the Crash
Detecting a crash is where the whole debugging process begins. Without clear information about what failed, fixing the issue becomes guesswork. This stage focuses on understanding when the crash happens, who is affected, and what actions trigger the problem.
The first signal usually comes from user reports. Teams collect details such as device model, operating system version, and app version to understand the environment. User behaviour before the crash also matters. For example, switching screens quickly, uploading data, or running the app on low network connectivity may lead to failure. Tracking how often the issue occurs and how many users experience it helps determine the severity of the problem.
A reliable free bug reporting tool makes this process more structured. shakebug is commonly used to capture session recordings, user interactions, and reproduction steps. It provides clear visibility into what users experienced before the crash occurred. Other competitors, such as Firebase Crashlytics and Bugsnag, also help monitor real-time crash data, collect stack traces, and capture device-level information from production environments. Using how crash reporting tools protect your app ensures that these issues are caught early and handled efficiently.
Crash reporting tools also record screen activity, system logs, and diagnostics. This data reveals affected devices, environments, and usage patterns. When crash detection is handled properly with a free bug reporting tool, later debugging steps become faster, more accurate, and easier to manage.
2. Reproduce the Issue
Sometimes crashes happen and it’s hard to tell why. The first thing is just trying to make it happen again. You tap around, swipe here and there, maybe fill a form, maybe skip something, and wait. Some crashes show up immediately, others hide until you do something in a certain way.
Phones are all different. One device might crash, another works fine. Older versions of the OS can also act weird, and sometimes a slow or patchy internet connection makes things go haywire. It’s not always obvious at first. Testing in different setups helps to see patterns you’d miss otherwise.
While doing this, logging what happens is handy. Not perfect logs, just enough to remember what you did. Which screen, which button, maybe even the time of day. Those little things often matter more than you’d think.
Once you see the crash happen more than once, it becomes less of a mystery. Then fixing it isn’t guessing anymore, it’s just tracing back through what caused it. Until then, it’s mostly trial, error, and careful observation.
3. Gather Crash Logs and Stack Traces
When a crash happens, the first step is usually to grab whatever logs the app can give. On Android, Logcat is the go-to. It shows runtime errors, system messages, and other details that hint at what went wrong. On iOS, the Xcode console and crash reports serve a similar purpose. Sometimes the logs are messy, but there’s usually a trail if you know where to look.
Stack traces are gold. They show which methods were called, where things broke, and what kind of exception popped up. Reading them isn’t always straightforward, especially if the crash happens deep inside a library or framework, but even small hints can point in the right direction. Device information helps, too, such as memory, OS version, and app version, which often explain why one device crashes while another doesn’t.
Session logs and recorded user interactions can make a huge difference. Seeing exactly what the user did before the crash, like which screens they opened or what input they provided, can narrow down the cause quickly. Sometimes, the problem only shows up under certain conditions, and logs help capture that.
The goal of gathering all this is simple: have a clear snapshot of what happened when the crash occurred. With these logs and traces in hand, isolating the issue becomes a lot easier, and the next steps of debugging feel more grounded instead of just guessing.
4. Analyse and Isolate the Problem
Crash logs are confusing at first. You open them, and it’s like a wall of text, a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense right away. Some errors point directly to the problem; others just throw you off. Usually, the real issue hides in a tiny part of the code, something easy to miss.
A debugger helps a bit. You can pause the app, peek at variables, and see what’s going on line by line. Sometimes you step through the code, and nothing seems wrong, then suddenly boom, the crash shows up. It’s weird how small interactions can break things that otherwise work fine.
Looking at recent changes is almost always useful. Someone added a feature, changed a function, maybe even a small tweak somewhere else, and that’s enough to make the crash happen. Testing bits of code separately helps too, just to see if the problem comes from that spot or somewhere bigger.
By the time you start connecting the dots, it usually clicks where the crash is coming from. It’s messy, frustrating, and takes patience, but figuring out the exact piece of code that’s misbehaving makes the next step, the fix, a lot less scary.
5. Research and Implement the Fix
After figuring out where the crash comes from, the hard part starts actually fixing it. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times you just stare at the code wondering what on earth went wrong. A quick search online helps a lot, forums, docs, even old posts from other developers who ran into something similar. Sometimes you just copy a tweak, test it, and see if it sticks.
The tricky part is edge cases. Maybe a field is empty, or some weird user input nobody thought of, and suddenly the app crashes again. Handling exceptions properly is key. It doesn’t feel glamorous, but it saves headaches later.
You tweak the code, test it, maybe break something else, fix that too. Refactoring messy bits is worth it it’s annoying now, but cleaner code means fewer surprises later. Logging along the way helps catch little things before they become big problems.
Fixing crashes isn’t a straight line. A little trial, a little error, some research, and some “wait, why did that happen?” moments. Eventually, the app just behaves, and it’s a tiny victory every time.
6. Verify and Deploy
Fixing the crash is one thing. Trusting the fix is another. After changes go in, the app needs real checking, not just a quick run to see if it opens.
So the app gets used normally first. Open screens, close them, repeat actions, try random flows. Sometimes even doing things in the wrong order helps. Real users never follow perfect paths anyway. Testing on different phones matters too. An issue gone on one device can still show up somewhere else, especially on older systems.
Then comes checking what might have broken because of the fix. That happens more often than people expect. Something unrelated stops working, a feature behaves differently, or performance drops a little. Watching logs during testing helps catch these small signals early.
Releasing the update slowly feels safer. A small group gets it first. You wait, observe, read feedback, watch crash reports. If everything looks stable, then the wider release happens.
Even after deployment, the work does not really stop. Monitoring continues, reports keep coming in, and sometimes small adjustments follow. Stability grows over time, not in one release. That is just how real apps behave.
