One Missing Tutorial Image Was Enough to Stop the Whole App from Launching. Moving Nice-to-Have Features Off the Required Startup Path
On some devices the app never launched at all. The cause was a design where a missing tutorial image failed the whole screen build. A small wrapper that takes optional features off the startup path, and a pre-release check.
My plugins Array Was Empty, and Info.plist Still Had Nine Permission Strings
Even with an empty plugins array, every Expo package you install can add permission strings to Info.plist. I ran prebuild on SDK 58, counted them, and wrote the settings and a small audit script that remove them.
It Ran Fine in Debug, but the Release Build Died on Launch with a Resource Not Found. A File I Looked Up by Name Had Been Shrunk Away
A release-only crash at launch, caused by images and sounds looked up by a name string being removed by resource shrinking. A keep.xml written at prebuild, plus a post-build check that confirms it worked.
Should You Ship a Web Version While the Store Reviews Your App? Choosing a Release Order for a Rork App With Three Questions
Web first or store first for an app built in Rork? I checked Rork's FAQ and Expo's docs: Rork Pro and Rork Max give you different options, and three questions help you decide the release order.
When EXPO_PUBLIC_ Values Read Fine in Dev but Come Back undefined in Production: Telling the Spellings Apart
The API URL reads fine while developing and turns undefined once the app is built. The cause was how process.env was written. I lined up babel-preset-expo's output for dev and production and tabulated which spellings get replaced and which are left behind.
When adjustsFontSizeToFit Shrinks Just One Row, Suspect the Box Height, Not the String
Only the 10th row of a list drops to 4pt on iOS, though the data and strings are fine. I read the Yoga rounding and font-fit sources, then counted how often the box comes up short in Node.
When Only EAS Build Fails with "No matching variant", Check Your Local android/build First
Gradle passes on your machine, but the Android build on EAS stops at "No matching variant of project". Reading the reports on GitHub, I traced how a Windows-generated autolinking cache can reach the Linux builder, and wrote a small script that checks for it before you queue a build.
App Review Says "Guideline 2.1, Blank Screen": Three Places to Look in an Expo Release Build
It opens fine in TestFlight, yet review rejects it for a blank screen. Here is the order I check things in an Expo + EAS release build: which environment holds your variables, secret visibility during config resolution, and what the reviewer's device does differently.
Before You Ship: Go Looking for Your Own Keys Inside the Exported Expo Bundle
A key can be missing from your source and still be sitting inside the finished app. I ran expo export on Expo SDK 57, searched the bundle with grep and a short Node script, and recorded which secrets show up and which don't.
Japanese Headings Won't Turn Bold on Android: How to Trace and Fix a fontWeight That Does Nothing
A troubleshooting note for Rork apps where headings look bold on iPhone but stay thin on Android. How to tell the symptoms apart, pick weights through fontFamily, and verify the fix.
It Crashed, but the Reviews Say "It Freezes" — When an Android Crash Leaves a Blank Screen Behind
Your crash reports show exceptions, yet users only ever say the app freezes. Here is why expo-updates plus the New Architecture can leave an empty Android screen behind, and the order I now use: a way out first, a bad-exit marker second, root cause last.
Four Numbers to Record Before R8 Becomes the Default — Android Measurements While We Wait for Expo SDK 58
Expo SDK 58 turns on R8 by default for Android release builds. Here is how I capture four numbers — download size, DEX total, cold start, and build time — so the before and after can be compared with the same ruler.