2.9 file system sync on Android

Development
1

I cloned the dev branch and successfully built and installed the Android apk, but the app shows an error of "unable to load script ...". like shown here. I googled and this seems a common error related to react native. Wonder if anyone has encountered the same and how was it resolved?

My env is:

$ react-native info
info Fetching system and libraries information...
System:
    OS: Linux 5.15 Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS 22.04.1 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
    CPU: (4) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5257U CPU @ 2.70GHz
    Memory: 4.48 GB / 7.67 GB
    Shell: 5.1.16 - /bin/bash
  Binaries:
    Node: 18.12.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.12.1/bin/node
    Yarn: 3.3.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.12.1/bin/yarn
    npm: 8.19.2 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.12.1/bin/npm
    Watchman: Not Found
  SDKs:
    Android SDK:
      API Levels: 30, 31, 32, 33
      Build Tools: 30.0.2, 30.0.3, 32.0.0, 33.0.0, 33.0.1
      Android NDK: Not Found
  IDEs:
    Android Studio: Not Found
  Languages:
    Java: 18.0.2-ea - /usr/bin/javac
  npmPackages:
    @react-native-community/cli: Not Found
    react: Not Found
    react-native: Not Found
  npmGlobalPackages:
    *react-native*: Not Found

The reason I tried to build it from source is that I recently updated to 2.9.8 on Android 12 and Filesystem sync still has the issue related to permissions with /storage/emulated/0/Joplin/locks/{somename}.json. (the same path works on Android 9, not sure if it should be a different one on Android 12?) Since the release note of 2.9 says that this has been resolved, I wonder maybe 2.9.8 is not the most updated version, so I tried to build 2.9.17 from source.

2

Most likely you've built debug version instead of release

3

Yes, I built a debug version.

This is what I did:

$ cd packages/app-mobile/android
$ ./gradlew
$ ./gradlew assembleDebug

Then I copied app-debug.apk from packages/app-mobile/android/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/ to my phone, and installed the apk on the phone, ran the app and got the error.

Tried on both an Android 12 phone and an Android 9 phone, same error

4

To use the debug version you need to connect your phone to your pc and run the server there. If you want it to work like a normal app you need the release variant.
Check out BUILD.md for details

5

I went again, now strictly following the BUILD.md.

from the root of the project, run:
$ yarn install

$ cd packages/app-mobile/android
$ ./gradlew installDebug

It didn't work, got the error.

The md says "Normally the bundler should start automatically with the application", but it didn't start in my case.

Then I tried:
from the root of the project, run:

$ yarn install
$ cd packages/app-mobile:
$ yarn start

in separate terminal:

$ cd packages/app-mobile/android
$ ./gradlew installDebug

It didn't work. In the Metro terminal I get some error on failing to construct transformer, ...

Somewhere on the web someone suggested trying with Node.js 16 (I had 18.12.1). So I got 16.19.0, and tried the above, and it worked.

And filesystem sync works. It's nice now that there is a UI to choose the path. And actually it also works with 2.9.8 when I set the correct path (the path I had there was from previous versions and is no long valid for Android 12)

6

I'm surprised that the debug version is working for you. You still might want to try building a proper release (gradlew assembleRelease but you'd need to set up signing keys first) to enable optimizations.

7

Why are you surprised that the debug version works?

It works on real device (Galaxy S21).

I also tried to get it to Waydroid. The app was installed with the same process above through adb. But when I ran it, the bundler doesn't seem to connect and hence I get the original error.

8

I thought it needed a server running on your computer to work. But maybe it only needs to load it once, not sure.

9

On the first startup of the app, while the USB is still connected, the app connects to the Metro server on the computer to do the bundling. It takes quite a few minutes though to complete. Then the app works on its own.

I see when building the release version, the bundling is done so the release apk includes all those. Right?

10

Yes. Plus I believe both the bundle and native code will be better optimized.