Testing your Xamarin app on Android device

Question

I've develop a test application in Xamarin Studio (Android with C#) and wanted to test it on my phone.

The application worked just fine in the Device emulator (Same OS version) but when I install / open it on my phone, it just says "TestApplication stopped working" I know from the online search that thousands of issues could cause this error message but my questions is :

Is exporting my app on my droid as simple as :

• Compiling the app
• Taking the signed .apk in the .bin folder
• Dragging that .apk on the phone (I'm using AirDroid to drag the file)
• Running the .apk (installing the app)

Am I missing an obvious, magic step ?

Answer 1

I don't know how Xamarin Studio works, but this happened to me when trying the same, using Visual Studio.

I found out the application worked only when building in Release mode.

Not sure if Xamarin Studio has the same options (Debug / Release / etc)

Answer 2

I believe I'm a bit late here, but it seems time changed things.

What I had to do (and I can't seem to understand why it's not more intuitive than that) is to:

1. Right click on Solution
2. Archive
3. Follow the Wizard steps

Better instructions can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/xamarin/android/deploy-test/signing/?tabs=windows