After releasing your React Native application, you may encounter issues like metro connection problems or app crashes. Here’s a quick solution to resolve these issues by bundling your application for release.

Issue:

The app might crash or face issues after release because the metro bundler is still being used in development mode. We need to bundle the app properly for production.

Solution: Bundle the Application for Release

Open the terminal in your project directory.

Run the following command:

npx react-native bundle --platform android --dev false --entry-file index.js --bundle-output android/app/src/main/assets/index.android.bundle --assets-dest android/app/src/main/res/

--dev false: Ensures that the app is bundled for production.

--entry-file index.js: Specifies the main entry file.

--bundle-output: Defines the location for the bundled JS file.

--assets-dest: Specifies where the assets will be placed.

Once the bundling process is complete, rebuild your APK:

cd android && ./gradlew assembleRelease

This process bundles all the necessary files, preventing metro-related issues and crashes when the app runs in release mode.

Key Notes:

• Set --dev false for release and --dev true for development.
• Always ensure the correct entry file and output paths are set for the bundle.
• This helps in eliminating metro dependency and potential crashes after releasing the app.