How I Detected Bugs in a Wallet App

Many mobile applications run on smartphones, tablets, and computer emulators. They are commonly known as “Apps.” The revolution of developing advanced apps looks interesting according to the invention of powerful mobile devices.

Unlike the integrated software systems of PCs, the early mobile devices-based apps had isolated functionality. Now, we can find advanced apps in the app stores with multitasking features due to the vast hardware resources from the latest powerful devices.

Despite the progress in app development, some apps still exhibit bugs. So, debugging is very important to offer users glitch-free apps; otherwise, attackers steal sensitive user data and information.

In this article, I will show you how we can identify bugs in Android apps and the debugging process.

What Is Debugging?

The bug in a mobile app is an error in coding or other aspects of the system. If bugs persist, the apps exhibit unusual behaviors like sudden crashes, unresponsive, stopping working, etc., and may not give the targeted output.

In the best practices, such bugs affect the performance of the apps only, but sometimes, it will be worst if hackers manage to locate such bugs. The term “Debugging” refers to detecting and solving errors in the software and hardware of mobile devices.

Why Is Debugging Important?

It helps developers fix problems by locating the root cause of mobile app bugs. Sometimes users can also solve some particular bugs caused by factors like whole storage, low RAM, corrupted file systems and SD cards, etc.

For the developers, the following steps are essential for the debugging that are as follows:

• Identify the bug
• Attempts to reproduce the error caused by that bug
• Identifying the part of the code causing the error
• Fix the code or bug
• Test whether the bugs reoccur or not
• Since debugging is itself a part of the software testing process, it helps the lifecycle of the entire software development process to build a glitch-free application.

I had problems with Android applications like the Xverse crypto wallet app and Yandex mobile browser. Here, I will show the steps and techniques I followed to locate bugs and report them to the app developers.

The Steps to detect the bugs in the mobile app:

STEP-1: Unlock Developer Options:

Follow the steps below:

1. Go to “Setting.”
2. Find the option “About phone” and click on it.
3. Tap “Software information.”
4. Tap the “Build number” option seven times.

Now, Developer options are visible in the “Setting.”

STEP-2: Create the Bug Reports:

Now, you have to follow the following steps:

1. Go to “Setting.”
2. Locate “Developer options.”
3. Toggle right to enable the “Developer options.”
4. Now tap on the “Bug report” option.
5. If you cannot click the “Bug report” option, enable the “USB debugging” option first.
6. Now tap the “Full report” option.
7. Tap “Report”

The background process is running to prepare a report, got to relax for a while.

Once a full report is ready, the Android system exhibit a notification “Bug report captured” in the notification bar. Tap on it and select “OK.”

In my case, I saved the full report by sending it to my dearest family members via Telegram before sending it to the app developers.

STEP-3: Reading the Bug Reports:

Android system generates the complete information in the compressed ZIP format. The file needs to extract first.

In my case, the wallet app Xverse repeatedly crashed while editing the Bitcoin gas fee to perform the transaction, and the Transaction Failed due to “Error: Request failed with status code 400.”

I opened the text file in notepad and analyzed the log data. Since I had no idea about the exact date and time of the app crash event, I needed to search for “error” and “exception” to locate the accurate event date, as in the following sample screenshot.

STEP-4: Debugging:

Since I’m just a user of this wallet app, I can’t make any modifications, so the developer team should fix the errors; that’s why I contacted the Xverse support team to solve the issue. They have realized the bugs.

We have different types of mobile bugs.

I mentioned just an example of detecting bugs and the process of debugging. Here are some methods of finding bugs in your mobile devices which are as follows:

1. Understand the whole application:

It is essential to understand the application overview before performing the test.

2. Prioritize Test Cases:

Once you generate the full bug report from the smartphone, prioritize the cases for a deeper investigation.

3. Gather Test Data:

A sufficient test dataset is required to find the exact root cause of the bugs.

4. Automated Parallel Testing:

It helps run the same app multiple times in different environments without manual testing procedures for better efficiency.

5. User Interface (UI) Testing:

It gives ideas about the app performance from start to end so that app testers and developers can make a better analysis to detect the same bugs.

6. Compare the Test Data Pattern:

It is better to compare the initial data pattern to the resulting data patterns for a better investigation.

7. Test App Under the Limited Storage:

Some devices keep hanging due to limited storage and hardware resources, so running the app under limited storage is always better to check the performance.

8. Perform the Repeated Testing:

The last trick to detect bugs is trying to find their bugs and performing repeated testing for the different inputs.

Closing Notes:

Detecting app bugs play a crucial role in fixing the performance of different applications before or after releasing them in the market. Nowadays, users are using unauthorized sites or stores to download apps, but hackers can modify such apps to steal sensitive data.

Always use trusted sites or Google PlayStore to download the apps because developers regularly update the apps to patch against different errors. Google itself verifies the apps periodically to protect users. The apps that you download from unauthorized sources may exhibit more bugs.

So, it is essential to keep the app up to date. The developers, as well as users, have to be careful if the app is exhibiting bugs.