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Mai Trinh
ENVI
Completed

Android APK Crash Investigation & Recovery

A paid technical investigation into why a newer app build crashed with no source code available.

Role
Freelance developer — paid crash investigation
Platform
Android
Client
Confidential client

Project overview

The problem
An existing Android application worked in an older build, but a newer build opened and then immediately closed.
What they wanted
Determine whether the application could be decompiled, and why the newer version crashed while the older version still worked — without access to the original source code.
Where they started
The client had two compiled APK builds — an older, working one and a newer, crashing one — and no original source code, so the investigation had to start from compiled artifacts rather than a normal source-level debugging workflow.

My role & contributions

What I found
Ran and compared the two APK builds side by side in LDPlayer (an Android emulator), using PowerShell to drive the decompilation and comparison workflow, to investigate the runtime difference responsible for the crash.

Challenges & solutions

  1. Challenges

    Diagnosing a runtime crash using only compiled APK artifacts, with no access to the original source code or build environment.

    Key decisions

    The specific technical finding from this investigation is kept confidential; the verified, disclosable part of this engagement is the investigative approach itself — comparing a known-working build against a known-broken one at the compiled-artifact level.

    Outcome

    Delivered as a paid, completed technical investigation. A separate follow-up development engagement was discussed afterward but not undertaken.

This project demonstrates

  • Production Debugging
  • Android Development

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