Android Menu icons don't appear in the release build but display in the debug build

Question

I am facing one of the most bizarre issues in rcent times. I am using AppCompatActivity with android support v7. When I am running the app in debug mode I can see the menus with icons, after generating signed apk and installing, the icons vanishes from menu.

1) Release Build screenshot

2) Debug build screenshot

Here is my menu code

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" tools:context=".TerminalActivity">


<item android:id="@+id/action_streamConnect"

    app:showAsAction="never"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_stream"
    android:visible="false"
    android:title="Connect to Stream">
</item>

<item android:id="@+id/action_connect"

    app:showAsAction="never"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_bluetooth_connect"
    android:visible="true"
    android:title="@string/action_connect">
    </item>

<item android:id="@+id/action_disconnect"
    android:title="@string/action_disconnect"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_bluetooth_disconnect"
    android:visible="false"
    app:showAsAction="never" />
<item android:id="@+id/action_pulse"
    android:title="Start Pulse"
    android:icon="@mipmap/finger"
    android:visible="true"
    app:showAsAction="never" />

<item android:id="@+id/action_resp"
    android:title="Respiration"
    android:checkable="true"
    android:checked="false"
    android:visible="true"

    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_lungs"
    app:showAsAction="never" />
<item android:id="@+id/action_activity"
    android:title="Track Activity"
    android:checkable="true"
    android:checked="false"
    android:visible="true"

    android:icon="@mipmap/icon_activity_track"
    app:showAsAction="never" />
<item android:id="@+id/action_myRecords"
    android:title="My Records"
    android:visible="true"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_download"
    app:showAsAction="never" />

<item android:id="@+id/action_customUrlAnalyze"
    android:title="Analyze Record"
    android:visible="true"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_link"
    app:showAsAction="never" />

<item android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:title="Settings"
    android:visible="true"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_settings_black_24dp"
    app:showAsAction="never"
    >

</item>

<item android:id="@+id/action_crlf"
    android:title="@string/action_crlf"
    android:checkable="true"
    android:checked="false"
    android:visible="false"
    app:showAsAction="never" />


<item android:id="@+id/action_customer"
    android:title="Link Aadhar"
    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_card"
    app:showAsAction="collapseActionView"/>
<item android:id="@+id/action_bank"
    android:title="Policy Purchase"
    android:visible="false"
    app:showAsAction="collapseActionView"/>

<item android:id="@+id/action_buy"
    android:title="Get Device"
    android:visible="true"

    android:icon="@mipmap/ic_shopping_cart_black_24dp"
    app:showAsAction="never" />

I use a custom theme. Here is my theme style

 <style name="AppTheme" parent="Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">

    <!-- Customize your theme here. -->


    <item name="colorAccent">@android:color/holo_blue_light</item>

    <item name="android:colorPrimary">@android:color/holo_blue_light</item>
    <item  name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/background_light</item>
    <item name="android:windowActionBar">true</item>

</style>

In AndroidManifest I have included this AppTheme. I have also checked if I have used multiple Launcher intent or not Please have a look at the Manifest

 <application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:icon="@mipmap/logo"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
    <activity
        android:name=".TerminalActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:screenOrientation="portrait"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.DEFAULT" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
        </application>

After failing to get any solution or understaning what I am doing wrong, I tried to follow the instructions from several Stack overflow answers.

Here are some of the random things I did:

Modified the default icon size in dimens.xml

 <dimen name="design_navigation_icon_size" tools:override="true">24dp</dimen>

All my menu icons are 24dp. I though may be that could be a problem as Android probably expects a 48dp icon for mdpi. So I checked by replacing few icon with even 48x48 icon size or even 96x96 size.

I tried to checnge the color to icons in runtime to see if the icons are redrawn.

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.menu_terminal, menu);

    for(int i = 0; i < menu.size(); i++){
        Drawable drawable = menu.getItem(i).getIcon();
        if(drawable != null) {
            drawable.mutate();
            drawable.setColorFilter(Color.BLUE, PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_ATOP);
        }
    }



    actionConnect = menu.findItem(R.id.action_connect);

    actionDisconnect = menu.findItem(R.id.action_disconnect);

    camPulseMenu= menu.findItem(R.id.action_pulse);
    menuActivityTracking= menu.findItem(R.id.action_activity);
    this.menu=menu;

    return true;
}

All works fine in my debug but none in release build.

I also tried changing release settings in gradle. Here is my full gradle

android {
compileSdkVersion 23
buildToolsVersion "23.0.3"

defaultConfig {
    applicationId "com.rupam.biosignal"
    minSdkVersion 21
    targetSdkVersion 23
    versionCode 5
    versionName "1.5"
    generatedDensities = []

}

aaptOptions {
    additionalParameters "--no-version-vectors"
}

buildTypes {
    release {
        minifyEnabled false
        shrinkResources false
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
    }
    debug {
        minifyEnabled false
        shrinkResources true
    }
}
}

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(include: ['*.jar'], dir: 'libs')
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:23.4.0'
    compile 'com.macroyau:blue2serial:0.1.5'
    compile 'com.github.PhilJay:MPAndroidChart:v3.0.1'
    compile 'com.microsoft.projectoxford:face:1.2.5'
    compile 'com.nabinbhandari.android.utils.permissions:android-permissions:1.0'

compile files('libs/dropbox-android-sdk-1.6.3.jar')

compile files('libs/json_simple-1.1.jar')
compile files('libs/org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3-1.0.2.jar')
}

repositories {
    maven {
        url "http://dl.bintray.com/macroyau/maven"
    }
}

My activity extends AppCompatActivity.

I know I am making some silly mistakes, but can't find it.

Can someone please help me understand what is wrong here? Why icons dont appeak in menus?

PS: I tested With Samsung Galaxy, Moto G, ViVO and about 7-8 such devices but without any luck.

Answer 1

You are Shrinking your resource in the release build.

please try to have the normal build type :

buildTypes {
    release {
        minifyEnabled false
        proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
    }
    debug {
        minifyEnabled false
    }
}

Answer 2

-keep class android.support.v7.** { *; }

add this in the proguard-rules.pro file