Flutter ios appium wont launch app to run tests on browserstack

Question

browserstack has told me that i need to build my ios app in --profile mode, which is also true of your documentation

the problem is that even if i build in --profile mode, they only way i can archive a.ipa is to choose the Release scheme, choosing any other scheme causes the archive to fail.

running this command to build in profile mode makes the build succeed

[08:09:30]: $ flutter build ios --profile --build-number\=776 --build-name\=5.0.776 --no-codesign --flavor Profile -t lib/test_main.dart

then i archive the.ipa using the xcode Release scheme, the archive succeeds.

I upload to browserstack app live

then i run my appium tests but i get this error

[0-0] 2022-02-22T13:17:27.447Z INFO webdriver: Retrying 3/3
[0-0] 2022-02-22T13:17:27.447Z INFO webdriver: [POST] https://hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub/session
[0-0] 2022-02-22T13:17:27.448Z INFO webdriver: DATA {
[0-0]   capabilities: {
[0-0]     alwaysMatch: {
[0-0]       app: 'REDACTED',
[0-0]       device: 'iPhone 12',
[0-0]       os_version: '14.0',
[0-0]       project: 'Baird Mobile',
[0-0]       build: 'browserstack-build-ios',
[0-0]       name: 'Tests',
[0-0]       automationName: 'Flutter',
[0-0]       acceptSslCerts: 'true'
[0-0]     },
[0-0]     firstMatch: [ {} ]
[0-0]   },
[0-0]   desiredCapabilities: {
[0-0]     app: 'REDACTED',
[0-0]     device: 'iPhone 12',
[0-0]     os_version: '14.0',
[0-0]     project: 'Baird Mobile',
[0-0]     build: 'browserstack-build-ios',
[0-0]     name: 'Tests',
[0-0]     automationName: 'Flutter',
[0-0]     acceptSslCerts: 'true'
[0-0]   }
[0-0] }
[0-0] 2022-02-22T13:18:35.834Z ERROR webdriver: Request failed with status 200 due to WebDriver Error: Could not start Mobile Browser. Error occured while starting the session. To verify if all the pre-requisites for running Appium Flutter Driver tests have been met, refer to - https://www.browserstack.com/docs/app-automate/appium/test-hybrid-apps/test-flutter-apps
[0-0]  Reason: 
[0-0] An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: Failed to connect 3 times. Aborting.
[0-0] 2022-02-22T13:18:35.834Z ERROR webdriver: WebDriver Error: Could not start Mobile Browser. Error occured while starting the session. To verify if all the pre-requisites for running Appium Flutter Driver tests have been met, refer to - https://www.browserstack.com/docs/app-automate/appium/test-hybrid-apps/test-flutter-apps
[0-0]  Reason: 
[0-0] An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: Failed to connect 3 times. Aborting.
[0-0]     at getErrorFromResponseBody (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriver/build/utils.js:197:12)
[0-0]     at NodeJSRequest._request (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriver/build/request/index.js:158:60)
[0-0]     at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:95:5)
[0-0]     at async startWebDriverSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriver/build/utils.js:67:20)
[0-0]     at async Function.newSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriver/build/index.js:58:45)
[0-0]     at async remote (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriverio/build/index.js:73:22)
[0-0]     at async Runner._startSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/@wdio/runner/build/index.js:223:56)
[0-0]     at async Runner._initSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/@wdio/runner/build/index.js:176:25)
[0-0]     at async Runner.run (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/@wdio/runner/build/index.js:88:19)
[0-0] 2022-02-22T13:18:35.835Z ERROR @wdio/runner: Error: Failed to create session.
[0-0] Could not start Mobile Browser. Error occured while starting the session. To verify if all the pre-requisites for running Appium Flutter Driver tests have been met, refer to - https://www.browserstack.com/docs/app-automate/appium/test-hybrid-apps/test-flutter-apps
[0-0]  Reason: 
[0-0] An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command. Original error: Failed to connect 3 times. Aborting.
[0-0]     at startWebDriverSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriver/build/utils.js:72:15)
[0-0]     at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:95:5)
[0-0]     at async Function.newSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriver/build/index.js:58:45)
[0-0]     at async remote (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/webdriverio/build/index.js:73:22)
[0-0]     at async Runner._startSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/@wdio/runner/build/index.js:223:56)
[0-0]     at async Runner._initSession (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/@wdio/runner/build/index.js:176:25)
[0-0]     at async Runner.run (/Users/dhannah/Development/BolUiTestFramework/node_modules/@wdio/runner/build/index.js:88:19)
[0-0] FAILED in joshuarufer_jXfqM5/BairdMobile - /src/specs/login_tests.js
2022-02-22T13:18:35.948Z INFO @wdio/cli:launcher: Run onComplete hook

Spec Files:      0 passed, 1 failed, 1 total (100% completed) in 00:03:58 

2022-02-22T13:18:35.950Z INFO @wdio/local-runner: Shutting down spawned worker
2022-02-22T13:18:36.202Z INFO @wdio/local-runner: Waiting for 0 to shut down gracefully
2022-02-22T13:18:36.203Z INFO @wdio/local-runner: shutting down

Answer 1

From your post, I understand that you are not able to generate.ipa in debug mode and rather are using release mode itself.

Could you please try checking the below StackOverflow post, it talks about how you can export the iOS app in debug mode: How to get.apk and.ipa file from flutter?