How can I fix an Xcode build that works perfectly on simulator/device, but fails on archive?

Question

Weird-Ass Linking-Related Bug

When I try to make an archive build in Xcode 10.3

Environment info

RN: 0.59.3
Xcode: 10.3
React Native Gesture Handler (RNGH): 1.4.1
React-Navigation: 3.11.0

React Native info output:

...
/Users/me/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/MyApp-somehash/Build/Intermediates.noindex/ArchiveIntermediates/appId/BuildProductsPath/Release-iphoneos/libRNGestureHandler.a -lPods-appId -lRNFirebase -lAppCenterReactNative -lAppCenterReactNativeAnalytics -lAppCenterReactNativeCrashes -Xlinker -dependency_info -Xlinker
...
clang: error: no such file or directory: '/Users/me/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/MyApp-somehash/Build/Intermediates.noindex/ArchiveIntermediates/appId/BuildProductsPath/Release-iphoneos/libRNGestureHandler.a'
Command Ld failed with a nonzero exit code

Steps To Reproduce

After installing (if I remember correctly) Microsoft's App Center tools (although it could have been React Navigation), I noticed my archive builds started failing with the uncategorized error above. The strange thing is that It seems to work fine when I run the build in a simulator or on my iPhone.

What I've tried so far:

Deleting and re-adding the RNGH library, and then manually adding the link to the build phase. This attempt had no change in the error. Re: https://github.com/kmagiera/react-native-gesture-handler/issues/735
Removing the link to RNGH altogether. This attempt forced a new error because of the libraries that are dependent on this. Re: https://github.com/kmagiera/react-native-gesture-handler/issues/614
Tried some of the methods here. Build fails with "Command failed with a nonzero exit code"
Tried changing the version of the app to 9.0 to match the version of RNGH. Results didn't change. https://github.com/react-native-community/react-native-push-notification-ios/issues/17
Tried using Xcode's legacy builder
Purging all React Native cache
Removing and re-installing node_modules
Removing and reinstalling pods
Cleaning the build folder
Restarting Xcode
Restarting my laptop

Full environment info from package.json:

"dependencies": {
    "@react-native-community/blur": "^3.3.1",
    "appcenter": "2.0.0",
    "appcenter-analytics": "2.0.0",
    "appcenter-crashes": "2.0.0",
    "expo-keep-awake": "^5.0.1",
    "expo-localization": "^5.0.0",
    "i18n-js": "^3.2.2",
    "moment": "^2.24.0",
    "react": "16.8.3",
    "react-native": "0.59.3",
    "react-native-code-push": "^5.6.0",
    "react-native-config": "^0.11.7",
    "react-native-elements": "^1.1.0",
    "react-native-firebase": "^5.4.3",
    "react-native-gesture-handler": "^1.3.0",
    "react-native-maps": "^0.24.2",
    "react-native-paper": "^2.16.0",
    "react-native-snap-carousel": "^3.8.0",
    "react-native-unimodules": "^0.4.0",
    "react-native-vector-icons": "^6.5.0",
    "react-navigation": "^3.11.0",
    "react-redux": "^7.0.3",
    "redux": "^4.0.1",
    "redux-persist": "^5.10.0",
    "redux-starter-kit": "^0.5.1",
    "redux-thunk": "^2.3.0"
}

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 03 '19 at 08:02

1

There is issue with xcode 10.2 and xcode 10.3 while archiving,we faced the same issue Xcode issue

I raised a ticket to Apple support but didn't get any response. Try to archive the same with xcode 10.1.It will solve your problem.

answered Sep 03 '19 at 08:02

Pawan Kumar

508
3
19

Thanks for the tip! I definitely didn't think of trying to downgrade Xcode. Will try to give that a go and see what comes up. – Ryan Unger Sep 03 '19 at 13:01
@RyanUnger sure . – Pawan Kumar Sep 03 '19 at 13:31

score -1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 06 '19 at 16:02

We still have no idea about the exact root cause, but our best guess is that this issue might be related to us using RN 0.59.3, and some of our packages preparing themselves for RN 0.60.

Either way, we did get the build to work!

The fix for us was starting a brand new project using RN 0.60 and then installing each required package one-by-one. Although this approach was time-consuming, it seemed to work well, as we've been able to recreate the app and build successfully.

p.s. We added App Center once we got react-native-gesture-handler working with both react-native-maps and react-navigation. This way it became much easier to watch our builds in CI and make sure everything remained stable.