Xamarin.Forms Firebase Ads Crashing on Actual devices

Question

I've added Xamarin.Firebase.Ads to my Xamarin.Forms Android project and set it up with the test IDs - Test Banner is showing correctly on emulator. My private IDs are still not approved etc. When I deploy the app to any Android device, app crashes at the start up. App will crash even when I remove all code and leave only the Xamarin.Firebase.Ads in the References. Same goes for Xamarin.Firebase.Ads.Lite - all virtual devices showed no problems but app still crashes on actual device.

1. MainActivity.cs - before Init()

Android.Gms.Ads.MobileAds.Initialize(ApplicationContext,
        "ca-app-pub-xxxx/xxxx");

2. Android MAnifest.xml

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="21" android:targetSdkVersion="28" />
<application android:label="xxx xxx" android:theme="@style/MainTheme" android:icon="@drawable/MainIcon">
    <provider android:name="android.support.v4.content.FileProvider" android:authorities="${applicationId}.provider" android:exported="false" android:grantUriPermissions="true">
        <meta-data android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS" android:resource="@xml/provider_paths" />
    </provider>
    <meta-data  android:name="com.google.android.gms.ads.APPLICATION_ID" 
                android:value="ca-app-pub-xxxx~xxxx"/>
</application>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

3. I have a splash screen, which works fine without the Ads (it shows up first, then the app crashes), MainActivity is pointing to custom theme Theme = "@style/MyTheme.Splash" then MainActivity loads actual theme in OnCreate

   SetTheme(Resource.Style.MainTheme);

4. Main Page has:

public class AdMobView : View { }
<local:AdMobView  x:Name="ADView" WidthRequest="320" HeightRequest="50" />

5. AdMobRender:

 public class AdMobViewRenderer : ViewRenderer<AdMobView, AdView>
    {
        public AdMobViewRenderer(Context context) : base(context) { }

        private AdView CreateAdView()
        {
            var adView = new AdView(Context)
            {
                AdSize = AdSize.Banner,
                AdUnitId = "ca-app-pub-xxxx/xxxx",
                LayoutParameters = new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MatchParent,LayoutParams.MatchParent)
            };

            adView.LoadAd(new AdRequest.Builder().Build());

            return adView;
        }

        protected override void OnElementChanged(ElementChangedEventArgs<AdMobView> e)
        {
            base.OnElementChanged(e);

            if (e.NewElement != null && Control == null)
            {
                SetNativeControl(CreateAdView());
            }
        }
    }

I'm using:

VS19 Xamarin.Forms 4.8.0.1269 
Xamarin.Essentials 1.5.3.2 
Xamarin.Firebase.Lite 71.1601.4 
Target Android Ver: 9.0 - 28 API 
Min Version: 21 API

Thanks.

EDIT: Clean solution with only AddMod does not crash on actual devices. I can run my app in Debug Mode via VS19 on actual device without crashing - Released/Signed app still crashes on actual device.

Answer 1

Oh dear, I had code shrinking on and Linking wasn't set up in Android Options.

Up and running smoothly now.

Thank you.