🐞 Debugging & Logging in .NET MAUI

Debugging & Logging in .NET MAUI, with platform-specific tips plus how to extend it into cross-platform crash reporting so you don’t have to manually check logs on each device.

🐞 Debugging in MAUI

🔧 General Tools

• Visual Studio Debugger: Breakpoints, step-through, variable inspection.
• Live Visual Tree: Inspect UI hierarchy at runtime.
• Live Property Explorer: Adjust properties live to test changes.
• Hot Reload: Quickly test fixes without restarting the app.

📱 Platform-Specific Tips

🤖 Android

• Use Logcat (via Visual Studio or Android Studio) for system/app logs.
• Debug performance with Android Profiler (CPU, memory, network).
• Check AndroidManifest.xml for permissions issues.

🍎 iOS

• Use Xcode Console for runtime logs.
• Inspect crash logs in Xcode Organizer.
• Verify entitlements in Entitlements.plist.

🪟 Windows

• Use Event Viewer for system logs.
• Debug UI rendering with XAML Diagnostics.
• Test scaling/DPI issues across displays.

💻 macOS

• Use Console.app for system logs.
• Debug sandbox permissions (file/network access).
• Check Info.plist for required capabilities.

📝 Logging in MAUI

⚙️ Built-in Logging

MAUI uses Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.

builder.Logging.AddDebug();   // Debug Output window
builder.Logging.AddConsole(); // Console output

Usage:

private readonly ILogger<MyPage> _logger;

public MyPage(ILogger<MyPage> logger)
{
    _logger = logger;
    _logger.LogInformation("Page initialized");
}

public void DoWork()
{
    try
    {
        // work
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        _logger.LogError(ex, "Something went wrong");
    }
}

Logs flow to:

• Android → Logcat
• iOS/macOS → Console.app
• Windows → Debug Output / Event Viewer

📊 Cross-Platform Crash Reporting

Manual log inspection is fine for development, but in production you’ll want automatic crash/error reporting. Two common approaches:

1️⃣ App Center (Microsoft)

• Provides crash reporting, analytics, and push notifications.
• Works across Android, iOS, Windows, macOS.

Setup:

• Add App Center SDK NuGet packages (Microsoft.AppCenter, Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes).
• Initialize in MauiProgram.cs:

AppCenter.Start("android={YourKey};ios={YourKey};windowsdesktop={YourKey}",
    typeof(Crashes));

Crashes are automatically collected and viewable in the App Center portal.

2️⃣ Serilog + Sink Providers

• Structured logging with sinks for files, cloud services, or monitoring tools.
• Example: log to a file locally and send to Seq or Azure Application Insights.

builder.Logging.AddSerilog(new LoggerConfiguration()
    .WriteTo.File("logs.txt")
    .WriteTo.ApplicationInsights("InstrumentationKey", TelemetryConverter.Traces)
    .CreateLogger());

🚀 Best Practices

• Use structured logging (levels: Info, Warning, Error).
• Keep platform-specific logs minimal; rely on shared logging APIs.
• For production, integrate App Center or Serilog for centralized crash/error tracking.
• Always test logging on each platform to ensure messages appear where expected.

---

➕ Additional Professional Tips

• 🧠 Use correlation IDs to trace API calls across logs
• 📊 Track slow operations using performance timers
• ⚡ Combine Polly retry policies with logging hooks
• 🧪 Simulate crashes to validate reporting pipelines
• 🔐 Mask sensitive data in logs for security compliance

🏆 Enterprise-Grade Enhancements

• Azure Application Insights telemetry integration
• Centralized cloud logging dashboards
• Automated alerting on crash thresholds
• Advanced log correlation across microservices
• Offline crash persistence & delayed upload

🐞 Debugging & Logging Recap

• Visual Studio Debugger: Breakpoints, step-through, variable inspection.
• Live Visual Tree & Property Explorer: Inspect and tweak UI at runtime.

📱 Platform-specific tools:

• Android → Logcat, Profiler.
• iOS/macOS → Xcode Console, Console.app..
• Windows → Event Viewer, XAML Diagnostics.

📝 Logging:

• Built-in Microsoft.Extensions.Logging with AddDebug() and AddConsole().
• Logs flow to platform-specific consoles (Logcat, Console.app, Debug Output).

---

📊 Cross-Platform Crash Reporting Options

1️⃣ App Center (Microsoft)

Setup: Add NuGet packages (Microsoft.AppCenter, Microsoft.AppCenter.Crashes).

Initialize in MauiProgram.cs:

AppCenter.Start("android={YourKey};ios={YourKey};windowsdesktop={YourKey}",
    typeof(Crashes));

✨ Features:

• Automatic crash collection.
• Analytics (usage, sessions, events).
• Push notifications.

👍 Pros:

• Easy setup, unified dashboard, Microsoft ecosystem.

⚠️ Cons:

• Requires App Center account, limited customization.

---

2️⃣ Serilog + Sinks

Setup: Add Serilog NuGet package and configure sinks (file, Seq, Application Insights, etc.).

Initialize in MauiProgram.cs:

builder.Logging.AddSerilog(new LoggerConfiguration()
    .WriteTo.File("logs.txt")
    .WriteTo.ApplicationInsights("InstrumentationKey", TelemetryConverter.Traces)
    .CreateLogger());

✨ Features:

• Structured logging (JSON).
• Flexible sinks (local + cloud).
• Rich filtering and formatting.

👍 Pros:

• Highly customizable, integrates with enterprise monitoring.

⚠️ Cons:

• More setup, requires managing sinks.

---

⚖️ Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	App Center	Serilog + Sinks
Setup	Simple, few lines of code	More complex, requires sink config
Crash Reporting	Automatic	Manual (log exceptions explicitly)
Analytics	Built-in (sessions, events)	Depends on sink (e.g., Application Insights)
Customization	Limited	Very flexible
Best For	Quick setup, mobile apps	Enterprise apps needing structured logs

---

🚀 Best Practice

• Use App Center for quick, unified crash reporting in mobile apps.
• Use Serilog if you need structured logs, enterprise monitoring, or integration with tools like Seq or Azure Application Insights.
• Some teams even combine both: App Center for crash analytics + Serilog for structured logs.

---

➕ Additional Practical Enhancements

• 🧠 Add correlation IDs to trace requests across services.
• ⏱ Track execution time using performance logging.
• 🔐 Mask sensitive data (tokens, credentials) in logs.
• 📊 Build real-time dashboards for crashes and errors.
• ⚡ Automate alerts for production crashes.

🏆 Production-Grade Logging Architecture

• Centralized logging pipeline
• Distributed tracing support
• Cloud-based analytics dashboards
• Automated health monitoring
• Long-term log retention policies