Appium Test Debug

Systematic troubleshooting for failing or flaky Appium tests in the RIPDPI suite.

Triage Checklist

Work through in order -- stop at the first failure:

1. Appium server running? -- curl -s http://127.0.0.1:4723/status | jq .value.ready
2. Device/emulator connected? -- adb devices -l (should show at least one device)
3. Debug APK installed? -- adb shell pm list packages | grep ripdpi
4. Route exists in Kotlin? -- Search for the start_route value in Route.kt sealed class
5. testTag present in the contract? -- check app/src/main/kotlin/com/poyka/ripdpi/ui/testing/RipDpiTestTags.kt and docs/automation/selector-contract.md, then confirm the tag is actually attached in Compose source
6. Correct preset combination? -- See preset tables in appium-automation-contract skill

Failure Patterns

Symptom	Cause	Fix
NoSuchElementException	Element not on screen, wrong tag, or needs scroll	Verify tag matches Modifier.testTag() in Compose source. Use scroll_to() if below viewport.
TimeoutException from wait_for	Screen didn't load or element not rendered	Check automation contract params -- wrong start_route or data_preset. Increase timeout for slow emulators.
StaleElementReferenceException	Compose recomposition invalidated element reference	Re-find the element after any action that triggers recomposition. Don't store element references across interactions.
Session creation fails	Appium server down, UiAutomator2 driver missing, or no device	Run triage checklist steps 1-3. Install driver: appium driver install uiautomator2.
Passes locally, fails in CI	Animation timing, slower emulator, permission state	Verify disable_motion=True in marker. Check CI emulator specs. Increase timeout if needed.
Wrong screen appears	Incorrect start_route or route not handled in contract	Verify route exists in Kotlin Route class. Check data_preset matches screen requirements.
Element found but tap has no effect	Element overlapped by another, or animation in progress	Wait for animations to settle. Check if a dialog/overlay is blocking. Use wait_for before tap.

Flakiness Diagnosis

Step-by-step:

1. Reproduce -- Run the single test 5 times:

   for i in {1..5}; do pytest tests/test_XX.py::test_name -v; done
   

2. Classify -- Is the failure:
   • Timing (passes with longer timeout)? Increase specific timeout, not global.
   • State (depends on previous test)? Verify reset_state=True in marker.
   • Animation (element moves during interaction)? Verify disable_motion=True.
   • Race condition (element appears then disappears)? Check if Compose recomposes the element.
3. Check screenshot -- Failure screenshots in appium/screenshots/{test_name}.png show what was actually displayed.
4. Check element tree -- Add print(driver.page_source) temporarily to dump the XML tree and search for the expected resource-id.
5. Check Appium logs -- Server logs show the exact command sent and UiAutomator2's response.

Debugging Locators

Verify a tag exists on screen

# In test or debug session:
source = driver.page_source
assert "com.poyka.ripdpi:id/{tag}" in source, f"Tag '{tag}' not in element tree"

Dump element tree via ADB

adb shell uiautomator dump /sdcard/ui.xml
adb pull /sdcard/ui.xml
rg "resource-id" ui.xml  # Search for specific IDs

Match against Compose source

# Find which composable sets the testTag
rg '{tag}|RipDpiTestTags\\.' app/src/main/kotlin/

If the tag is not found, the composable is missing Modifier.testTag("{tag}") -- this is the root cause and must be fixed in the Kotlin source, not the test.

Screenshot Analysis

The conftest.py fixture saves screenshots on failure:

• Location: appium/screenshots/{test_name}.png
• Created automatically by launch_app fixture when rep_call.failed is True
• Check the screenshot to verify: correct screen displayed, element visibility, dialog/overlay blocking

Wait Strategy Fixes

Problem	Solution
Element appears after animation	Use wait_for(tag, timeout=10) not find(tag)
Element appears after network call	Increase to wait_for(tag, timeout=15)
Element below viewport	Use scroll_to(tag) before interacting
Element disappears after action	Use is_visible(tag, timeout=3) with assert not
Screen takes long to load	Only increase timeout in conftest.py launch wait (15s), not in individual tests
Element exists in DOM but not rendered	Use is_visible() which checks presence, not just DOM

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Adding time.sleep() to fix timing	Use wait_for() or is_visible() with appropriate timeout
Increasing all timeouts globally	Identify the specific slow element and adjust only that call
Ignoring reset_state=True	Stale state from previous test causes cascading failures
Catching exceptions to hide failures	Let exceptions propagate; fix the root cause
Re-running flaky test without diagnosis	Classify the failure type first (timing/state/animation)

See Also

• .github/skills/appium-automation-contract/SKILL.md -- Preset values and launch flow
• .github/skills/appium-test-authoring/SKILL.md -- Conventions for writing tests and page objects
• .github/skills/android-device-debug/SKILL.md -- ADB commands, logcat, emulator management