Where can I find the ReTrace mapping file after creating an Android aab file in Visual Studio?

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Where can I find the ReTrace mapping file after creating an Android aab file in Visual Studio?

Kim Strasser 2,366

I got these two warnings after uploading my aab file to Google Play Console Internal Testing:

Screenshot 2026-04-06 001354

I have uploaded a zip archive with the native debug symbols:

Screenshot 2026-04-06 002902

But I don´t know where I can find the ReTrace mapping file. Where can I find the ReTrace mapping file after creating an Android aab file in Visual Studio so that I can upload it to Google Play Console?

Screenshot 2026-04-06 002329

I don´t have a mapping.txt file in the following folder after creating my aab file:

Screenshot 2026-04-06 003523

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Answer 1

Nancy Vo (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 1,985 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Kim Strasser ,

Thanks for your question.

The ReTrace mapping file is usually generated in the publish subfolder after a full Release build:

Mapping file is usually generated in:

bin\Release\net10.0-android\publish\mapping.txt (right next to your signed .aab file)

Sometimes it lands in the root of the Release folder:

bin\Release\net10.0-android\mapping.txt

According to the official .NET for Android build properties documentation, the mapping file is produced automatically when using the R8 shrinker. However, code shrinking itself is turned off by default in most .NET MAUI projects.

Right-click your MAUI project → Properties.
Go to Android → Options tab.
For the Release configuration:

Turn on Code shrinking (or set it to R8).
Make sure Linking is set to SdkOnly or Full.

Save, then do a clean + rebuild or Publish again.
Then, check again to see if the mapping file exists.

I hope this addresses your question. If this response was helpful, please consider following the guidance to provide feedback.

Kim Strasser 2,366

I turned on the R8 code shrinker in Visual Studio and now I got the mapping.txt file in the folder "bin\Release\net10.0-android".

    <RuntimeIdentifiers>android-arm64</RuntimeIdentifiers>
    <!-- Linking (safe baseline) -->
    <AndroidLinkMode>SdkOnly</AndroidLinkMode>
    <DebugType>portable</DebugType>
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
  </PropertyGroup>
 <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
    <AndroidGenerateNativeDebugSymbols>true</AndroidGenerateNativeDebugSymbols>
    <AndroidStripNativeDebugSymbols>true</AndroidStripNativeDebugSymbols>
    <AndroidLinkTool>r8</AndroidLinkTool>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Debug'">
    <RuntimeIdentifiers>android-arm64;android-x64</RuntimeIdentifiers>
    <EmbedAssembliesIntoApk>true</EmbedAssembliesIntoApk>
  </PropertyGroup>

Screenshot 2026-04-06 111118

Nancy Vo (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 1,985 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-04-06T09:23:51.9966667+00:00

Thanks for your feedback.

Answer 2

In a .NET for Android / .NET MAUI app the ProGuard/R8 mapping file that Google Play calls the “ReTrace mapping file” is the mapping.txt file produced by R8.

When the project uses R8 (AndroidLinkTool=r8), the build automatically generates this file in the project’s output folder. The build property that controls this is AndroidProguardMappingFile, which by default produces:

$(OutputPath)mapping.txt

So after building the Release configuration that creates the .aab, look in the corresponding output directory (for example, bin/Release/<tfm>/ for the project) for mapping.txt. That file is what should be uploaded to the Google Play Console as the ReTrace mapping file.

If the file is not needed or should not be generated, the AndroidCreateProguardMappingFile property can be set to False, but for Play Console deobfuscation it should remain enabled so that mapping.txt is created.

References:

Build properties

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Where can I find the ReTrace mapping file after creating an Android aab file in Visual Studio?

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