Resolve network logs generation or insecure certificate error issues

Learn about possible solutions to resolve network logs generation issues or insecure certificate error issues on BrowserStack App Live.

Issue

When you run a test using BrowserStack App Live, a Failed to enable network tracking error might appear on the App Live dashboard.

Cause

BrowserStack uses mitmproxy to capture network logs. This requires the mitmproxy CA certificate to be installed on all BrowserStack remote devices. As per Android’s official docs, apps do not trust user or admin-added CAs by default. As a result, certificates issued by applications like mitmproxy are no longer accepted and these proxies are not able to capture the network traffic to produce network logs or bypass invalid certificate errors when using a self-signed certificate. This behavior is observed on the following list of devices in the BrowserStack cloud:

Resolution

To successfully generate network logs or avoid invalid certificate errors on the devices mentioned above, your app needs to be configured to trust user-added CAs through the Network Security Configuration feature.
Please complete these 2 steps so that your app trusts user added CAs:

• Step 1: The Network Security Configuration feature uses an XML file where you specify the settings for your app. Create this file in your project directory if it is already not present, and add the following code to it:

<network-security-config>  
      <base-config>  
            <trust-anchors>  
                <!-- Trust preinstalled CAs -->  
                <certificates src="system" />  
                <!-- Additionally trust user added CAs -->  
                <certificates src="user" />  
           </trust-anchors>  
      </base-config>  
 </network-security-config>

• Step 2: Include the ‘android:networkSecurityConfig’ entry in the manifest of your app and set it to the path of this file. The following code excerpt from a manifest demonstrates how to create this entry:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest ... >
    <application android:networkSecurityConfig="@xml/network_security_config"
                    ... >
        ...
    </application>
</manifest>

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