How to debug analytics on a mobile phone

​@denise_arjunan1 Try using ‘Charles Proxy’ or ‘Fiddler’.

It depends on if you are talking about Mobile Websites or Mobile Apps.

Let’s start with Mobile Websites.

As ​@Krishna_Musku mentioned, proxy testing is really the only solution (unless your company has access to BrowserStack which allows you to connect to a remote physical mobile device, but you have access to a network panel experience).

I’ve used both Charles and Fiddler… but right now, my tool of choice is HTTP Toolkit

HTTP Toolkit is free, and connecting to Android is even easier, as there is a companion android app that allows you to connect the device easily with a QR Code, iOS still requires making sure both your computer and your phone are connected to the same wifi signal, getting the IP Address of your computer, and modifying the proxy settings (but I am getting ahead of myself)

For ANY of the proxy solutions, you will need to install CA Certificates on your phone. The process will be similar for all the tools (the port might vary), but HTTP Toolkit has this documentation for the process:

https://httptoolkit.com/docs/guides/ios/

Once you are connected and you can see your traffic coming through, you should be able to inspect your requests (if everything is properly set up). Again, this documentation is specific to HTTP Toolkit, but Charles or Fiddler will be similar with a different UI:

https://httptoolkit.com/docs/getting-started/inspecting/

Ok, now, let’s talk about Mobile Apps

Just like websites, you can use these proxy tools to see what is happening in your apps. This is helpful for diagnosing certain issues, or testing other Analytics (if you have to test more than just Adobe).

Of course, for Adobe, it’s recommended to use the AEP Assurance extension, since this will let you see your Post Processed data…. but if you have an issue, this backup will let you debug what is happening.

Now, with Android Apps, there is an extra level of security that can make the proxy not work immediately. This will be the case for most of the proxy tools.

You will need to get your developers to change your app config so that it will trust user installed CA Certificates. If your team has concerns about this, at least have them do this to your Dev/QA builds (if they won’t do it to your Prod… but they also have to take the risk of not being able to test release builds….)

https://httptoolkit.com/docs/guides/android/

In Summary:

You will have to choose the tool that works best for you (and that your company approves).

Here are some final thoughts on each tool:

• Charles - fairly decent tool, was the “go-to” for many years… 
  • It has a free version, but the last time I used the free edition it drive me up the wall! It has a start up delay, then will close or restart every 30 mins
  • I personally am not crazy on the UI (having to drill down the path levels to get to the parameters
• Fiddler - I used Fiddler for years (at least the old version)… it only worked on Windows.
  • There is a “Fiddler Everywhere” version, but I believe it’s paid
  • “Classic” is still free, but the last time I loaded my computer, I was unable to get it to work… even after installing all the certificates, and connecting to the correct IPs, etc
• HTTP Toolkit
  • This is my Fiddler replacement (when I was unable to get Fiddler working on my new computer, I found this so I didn’t have to go back to Charles - sorry Charles)
  • It’s free, the UI is nice, and the ability to connect to Android through a companion app is a time saver

Good Luck, and Happy Testing!

There are a lot of options for debugging mobile apps but they require a lot of configuration that you will most likely need help your dev team. It looks like other have outlined some options so I wont do that here. The easiest way that I know of though it is not the most efficient is finding your unique ID and create a filter for that, then see if your personal test data is coming in as expected. That is slow since it takes a little while for your data to process but it is usually within an hour.