Expo - standalone APK crashing when running on physical device; app working on expo-cli - apk

Question

First off, I'm new to react-native so please excuse my missing knowledge regarding troubleshooting.
I have built a basic app using Expo, which runs perfectly fine when I run expo start and scan the QR code to run it on my physical device.
I then ran expo build:android in my terminal and selected apk to create an apk file. It installs, but when I try to open the app on my phone, it crashes straight away. I'm not sure why this happens, or how to troubleshoot it.
Some steps I have taken:
Reinstalled expo-cli
Reinstalled react-native
Ran npm-update
Manually downgraded my sdkVersion to 37.0.0 in my app.json file (as suggested by online forums)
Here is my app.json file:
{
"expo": {
"name": "FactApp",
"slug": "FactApp",
"sdkVersion": "37.0.0",
"platforms": [
"ios",
"android",
"web"
],
"version": "1.0.0",
"orientation": "portrait",
"icon": "./assets/icon.png",
"splash": {
"image": "./assets/splash.png",
"resizeMode": "contain",
"backgroundColor": "#ffffff"
},
"android": {
"package": "com.kmdevops.factapp",
"versionCode": 2,
"config": {
"googleMobileAdsAppId": "ca-app-pub-7529073010403742/8555991419"
}
},
"updates": {
"fallbackToCacheTimeout": 0
},
"assetBundlePatterns": [
"**/*"
],
"ios": {
"supportsTablet": true,
"bundleIdentifier": "com.yourcompany.yourappname",
"buildNumber": "1.0.0"
},
"description": ""
}
}
And here is my package.json file:
{
"main": "node_modules/expo/AppEntry.js",
"scripts": {
"start": "expo start",
"android": "expo start --android",
"ios": "expo start --ios",
"web": "expo start --web",
"eject": "expo eject"
},
"dependencies": {
"#react-native-community/masked-view": "0.1.6",
"#react-navigation/native": "^5.5.1",
"expo": "^37.0.12",
"expo-ads-admob": "~8.1.0",
"expo-linear-gradient": "~8.1.0",
"react": "~16.9.0",
"react-dom": "~16.9.0",
"react-native": "https://github.com/expo/react-native/archive/sdk-37.0.1.tar.gz",
"react-native-gesture-handler": "~1.6.0",
"react-native-reanimated": "~1.7.0",
"react-native-safe-area-context": "0.7.3",
"react-native-screens": "~2.2.0",
"react-native-web": "~0.11.7",
"react-navigation": "^4.3.9",
"react-navigation-stack": "^2.7.0",
"react-navigator": "0.0.0-0"
},
"devDependencies": {
"babel-preset-expo": "~8.1.0",
"#babel/core": "^7.8.6"
},
"private": true
}
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

So I created a fresh new app with expo-cli and the resulting APK crashed so I figure it's an issue with expo. I used react-native cli to create an apk for this app and it works with no issues