Expo Go stops receiving updates after building app with Metro Bundler running

[richardwu]

Repro steps:

1. Run metro bundler via expo start
2. Build app (either via expo build:android or expo build:ios)
3. Try to update app via Expo Go

Step 3 fails with the error message:

Could not connect to development server:

Ensure the following:
- Node server is running and available on the same network

URL: http://10.0.0.41:80

For some reason it’s trying to ping port 80 instead of 19000/19001?

The only fix that works for me is to:

1. Restart metro bundler
2. Restart Expo Go on device

Output from expo diagnostics:

Expo CLI 3.28.2 environment info:
    System:
      OS: Linux 4.19 Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (Focal Fossa)
      Shell: 5.8 - /bin/zsh
    Binaries:
      Node: 15.0.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/bin/node
      Yarn: 1.22.5 - /usr/bin/yarn
      npm: 7.0.3 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/bin/npm
    npmPackages:
      @expo/webpack-config: ~0.12.45 => 0.12.53
      expo: ^40.0.0 => 40.0.0
      react: 16.13.1 => 16.13.1
      react-dom: 16.13.1 => 16.13.1
      react-native: https://github.com/expo/react-native/archive/sdk-40.0.1.tar.gz => 0.63.2
      react-native-web: ~0.13.12 => 0.13.18
    npmGlobalPackages:
      expo-cli: 3.28.2
    Expo Workflow: managed

[adamjnav]

Hey @richardwu, this is expected behavior. After building your app via expo build the binary will be getting your JS bundle from your publication endpoint (https://docs.expo.io/workflow/publishing/#how-to-publish), not the local server that is spun up when running expo start. To have your changes take affect in your built binaries, you’ll need to run expo publish.

Cheers,
Adam

[richardwu]

Thanks for the response @adamjnav.

If I understand correctly, this is the case when loading published projects.

Is this the expected behavior for projects under the “Recently in Development” section (w/ my localhost’s IP address as the Metro bundler URL) as well?