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Performance FAQ

This page collects some frequently asked questions about evaluating and debugging Flutter's performance.

  • How do I tell which widgets in my Flutter app are rebuilt in each frame?
    • Set debugProfileBuildsEnabled true in widgets/debug.dart.
    • Alternatively, change the performRebuild function in widgets/framework.dart to ignore debugProfileBuildsEnabled and always call Timeline.startSync(...)/finish.
    • If you use IntelliJ, a GUI view of this data is available. Select Track widget rebuilds, and your IDE displays which the widgets rebuild.
  • How to solve my app's poor animations caused by an expensive Dart async function call that is blocking the UI thread?
  • How can I take a screenshot of an app that is running and export it as a SKP file?
    • Run flutter screenshot --type=skia --observatory-uri=...
    • Note a known issue viewing screenshots:
    • To analyze and visualize the SKP file, check out the Skia WASM debugger.
  • How do I retrieve the shader persistent cache from a device?

    • On Android, you can do the following:
      adb shell
      run-as <com.your_app_package_name>
      cp <your_folder> <some_public_folder, e.g., /sdcard> -r
      adb pull <some_public_folder/your_folder>
  • How do I perform a trace in Fuchsia?