# Debugger only ever works once on iOS/Android

**URL:** <https://forum.defold.com/t/debugger-only-ever-works-once-on-ios-android/81742>\
**Category:** Bugs\
**Created:** [October 10, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/debugger-only-ever-works-once-on-ios-android/81742 "2025-10-10T15:10:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HHH](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/hhh/32/34230_2.png) [@HHH](https://forum.defold.com/u/HHH)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/debugger-only-ever-works-once-on-ios-android/81742/1 "2025-10-10T15:10:13Z")

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We find that the debugger (whether you’re using PC or Mac) only works once when you’re running on iOS or Android. After that, you need to restart defold in order to get the debugger to work.

Does anyone else have this issue? It’s always been the case for us, regardless of Defold version. We’ve kind of ignored it, but I’m currently doing a lot of device-specific stuff than needs to run on actual hardware to develop, so it would be nice to find a solution.

Thanks

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**Author:** ![britzl](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/britzl/32/23_2.png) [@britzl](https://forum.defold.com/u/britzl)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/debugger-only-ever-works-once-on-ios-android/81742/2 "2025-10-12T21:02:29Z")

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> [@HHH](#):
>
> Does anyone else have this issue? It’s always been the case for us, regardless of Defold version. We’ve kind of ignored it, but I’m currently doing a lot of device-specific stuff than needs to run on actual hardware to develop, so it would be nice to find a solution.

It was a while since I tested. It could be that we broke something recently. Could you please create an issue on GitHub?

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**Author:** ![HHH](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/hhh/32/34230_2.png) [@HHH](https://forum.defold.com/u/HHH)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/debugger-only-ever-works-once-on-ios-android/81742/3 "2025-10-13T13:46:04Z")

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Done. Strangely, it started working fine this morning, and then completely stopped working and I can’t even make the debugger work once now on device (Defold 1.9.8). I get this error when I try to start the debugger (iOS) / Mac):

clojure.lang.ExceptionInfo: handler ‘:start-debugger’ in context ‘:global’ failed at ‘:run’ with message ‘Read timed out’  
java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![britzl](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/britzl/32/23_2.png) [@britzl](https://forum.defold.com/u/britzl)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 10:14pm UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/debugger-only-ever-works-once-on-ios-android/81742/4 "2025-10-13T22:14:16Z")

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> [@HHH](#):
>
> clojure.lang.ExceptionInfo: handler ‘:start-debugger’ in context ‘:global’ failed at ‘:run’ with message ‘Read timed out’  
> java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Read timed out

Sounds like there’s lingering connections somewhere?

> [@HHH](#):
>
> I can’t even make the debugger work once now on device (Defold 1.9.8)

Huh! I do recall that we had a discussion about versions, but please remind me again, why are you on 1.9.8 still? Remember that we only support 6 months of versions, and if you have native extensions in your project you will very soon (now even) have problems building your project.

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**Author:** ![HHH](https://forum-defold.b-cdn.net/user_avatar/forum.defold.com/hhh/32/34230_2.png) [@HHH](https://forum.defold.com/u/HHH)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2025, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.defold.com/t/debugger-only-ever-works-once-on-ios-android/81742/5 "2025-10-14T11:28:20Z")

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We’re actually working on updating to latest defold this week, but the problem still seems to happen on the latest.