Can I step back to previous breakpoint while debugging in Android Studio? (Drop the frames)

The answer you are referring to regarding Eclipse is still valid for Android Studio:

You cannot step back to previous breakpoint in Android Studio because DalvikVM and Android Runtime (ART) do not support it.

You can enable the "Drop Frame" button if you debug JUnit tests as they run on a standard virtual machine (although I'm guessing this is not what you are after).

It is probably the only reason why the button exists.

Google's User Guide ignores it completely.


I'm fairly new to Android Studio, so I'm not entirely sure if this is what you are looking for, but have you tried playing around with the Frames window?

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It allows you to backtrack the app's process, even reaching old breakpoints.


You cannot step backwards to a previous breakpoint that you have already chosen to continue past. You would have to create a saved state of your program at every break point to be able to do this, which would consume more memory than is worth designing the debugger with. You could although emulate this sort of functionality by forking your program everywhere you want to put a breakpoint.

-edit: This would be more feasible in eclipse than in android studio, as you would have to start another virtual device for android. say goodbye to your memory :p