Capacitor App Upgrade v4 to v5

Move a Capacitor 4 app to Capacitor 5. Source of truth: https://capacitorjs.com/docs/updating/5-0

When to Use

• @capacitor/core in the snapshot below is 4.x and the user wants 5.x.
• Android build fails after bumping to Capacitor 5 with Namespace not specified, a Java 11 vs 17 mismatch, or AGP 8 errors.
• The user asks for the exact 4 -> 5 checklist for iOS, Android, or official plugins.

Do not use:

• App on 5.x or later -> capacitor-app-upgrade-v5-to-v6 (then v6-to-v7, v7-to-v8). Multi-hop planning -> capacitor-app-upgrades.
• Upgrading a plugin library -> capacitor-plugin-upgrade-v4-to-v5.
• App on 3.x -> upgrade to 4 first (npx cap migrate in 5.x refuses projects below 4).

Live Project Snapshot

Current Capacitor packages from package.json: !node -e "const fs=require('fs');if(!fs.existsSync('package.json'))process.exit(0);const pkg=JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('package.json','utf8'));const out=[];for(const section of ['dependencies','devDependencies']){for(const [name,version] of Object.entries(pkg[section]||{})){if(name.startsWith('@capacitor/'))out.push(section+'.'+name+'='+version)}}console.log(out.sort().join('\n'))"

References

Only load a reference when its topic is in play.

Preflight

Check and report before touching files. Ask the user to upgrade tooling if any minimum is missing.

node -v
xcodebuild -version
java -version
git status --short   # start from a clean tree so the migration diff is reviewable

Procedure

1. Confirm @capacitor/core is 4.x from the snapshot. If below 4, stop and route to a 3 -> 4 upgrade first.

2. Run the automated migration:

   npm i -D @capacitor/cli@latest-5
   npx cap migrate

   It bumps @capacitor/* packages, updates variables.gradle, AGP, the Gradle wrapper, moves package to namespace, trims the iOS app icon set, and runs cap sync. Read the output: every step it could not complete is printed and must be done by hand.

3. Review git diff. Then finish anything the CLI skipped:
   • iOS: in ios/.gitignore replace App/Podfile.lock with App/output (commit Podfile.lock from now on). Optionally reduce AppIcon.appiconset to a single 1024x1024 icon.
   • Android: apply the variable table and diffs in references/android.md (AGP 8.0.0, Gradle 8.0.2, google-services 4.3.15, namespace, Jetifier, Kotlin 1.8.20).
   • Config: if server.androidScheme is not set, add androidScheme: "http" to capacitor.config.*. Capacitor 6 flips the default to https, which changes the WebView origin and wipes localStorage, IndexedDB and cookies. Pinning now prevents data loss later. Ask the user before choosing https instead.
4. Update every official plugin to ^5.0.0 and community plugins to their Capacitor 5 release. Apply code changes from references/plugins.md.
5. In Android Studio, run Tools -> AGP Upgrade Assistant if the Gradle files still show AGP 7 leftovers.
6. Run verification below.

Traps

• Removing android.enableJetifier=true breaks builds if any dependency still uses the old android.support.* libraries. Grep node_modules and native deps first; keep Jetifier if unsure.
• namespace must equal the old manifest package value, not the applicationId if they differ.
• Device plugin: getId() now returns { identifier }; uuid is gone. On iOS 16+, DeviceInfo.name returns a generic name without the user-assigned-device-name entitlement.
• Android 13 (targetSdk 33): Push and Local Notifications need checkPermissions() / requestPermissions() at runtime or nothing is shown.

Verification

grep -rn "package=" android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml          # expect no package attribute
grep -n "namespace" android/app/build.gradle                          # expect namespace "<id>"
grep -n "gradle:8.0.0\|google-services" android/build.gradle
grep -n "distributionUrl" android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties  # gradle-8.0.2
grep -n "SdkVersion" android/variables.gradle                         # 22 / 33 / 33
grep -rn "androidScheme" capacitor.config.*                           # explicit value present
grep -rn "\.uuid\b" src/                                              # no Device uuid leftovers
npx cap sync
cd android && ./gradlew assembleDebug

Then build iOS in Xcode 14.1+ (or npx cap run ios) and launch both platforms. Confirm stored data (login, localStorage) survived the upgrade.

Error Handling