adb - Uiautomatorviewer Error while obtaining UI hierarchy XML file: com.android.ddmlib.SyncException: Remote object doesn't exist

Question

i can launch Uiautomatorviewer sucessfully, inspect any page/app at personal profile.

Once phone at work profile/launching any app installed under work profile then Uiautomatorviewer throws error:

Error while obtaining UI hierarchy XML file: com.android.ddmlib.SyncException: Remote object doesn't exist!

i am not sure why it behave like this suddenly, it used to work regardless personal / work profile last week. i don't remember i change any configuration...

please help to give me clues why? i have followed many previous post suggestion to restart adb server, kill appium server, restart phone/laptop, disable enable developer options...etc. none works....

I tried to inspect personal profile now, the same error occurred:

Error while obtaining UI hierarchy XML file: com.android.ddmlib.SyncException: Remote object doesn't exist!

updated: i used appium studio inspector and it works. I still not sure what happened to adb or uiautomator via command line? how do i debug it?

Answer 1

found an answer

com.android.ddmlib.SyncException: Is a directory

try doing adb shell rm -rf /data/local/tmp and rebooting the phone first. it's ok if you get rm: /data/local/tmp: Permission denied. ignore it - it's for the tmp folder itself after its content was already removed (that's what you need anyway)