STM32CubeIDE building Release instead of Debug

Dylan_P · ‎2026-01-06

Problem:

I recently updated to 2.0.0 of STM32CubeIDE and I encountered an issue when attempting to build for Debug. I first noticed an issue when trying to run a Debug Configuration. Before 2.0.0, it would build Debug before flashing the built firmware and starting the debugging server; pretty much default settings. Today, it started skipping the build step. I tried building Debug manually with the dropdown on the hammer icon and clicking "Debug." Instead, it built for Release.

Solutions:

- Right click on the project -> Build Configurations -> Build Selected... and select Debug.

AND

- Setting Debug as the active build and right click on the project -> Build Project

These solutions would build for Debug AND clear both of the above issues. As in the hammer icon -> Debug would actually build for Debug and the Debug Configuration would build before flashing and debugging.

MGogr.1 · ‎2026-01-06

I would not recommend updating/migrating your project to Cube IDE v2.0.0.

Ghofrane GSOURI · ‎2026-01-06

Hello @Dylan_P

I believe it is not a bug in STM32CubeIDE, but a project configuration issue. For your specific project, the active build configuration was set to Release or otherwise misaligned with the Debug launch configuration, so when you tried to “Debug,” the IDE actually built (or reused) the Release configuration and sometimes skipped the build step. After you explicitly selected and built the Debug configuration and set it as the active one, the project’s build and debug settings became consistent again, and the IDE behaved as expected.

THX

Ghofrane

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Dylan_P · ‎2026-01-07

The debug configuration is explicitly set to use the Debug Build Configuration and the "Enable Auto Build" is selected. Even if Release is set as the active configuration, why should that not build Debug? Also, I feel like hammer icon -> Debug should build Debug. Why would it ever be expected behavior to build Release.

These behaviors specifically changed when upgrading to 2.0.0. Was that intentional?

Andrew Neil · ‎2026-01-07

@Dylan_P wrote:
I feel like hammer icon -> Debug should build Debug.

Indeed it should.

But that would not affect which configuration the debugger downloads.

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.
A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work.

Dylan_P · ‎2026-01-07

Right, the debugger did appear to download the Debug build. Sorry if that wasn't clear. My problem was that it was not building it before doing that.