.NET 6 MAUI Release Build Crash at launch on iOS: mono_aot and UINavigationItem Issues

Question

I'm encountering a crash in my .NET 6 MAUI application running on iOS. This issue only appears in the release build; the debug build works without issues. The crash seems to occur randomly, and I've symbolicated the crash reports to identify potential causes.

Here are the details from the crash report:

• Crash when accessing mono_aot_Microsoft_Maui_Controls_eh_frame + 369012
• Crash at Microsoft_iOS_UIKit_UINavigationItem_get_RightBarButtonItems (UINavigationItem.g.cs:1087)

And here's the output from atos symbolication:

1. mono_aot_Microsoft_Maui_Controls_eh_frame (in ixxX) + 369012
2. Microsoft_iOS_UIKit_UINavigationItem_get_RightBarButtonItems (in ixxX) (UINavigationItem.g.cs:1087)

Environment:

• .NET MAUI version: 6
• Xamarin.Forms version: [if applicable]
• iOS version: 16.6.1
• Device: iPhone 11
• Build configuration: Release
• Development environment: Visual Studio for Mac 17.6.6

Pakcages we use:

• BouncyCastle.NetCore (1.9.0)
• CsvHelper (30.0.1)
• Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.Abstractions (7.0.0)
• MudBlazor (6.9.0)
• Portable.BouncyCastle (1.9.0)
• sqlite-net-pcl (1.8.116)
• SQLiteNetExtensions (2.1.0)
• SQLiteNetExtensions.Async (2.1.0)
• SQLitePCLRaw.bundle_green (2.1.6)
• SQLitePCLRaw.provider.dynamic_cdecl (2.1.6)

My questions are as follows:

1. What could be causing a crash in the mono_aot portion of a .NET 6 MAUI app, specifically in release builds?
2. Is the UINavigationItem's right bar button items crash a known issue in .NET 6 MAUI apps on iOS, and what are potential workarounds?

To diagnose or resolve the issue, I've:

• Cleaned and rebuilt the project multiple times.
• Reviewed the Xamarin.Forms and .NET MAUI repositories for similar issues. I've noticed others experiencing problems with release builds, where setting the interpreter to true is often suggested as a workaround, but this has not resolved my issue.
• Confirmed that the issue is specific to the release build and is not present in the debug build.

Similar problems: https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues/11266 https://github.com/dotnet/maui/issues/13019