We got the exact problem getting an https resource served with an autosigned certificate. Worked in standard build but not in release.
It’s probably an ERR_INSECURE_RESPONSE raised by the webview (probably because there is no mean to remotely debug release app, and weinre cannot catch that error…). Just saw @tomkuipers answer about setting ‘android:debuggable=“false”’ in the manifest to help debugging this problem with the inspector.
This is platforms/android/CordovaLib/src/org/apache/cordova/engine/SystemWebViewClient.java:232 that does the switch.
In case of ApplicationInfo.FLAG_DEBUGGABLE , it proceeds despite the error, but in release it does not.
A workaround is to replace “super.onReceivedSslError(view, handler, error);” by “handler.proceed();”. But only for debugging purposes, because doing this will make your app automatically rejected from google play store.
Since webview does not allow to configure a certificate keychain or custom authority, the solution is to fix your certificate. See @tomkuipers answer here: From http to https -- preparing the app