Factory app is not loaded

[daniSi]

Hi,

I am experiencing a very strange behaviour where the program doesn't boot to the factory app partition. My scenario is as following.

I have a firmware for the ESP32S3 which is working already for some time on multiple devices. Recently I have made some changes in my code (edited few files of me) and after flashing the builded firmware, the program hangs before loading the main app, then after some time the WDT resets the cpu. See output bellow:

I (380) boot: Loaded app from partition at offset 0x10000
I (380) boot: Disabling RNG early entropy source...
ESP-ROM:esp32s3-20210327
Build:Mar 27 2021
rst:0x10 (RTCWDT_RTC_RST),boot:0x8 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)

After some experimentation the code magically starts working if I add in the main file a printf(). I am using version control and see that nothing else was changed, except this files. Discarding the changes bring again the program to work. Actually, its enough if I already discard for example random 4/14 modified files.

Another funny thing is that I use encryption for the release version, and if I build it for an encrypted device, flash it, the firmware also works.

Some ideas what could be the problem?