Do I know if I need Multi-Dex enabled? (ClassNotFoundException)

Suddenly and seemingly for no reason at all, the following error starts presenting itself. After fighting it all day, I discovered enabling Multi-Dex resolved it. Is this error potentially caused by my breaching the 64k reference threshold?

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application md52323d240c954a07dbdbeb3f1c41a0cab.MainApplication: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "md52323d240c954a07dbdbeb3f1c41a0cab.MainApplication" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.myapp-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.myapp-1/lib/arm64, /data/app/com.myapp-1/base.apk!/lib/arm64-v8a, /system/lib64, /vendor/lib64]]
at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:823)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:5529)
at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap2(ActivityThread.java)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1576)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:241)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6281)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:886)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:776)

Somewhere I can see the count of references? How do I know if I surpassed this - in VS specifically?

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class

This is a known issue in the creation of the Java classes.zip file in the following release:

December 4th, 2017 - Xamarin.Android 8.1.0.24

• This version is included in the Visual Studio 2017 version 15.5 release.

Java.lang.ClassNotFoundException

We have had multiple reports regarding applications running into a "Java.Lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class on path: DexPathList" exception.

Bug: xamarin.android_8.1/#Known_Issues

GitHub PR fix: https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android/pull/1142

Workaround:

You can clean/rebuild as a workaround on Windows in order to recreate the Java classes.zip file

First, you can count the method references (and see other useful insight) using the APK Analyzer tool. It is shipped with Android Studio; you can find it under the Build menu and it's also available from the command line with apkanalyzer.

Second, you will get a build error indicating you need to use multi dex. It looks like:

trouble writing output: Too many field references: 131000; max is 65536. You may try using --multi-dex option.

More here: https://developer.android.com/studio/build/multidex.html