diff --git a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/Utilities/DeviceTest.cs b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/Utilities/DeviceTest.cs
index 5a639c3e12e..a40d1b355fb 100644
--- a/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/Utilities/DeviceTest.cs
+++ b/src/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tasks/Tests/Xamarin.Android.Build.Tests/Utilities/DeviceTest.cs
@@ -369,11 +369,18 @@ protected static bool MonitorAdbLogcat (Func<string, bool> action, string logcat
 			bool didActionSucceed = false;
 			ManualResetEventSlim stdout_done = new ManualResetEventSlim ();
 			using (var sw = File.CreateText (logcatFilePath)) {
+				// Process already-buffered logcat lines first so startup messages emitted before
+				// this monitor starts are still visible to tests.
+				if (TryMatchLogcatOutput (RunAdbCommand ("logcat -d"), sw, action)) {
+					sw.Flush ();
+					return true;
+				}
+
 				using (var proc = Process.Start (info)) {
 					proc.OutputDataReceived += (sender, e) => {
 						if (e.Data != null) {
 							sw.WriteLine (e.Data);
-							if (action (e.Data)) {
+							if (!didActionSucceed && action (e.Data)) {
 								didActionSucceed = true;
 							}
 						} else {
@@ -395,6 +402,23 @@ protected static bool MonitorAdbLogcat (Func<string, bool> action, string logcat
 			}
 		}
 
+		static bool TryMatchLogcatOutput (string output, TextWriter logcatOutput, Func<string, bool> action)
+		{
+			bool didActionSucceed = false;
+			using (var sr = new StringReader (output ?? "")) {
+				string line = sr.ReadLine ();
+				while (line != null) {
+					logcatOutput.WriteLine (line);
+					if (action (line)) {
+						didActionSucceed = true;
+						break;
+					}
+					line = sr.ReadLine ();
+				}
+			}
+			return didActionSucceed;
+		}
+
 		protected static bool WaitForDebuggerToStart (string logcatFilePath, int timeout = 120)
 		{
 			bool result = MonitorAdbLogcat ((line) => {