diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index cdcc75d1f5..9903d618ce 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 - expo-upload-sourcemaps now works on Windows ([#3643](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/3643))
 - Option `enabled: false` ensures no events are sent ([#3606](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/3606))
 - Ignore JSON response when retrieving source context from local Expo Dev Server ([#3611](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/3611))
+- Upload native debug files only for non-debug builds ([#3649](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/3649))
 - Reduce waning messages spam when a property in Expo plugin configuration is missing ([#3631](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/3631))
 - `TurboModuleRegistry` should not be imported in web applications ([#3610](https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-react-native/pull/3610))
 
diff --git a/scripts/sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh b/scripts/sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh
index b522ba5fe3..8fcc403fbd 100755
--- a/scripts/sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh
+++ b/scripts/sentry-xcode-debug-files.sh
@@ -28,8 +28,12 @@ EXTRA_ARGS="$SENTRY_CLI_EXTRA_ARGS $SENTRY_CLI_DEBUG_FILES_UPLOAD_EXTRA_ARGS $IN
 
 UPLOAD_DEBUG_FILES="\"$SENTRY_CLI_EXECUTABLE\" debug-files upload $EXTRA_ARGS \"$DWARF_DSYM_FOLDER_PATH\""
 
-if [ "$SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD" != true ]; then
-  /bin/sh -c "\"$LOCAL_NODE_BINARY\" $UPLOAD_DEBUG_FILES"
-else
+XCODE_BUILD_CONFIGURATION="${CONFIGURATION}"
+
+if [ "$SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD" == true ]; then
   echo "SENTRY_DISABLE_AUTO_UPLOAD=true, skipping debug files upload"
+elif echo "$XCODE_BUILD_CONFIGURATION" | grep -iq "debug"; then # case insensitive check for "debug"
+  echo "Skipping debug files upload for *Debug* configuration"
+else
+  /bin/sh -c "\"$LOCAL_NODE_BINARY\" $UPLOAD_DEBUG_FILES"
 fi