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Recently, I was working with Android Maps V2. I came across debug.keystore and release.keystore. What is the difference between them? Why do we have to use both?

Peter Mortensen
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Anil kumar
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    http://developer.android.com/tools/publishing/app-signing.html – Raghunandan Feb 19 '14 at 12:12
  • @ chitan khetiya... Please tell the difference between normal export, Export Signed Application package & Export unsigned Application package – Anil kumar Feb 19 '14 at 12:23
  • @Anilkumar tell us what you know so we can guide you forward. – SilentKiller Feb 19 '14 at 12:24
  • @SilentKiller I know about both of them & I used also... But posted this question to know about them in detail.. See the accepted answer by Mr. Hardik.. that's exact answer I required.. Thanx for ur time – Anil kumar Feb 19 '14 at 12:32

6 Answers6

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  • debug.keystore is merely for developing and testing purposes, so using that you can't release your app to Google Play using that only.

    Caution: You should not release your application to the public (via any source) when signed with the debug certificate.

  • release.keystore is required only when you want to release your app to any app store.
    For more information, see Signing Your Applications, subsection Signing in Release Mode.

SMR
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  • I used debug.keystore to upload my app for alpha testing. But why does it create a problem when we move to production? – Anish Oct 01 '14 at 13:00
  • @anish because the app in production mode requires the APK to be signed in release mode. – SMR Oct 05 '14 at 04:58
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    thanks i changed it. But it did accept my apk file signed in debug mode too – Anish Oct 09 '14 at 12:26
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You can work on developing the Android app with debug.keystore. The release.keystore will be need when your app is ready to be submitted as an app on Play Store.

nc4pk
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user8938
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debug.keystore you call for testing purposes for developers, because it contains the default alias and default key password and also by using this you can not publish your app into the play store.

release.keystore you call for the final app certification keystore. This keystore has its own alias and own key password. And for every new publish of your app, you must generate an signed APK file by using this keystore.

For more information, see Signing Your Applications.

Peter Mortensen
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M D
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4

debug.keystore is used at the time of development, where as release.keystore will be used at product release... link

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You cannot publish your app to Google Play with debug.keystore, and users won't be able to download your app.

Behnam
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    I don't think this is correct, keystore is nothing but a signing file to avoid tampering. You probably mean you cannot publish your app with debug variant. – Bitwise DEVS Jun 12 '22 at 05:39
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debug.keystore is used to generate Google Map API V2 key for Debug purpose . release.keystore is used to generate map key before uploading app to Google Play.

Nibin
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  • Keystores are not even related with Google Map API, but you can use the keystore hashes to restrict the availability of your Map API – Bitwise DEVS Jun 12 '22 at 05:44