0

To my understanding, when posting to the Google Play a keystore is required and if it is lost or the password is forgotten, then no updates to the app can be made.

I am working on a small team that previously had 1 android developer. Now we have new android developers. I still have access to the old developer's computer and but need to allow the new developers to be able to upload new apk's to the Google Play store to update the app.

When I try to drag a new apk into the Google Developer Console, I get this error:

Upload failed

You uploaded an APK that is signed with a different certificate to your previous APKs. You must use the same certificate. Your existing APKs are signed with the certificate(s) with fingerprint(s):

[ SHA1: AO:1E:28:4L:R7:8N:DN:M8:FF:B0:GHB:AA:68:Y5:7C:F6:43:62:15:0A ]

and the certificate(s) used to sign the APK you uploaded have fingerprint(s):

[ SHA1: Z1:4X:4Y:AG:F4:BF:G8:44:DD:7A:E3:CG:2Y:25:E6:3P:9O:B3:DG:51 ]

To resolve this I believe I need to get the certificate file off of the computer that currently is still able to build apk's and post to the google play store (as noted here). The file I need must be on old developer's computer somewhere, since old developer's computer is still able to build an apk that is accepted by google play, but I don't know where the old developer put it on the computer or how to find it so that I can share it with the new developers that need it.

Does anyone know how I can find the file to share with the new developers and resolve the error above?

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Rbar
  • 3,740
  • 9
  • 39
  • 69
  • "since old developer's computer is still able to build an apk that is accepted by google play" -- how are you building it? – CommonsWare May 06 '17 at 18:49
  • With "Run" (^R). When the project is built and Run on the old developer's computer, a "app-debug.apk" file is created and that's what he dragged into the google play console. When I try to complete the same steps on the new computers it throws the error I am receiving. – Rbar May 06 '17 at 19:42
  • Your old developer shipped a debug build of your app; the Play Store should have prevented this. This may cause you long-term problems. However, you would be looking for the `.android/debug.keystore` file in the user home directory (that's `~` on Linux or macOS, and I forget exactly where the user home directory is on various versions of Windows). – CommonsWare May 06 '17 at 19:45
  • I had a bad feeling that that was the case when I found out "app-debug.apk" was the file used. @CommonsWare mind me asking what long-term problems? – Rbar May 06 '17 at 20:24
  • Well, like I said, I thought that the Play Store would block the use of the debug keystore. However, it looks like the debug keystore now has a long validity period (mine is good until 2041) -- it used to only be good for one year. So, perhaps the Play Store doesn't mind developers using that keystore anymore. Since the keystore password is well-known, you would need to be extra careful to avoid that keystore getting out, allowing others to sign apps with your keystore. – CommonsWare May 06 '17 at 20:30
  • Thank you for the knowledge – Rbar May 06 '17 at 22:50

0 Answers0