Search code examples
androidgoogle-playcode-signingdigital-certificatecode-signing-certificate

Can Android certificates get corrupted? I am unable to upload new Play Store App update

I inherited an android app that was initially outsourced to an external developer, fixed stuff and I am now ready to send the new update to the play store. Then I found out that I need a specific signing key in order to update the app, which we got from the previous developer. So I generated a signed release apk using the key I got and tried to upload. Upon uploading, I get a pop-up with an error. see screenshot for details

enter image description here

We asked the developer if he was sure that was the key he used, and he swears he looked everywhere and its the only key he used. Although, I do think he might have changed the password for it..., not really sure.

Significant changes I introduced to the app is changing the package in manifest and creating product flavours which each their own package name(one of them got to keep the original package name from the play store).

Some things I noticed: When I got the app, the app manifest had an out-commented package name and a new one with our company's name in it. The original one had the name of the of the outsourcing company in place of the "example" of the "com.example.appname" bit, so they must have changed the package name when they created the release apk. I have no idea if any of this means anything because the package name is the same when I put it all in an apk... It's just that the store claims that the app was signed with a different certificate and the previous developer swears he used the same he sent to us.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to do anything to make this work, or are we completely doomed and will have to upload a new app to the store?

Thanks for any help.

Update: Because people are asking about packagename, let me clarify. When I got the app, all the packagenames in the manifest was not the same as the one from Playstore... so i refactored the entire package app-wide to reflect the play-store package name... and then I introduced product flavours because we need a new app with different branding that is similar to the original one... so I ended with with a structure like this:

defaultConfig {
    applicationId "PlayStorePackagName"
}
productFlavors {
    brand1 {
        applicationId "PlayStorePackagName" //<- for original app
    }
    new_brand{
        applicationId "NewPlayStorePackagName" //<- for new app.
    }
}

In this case, it shouldn't matter what package name is in the manifest, should it?

Solution

  • You cannot change the package name nor the Certificate for the App for the Playstore! If you don't have the correct certificate you cannot submit your App as an update to the existing one.

    Certificate checking

    However you can check the information stored in your available Keystore and compare it with the current store apk. For Example:

    jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs yourapp.apk

    You can get more details with the keytool. See this Thread for more information.

    Package name

    You can check the correct package name for your app when Browsing to your App in the play store.

    Example for Google Plus: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.plus

    id=com.google.android.apps.plus is the package name in this case. This cannot be changed for your App

    However this package name is defined by your applicationId within your App. Your structure of your app can have different package names. See here for more information.