onUpgrade and onCreate not being called after changing android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper to net.sqlcipher.database.SQLiteOpenHelper

Question

I have been following the official documentation in order to start using SQLCipher Community Edition in the apps I´m developing. So, I made a proper gradle import as following:

compile 'net.zetetic:android-database-sqlcipher:3.5.9@aar'

I added the

@Override
public void onCreate() {
   super.onCreate();
   SQLiteDatabase.loadLibs(this);
}

in the MainApplication.java. As my apps are already released, I have placed as well some migration code in onUpgrade() method in my instance of SQLiteOpenHelper class. Unfortunately, although I upgraded the DB version number, I do the call: getInstance().getReadableDatabase("testKey"); neither onUpgrade(), nor onCreate() methods won´t be called. Did I miss something in the configuration?

Answer 1

Finally I found the solution for the problem. Instead of calling the migration functionality inside the onUpgrade() method, I added the migration code before the database is queried for the first time (after opening the app):

public static void encrypt(Context ctxt, File originalFile, char[] 
passphrase)
throws IOException {
SQLiteDatabase.loadLibs(ctxt);

if (originalFile.exists()) {
  File newFile=
  File.createTempFile("sqlcipherutils", "tmp", ctxt.getCacheDir());
   SQLiteDatabase db=
   SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(originalFile.getAbsolutePath(), "", null, SQLiteDatabase.OPEN_READWRITE);

   db.rawExecSQL("ATTACH DATABASE '" + newFile.getAbsolutePath()+ "' AS encrypted KEY '"+String.valueOf(passphrase)+"'");
   db.rawExecSQL("SELECT sqlcipher_export('encrypted')");
   db.rawExecSQL("DETACH DATABASE encrypted");

   int version=db.getVersion();

    db.close();

    db=SQLiteDatabase.openDatabase(newFile.getAbsolutePath(), passphrase, null, SQLiteDatabase.OPEN_READWRITE);
    db.setVersion(version);
    db.close();

    originalFile.delete();
    newFile.renameTo(originalFile);
  }
}

I took the solution from this source. Thanks for the author, whoever he is!