Android: I lost my android key store, what should I do? [duplicate]

Based on my android keystore I created some apps. now, I want to update one of my programs but I lost my keystore. can I generate another one and update my app?

Thanks

Solution 1:

You can create a new keystore, but the Android Market wont allow you to upload the apk as an update - worse still, if you try uploading the apk as a new app it will not allow it either as it knows there is a 'different' version of the same apk already in the market even if you delete your previous version from the market

Do your absolute best to find that keystore!!

When you find it, email it to yourself so you have a copy on your gmail that you can go and get in the case you loose it from your hard drive!

Solution 2:

No, there is no chance to do that. You just learned how important a backup can be.

Solution 3:

Brute Force is the only way!

Here is a script that helped me out:

https://code.google.com/p/android-keystore-password-recover/wiki/HowTo

Using a list of 5-10 possible words from memory, it recovered my password in <1 sec.

Solution 4:

As everyone has said, you definitely need the key. There's no workaround for that. However, you might be surprised at how good the data recovery software can be, and how long the key may linger on your systems -- it's a tiny, tiny file, after all, and may not yet be overwritten. I was pleasantly surprised on both counts.

I develop on an OSX machine. I unintentionally deleted my app key around 6 weeks ago. When I tried to update, I realized my schoolboy error. I tried all the recovery tools I could find for OSX, but none could find the file -- not because it wasn't there, but because these tools are optimized to find the sorts of files the majority of users want back (photos, Word docs, etc.). They're definitely not looking for a 1KB file with an unusual file signature.

Now this next part is going to sound like a plug, but it isn't -- I don't have any connection to the developers:

The only recover tool I found that worked was one called Data Rescue by Prosoft Engineering (which I believe works for other files systems as well -- not just HFS+). It worked because it has a feature which allows you to train it to look for any file type -- even an Android key. You give it several examples. (I generated a few keys, filling in the data fields in as like manner as possible to the original). You then tell it to "deep search". If you're lucky, you'll get your key back in the "custom files" section.

For me, it was a life saver.

It's $100 to purchase, so it's not cheap, but it's worth it if you've got a mass of users and no further means of feeding them updates.

I believe they allow you 1 free file recovery in demo mode, but, unfortunately, in my case, I had several keys and could not tell which one was the one I needed without recovering them all (file names are not preserved on HFS+).

Try it first in demo mode, you may get lucky and be able to recover the key without paying anything.

May this message help someone. It's a sickening feeling, I know, but there may be relief.

Solution 5:

If you lost a keystore file, don't create/update the new one with another set of value. First do the thorough search. Because it will overwrite the old one, so it will not match to your previous apk.

If you use eclipse most probably it will store in default path. For MAC (eclipse) it will be in your elispse installation path something like:

/Applications/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/

then your keystore file without any extension. You need root privilege to access this path (file).