Please put your app signature file in the safe

This is an article written in my own actual experience.

Now mobile development is hot, because the threshold is low, any programmer can easily enter the field of mobile development, as an app or game and other mobile developers, when you develop a work, ready to go online, you need to sign your work. When it comes to signing, there is a signature file for the software author. Here, may be a lot of developers just enter this field is easy to ignore the importance of the signature file, resulting in the lack of awareness of their own signature files, and other applications in the market after the application upgrade update, only to find that the signature file or forget the relevant password, it is too late, it will lead to trouble.

This is not a special case for the first contact with the signature developer. The reason for this is that this kind of developer has never had their own signature files before, so after signing the work, the application is online, it might be possible to delete the signature file. Then, wait until later after the upgrade of the work to renew the signature, found that no signature file or forget the password, you can easily think of: with a new signature, but when you upload to the application market, you will find that the prompt cannot be submitted, because a market does not allow the same package name of the application exists. The same is also to prevent users from downloading your software after installation, that is, if the user mobile phone installed before you publish the work, even if the user through other means to download your new signed version of the work, users can not install, which will seriously affect the user's mood.

In particular, when your signature file is missing, perhaps you think that as long as you remember the signature information, the exact same information will be reborn into a new signature head office? But I have experimented, even if the information of two signature files is exactly the same, the two signature files are used to package the same work, the packaging of the work is not compatible! Perhaps you feel the same as me: strange.

Why? I'm not going to dig into it.

So, what if the signature file is missing?

There are application markets (such as) where you can submit an update with a different signature, but you must explain why you are changing the signature. But I explained the reason or not to pass the audit. I thought, what would happen if I passed the audit? Can the user download the new version of the work and install it smoothly? I'm skeptical.

So, finally I had to use a new signature and change the package name to solve the problem. The disadvantage of this approach is that the old users have an impact, if they have installed your old version of the work, and then install the new works, they will be on the phone in the same time there are two versions of the old works. And how does that work?

Sadly, you might be like me: put my new signature file in your own file vault right away.

Yes, I didn't find the perfect solution. If you know, ask to be humbly first.

Please put your app signature file in the safe