Facing the unfortunate loss of your debug.keystore due to a fresh Xamarin installation? Don't fret! Recovery is not possible for the old keystore, but creating a new one is a breeze. Follow these steps:
- Open your terminal or command prompt.
- Navigate to the directory where you want to save the new debug.keystore.
- Execute the following command to generate a new keystore:
keytool -genkey -v -keystore debug.keystore -alias androiddebugkey -storepass android -keypass android -keyalg RSA -validity 14000
- Make sure to replace debug.keystore with the desired name for your keystore file.
- The -alias option specifies the alias for the key, which should be androiddebugkey.
- -storepass and -keypass specify the password for the keystore and key, respectively. It is recommended to use the same password for both.
- -keyalg RSA specifies the algorithm to use for the key, which is RSA in this case.
- -validity specifies the validity period for the key in days, which is set to 14000 (approximately 38 years) by default.
Once you have created the new debug.keystore, you need to place it in the appropriate directory:
- Windows: https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/android/deployment,_testing,_and_metrics/MD5_SHA1/#Windows
- Mac: https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/android/deployment,_testing,_and_metrics/MD5_SHA1/#OSX
With these steps, you have successfully created a new debug.keystore and placed it in the correct location. You can now proceed with your Xamarin development without any worries.
Additional Tip:
To avoid such situations in the future, it is a good practice to back up your debug.keystore regularly. You can simply copy the file to a safe location on your computer or store it in a cloud storage service.