Android App Signing — fast setup for solo vs team/open-source

TL;DR

Solo/private project → Use Android Studio UI and write values directly into app/build.gradle.kts.
Team/open source/CI → Keep secrets out of git; load from a keystore.properties file.

Solo development (private repo)

Create a Release signing config (UI)
File → Project Structure → Modules → Signing Configs → + → release
- Store File: D:/key/btconnecttrack/upload-keystore.jks
- Store Password: ******
- Key Alias: upload
- Key Password: ******

Bind it to the release build type
Project Structure → Build Types → release → Signing Config = $signingConfigs.release

Studio writes the Gradle snippet (minimal)

android {
    signingConfigs {
        create("release") {
            storeFile = file("D:/key/btconnecttrack/upload-keystore.jks")
            storePassword = "******"
            keyAlias = "upload"
            keyPassword = "******"
        }
    }
    buildTypes {
        release { signingConfig = signingConfigs.getByName("release") }
    }
}

Your diff will look like this:

Build

./gradlew :app:assembleRelease

Team or open-source (recommended)

Keep secrets out of version control by loading them from keystore.properties.

keystore.properties (do not commit)

storeFile=D:/key/btconnecttrack/upload-keystore.jks
storePassword=******
keyAlias=upload
keyPassword=******

app/build.gradle.kts (signing only)

import java.util.Properties
import java.io.FileInputStream

val keystoreProperties = Properties().apply {
    load(FileInputStream(rootProject.file("keystore.properties")))
}

android {
    signingConfigs {
        create("release") {
            keyAlias = keystoreProperties["keyAlias"] as String
            keyPassword = keystoreProperties["keyPassword"] as String
            storeFile = file(keystoreProperties["storeFile"] as String)
            storePassword = keystoreProperties["storePassword"] as String
        }
    }
    buildTypes { release { signingConfig = signingConfigs.getByName("release") } }
}

Verify your signing (single method)

./gradlew :app:signingReport

Check the release variant’s keystore path and SHA-1/SHA-256 fingerprints.

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