How to handle a lost KeyStore password in Android?

android keystore
irobotxx picture irobotxx · May 22, 2011 · Viewed 166.4k times · Source

I have forgotten my Keystore password and I don't really know what to do anymore (I can't or won't give any excuses for it). I want to update my app because I just fixed a bug but it's not possible anymore. What happens if I use the same Keystore but create a new key? Would I still be able to update the app and if it's not possible, how can I go about giving information to users about the updated version?

If anybody has had a problem like this or has come across troubles, what advice can you give to help remedy the situation? Fortunately, it is a free app.

Answer

ElDoRado1239 picture ElDoRado1239 · Nov 10, 2015

Just encountered this problem myself - luckily I was able to find the password in some Gradle's temporary file. Just in case anyone lands here:

try looking for this file

..Project\.gradle\2.4\taskArtifacts\taskArtifacts.bin

or

.gradle/3.5/taskHistory/taskHistory.bin
.gradle/5.1.1/executionHistory/executionHistory.bin
.gradle/caches/5.1.1/executionHistory/executionHistory.bin

and search for

storePassword

It was there in cleartext. In general, if you do remember at least a part of your password, try searching for a file containing this substring and hopefully you will fish out something.

Wanted to throw it out here, maybe it will eventually help someone.

Edit: Added new insight from comments, just to be more visible.

Thanks to Vivek Bansal, Amar Ilindra and Uzbekjon for these.

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