Create A KeyStore File
Objective: Create the all mighty Keystore file!
A Keystore file is an encryption file that has a bunch of certificates that verify that you are the original Author of this app and that you are allowed to update the app. Obviously, this file is important and when it comes time to save this file, save it in a secure location.
We are essentially going to make our final APK. Open the build settings and make sure Build App Bundle (Google Play) is checked. Google play console doesn’t accept APK files, you need a .ABB file.
Open player settings from the bottom left corner.
At the top you will need to enter your company name, the app’s name, and if you have an icon image this is where you would attach it.
Scroll down and open the ‘Other Settings’ if you scroll down you will see version number and bundle version code. If you update this app in the future bundle version would need to become 2 and version 1.1.
Another requirement Google play has is the target API level needs to be 30 or higher.
Google also needs your app to have native code for both 64 and 32 bit. To do this the scripting backend needs to be set to IL2CPP and target architecture needs to have both ARMv7 and ARM64 checked.
Now we can move on to the ‘Publishing Settings’ at the top we see Keystore Manager. Press it and we need to create new and choose a secure location.
You need to create a strong password for this keystore file. The Alias is the name of the app, create another strong password, how long do you want this key to be valid for? 99 years sounds about right. Enter your name/company/city/state/country code.
Now you can build your App bundle and this is going to sign it with all of your profiles and provisioning certificates to insure you are authorized to upload this application. Select location and name it your app name with V 1.0.
If you receive an error that states IL2CPP.exe did not run properly. The Fix I found was to navigate to your NDK location. Copy the file and set the copy to your preference in unity.
Then retry building your app bundle. This is what worked for me. Now that we have our Keystore file we are ready to publish to the google play store! I’ll see you in the next tutorial.