Create a Signed and Publishable .NET MAUI Android App in VS2022

[@jfversluis]

Need to release your .NET MAUI iOS or Windows app? Check these! iOS: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaG9mmiudtujkKM Windows: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fH_ap5KNaLmnibc

[@eaquirstech2293]

Hi Gerald Your content is helpfull thanks for content , i have to ask ,is there any way to animate splash screen in .net MAUI ???? Like Logo on splash screen animate from up side to centre or like start animate ffrom bottom to centre????

[@jfversluis]

@@eaquirstech2293 absolutely! You probably want to imitate a splash screen for that. Just add a simple splash screen with the first frame of the animation and then as the main page set a page that animates and navigate from there to the real main page

[@eaquirstech2293]

@@jfversluis will it not take more time to load? as splash screen appears rapidly when app starts,....if i add anohter page and treat like a splash screen ,that page appears as mainpage instead of real main page will not appear rapidly when app will be start. need ur suggestion sir

[@jfversluis]

That’s how most apps do it :)

[@eaquirstech2293]

@@jfversluis thanks ,ill try

[@irynadoroshenko8832]

I like how quickly Maui grows and develops! Nice job )

[@jfversluis]

It’s going to be amazing! 🚀 thank you!

[@sasino]

@@jfversluis Now in 2023 it IS amazing 😭

[@jfversluis]

@@sasino glad to hear that!

[@nirojdahal7801]

Ever since I first watched your video, I am not missing any .Thanks Gerald for amazing video

[@jfversluis]

That is so nice of you Niroj! Really appreciate it! Thanks for sticking around!

[@xxx.xxx.xxx.xx1joker706]

Great job. This is good to keep showing command line instructions for CI/CD pipelines. Many thanks. 👌🏽👍🏽💯

[@jfversluis]

Glad it was helpful!

[@balintnagy1293]

Thank you for the helpful video! One thing to note: you keep saying "you upload your bundle with the keystore", but that's probably wrong: you need a signing key. You create a key in a key store file and protect it with some passwords. Now you have a key in a key store. Then you tell VS how to get the KEY from that store, and as part of the build, VS uses the credentials provided in the csproj file to get the KEY from the store, sign the bundle with the KEY. Another point is, what I just learned from some Google materials, is that this is just the upload key (since the change from APK's to AAB's), and you actually need (another) signing key. For that, when creating a new app, the easiest way is to ask Google to create the signing key, hold on to it and sign on your behalf whenever you upload a new version of your bundle. Something I don't understand though, in terms of the pipeline, is that in the process you show in the video, you suggest to create a keystore file and not check in to source control. OK, I have to put it to some other place. Then I have to provide all the passwords and aliases in VS (source code), so that the build can access the key in that keystore and tell anyone who has access to the sources. Interesting.

[@jfversluis]

I think some things have changed in this regard recently so there might be another way now. As for not checking in your key store to source control, you could but it makes it a bit more unsafe. Uploading it to the secrets will encrypt it and only useable from that pipeline together with the password that is also safely saved in an encrypted secret.

[@mtranchi]

Thanks! I'm new to MAUI and also Google Play. Would be nice to see a follow up vid on how to get it in the Google app store.

[@jfversluis]

That site changes a lot. It will probably be outdated before I can release it 😅 I’ll think about it.

[@mtranchi]

@@jfversluis Lol. I'm familiar with other Google products where even their own docs don't keep up with their current way of doing things. Eh, don't bother on my account, I'll figure it out. I subscribed off this vid btw :)

[@jfversluis]

That’s awesome, thanks for the support! Let me know if you have any questions

[@parnican]

Great summary video👌Love it, again :)

[@jfversluis]

Thank you so much Peter!

[@vernkennedy6474]

Very clear. Thanks for the video.

[@jfversluis]

Great! Thanks for the feedback! iOS one is almost ready too!

[@sm-fh2qc]

@Gerald Versluis I have been following all of your MAUI tutorials, Thank you for the informative videos! one quick question - I tried copying over apk to my android phone and I get message - "App not installed as App isn't compatible with your phone". I have got Android 12 installed onto my S10+. Any advise?

[@jfversluis]

Thank you so much! You probably want to check your AndroidManifest for the values that you set for the Android SDK versions which you support

[@ScottMcEachern]

Thanks Gerald! I think I prefer the terminal approach rather than the UI workflow that I used with Xamarin.

[@jfversluis]

That is why it's good to have options!

[@sipepguru]

Beautiful work , thanks for sharing

[@jfversluis]

Thanks Karl!

[@alifaraj467]

Thanks for the video, is it ok to publish a .net MAUI in VS studio preview or you recommend I wait ?

[@jfversluis]

That VS is in preview shouldn't matter for the quality of your app!

[@mohamedtoria4385]

First thanks for this great video Second would you make a video to teach us how to update our app and how to upload this update to the store

[@jfversluis]

I’ll see what I can do, but it should be much more than bumping your version number and going through these steps again. Oh and of course add new functionality to your app 😜

[@mohamedtoria4385]

@@jfversluis thanks ❤

[@jesusnaun1981]

Hi Gerald! Excelent video! Thank you for your future answer. I have created a maui blazor app and it works ok consuming public api's. But when I've generated apk following your steps. My app works except the options than consuming api's. I have tested with http and https but the same problem.... Any idea or thema for investigate please

[@stebberg]

Very nice guide! ❤️

[@mohammedalsabahii2]

Thanks Geraled for this great content ,, cay you make video for Obfuscation app thank you again

[@jfversluis]

Hey Mohammed, thanks! I'm not too familiar with that tbh, so not sure if that will come anytime soon.

[@documentscabinet894]

Thanks, really useful video.

[@Swarajcookingnfun]

Hey Gerald! Thanks for your quick response It helped me 🙂 One more quick question, have you created any video on how we can import our sqlite db in Android tablet and access it in our android app

[@jfversluis]

Like this one? kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKWnomCimtZoha8

[@play-good]

Thanks you so mush

[@jfversluis]

My pleasure!

[@dmitriyreznik7158]

Hi Gerald, thank you very much. I have a question though. You mentioned that if we already have a keystore, we should reuse it, so the app is recognized by the playstore. Which means that I don't use the terminal to create the keystore. Then where should I take that maui alias? Also, you said that what you do in the propertygroup can be done as a step in a pipeline. Could you please give me some reference to how this can be done? Thank you again!

[@FuzzyDPozzy]

exactly same question

[@CowboyCanadian]

security always makes me scratch my head …. when you are careless with your publisher account credentials, and careless with your source code, and sloppy 2FA methods but you keep your certificate in a safe somewhere 😂😂

[@liberty2four2]

I have a database on my app which makes the size of my app to 899 MB. I have no issues in publishing in Apps Store but in Play Store I got an error and it seems like there's a 200 MB limit :( I still cant find workaround or solution for the database is very crucial in my app

[@jfversluis]

So I guess either make the database online and connect to it that way, or you have a way to deliver assets for your Android app at a later stage, you probably want to investigate that then

[@vaitite]

All is clear! Thx

[@jfversluis]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback!

[@gabrielcanosa6154]

Thanks for sharing!!

[@jfversluis]

You’re most welcome Gabriel!

[@cptechno]

Missing topics that are essential... Hi! I viewed several of your videos regarding Visual Studio MAUI. However, I think there are some missing topics that are essential for developers. Regarding the deployment of Visual Studio MAUI app to Apple development system, these topics are missing: 1) How to deploy MAUI app to Apple TestFlight Beta Testing (entire process) 2) How to deploy MAUI app to Apple App Store (from IPA to store..entire process)

[@anandshindey]

Uitstekend filmpje. Thanks.

[@jfversluis]

Heel graag gedaan Anand! Thanks for watching!

[@dakoe]

Hellow Gerald, nice video! Question, is this same procedure uploading Xamarin Forms Android App to Google Store? Thanks

[@jfversluis]

Good question Oscar! Yes, this actually didn't change that much so this should definitely also work for Xamarin.Forms :)

[@yaKaiZen]

Hello Gerald, thanks for your video! Here 13:15 we see & also can be found in our projects a folder named Publish.And signed abb and apk files are also found inside the publish folder! which one should we use for release to play store or share to friends?

[@jfversluis]

The aab for the store, apks are not accepted anymore. I think for just sending it to others you can use both. However the person installing the app will probably need to change a setting on their device to allow apps to be installed from other sources than the Google Play Store

[@80amnesia]

amazing thanks!

[@thiemebr]

Great video, also if I publish can I do it as an upgrade of a previously published Google Play app that someone over Fiverr did for me?

[@jfversluis]

As long as you use the same keystore to sign your app: yea

[@N14-f5x]

I got error: invalid dex file indices, expecting file 'classes?.dex' but found 'classes2.dex'.

[@mangucode]

thanks bro

[@jfversluis]

You’re welcome!

[@mehran_pourkhanali]

Greate job 👌👌

[@jfversluis]

Thanks!

[@dineshfalwadiya3282]

Great thanks for sharing

[@jfversluis]

Looking forward to your released app ;)

[@nitrogenius]

I missed the part how you get the certification from android store and inject into maui app?

[@alessandrocaliaro3418]

Thanks @Gerlad for the video. I don't understand why is not possible to create an apk in "ad hoc" distribution... does it will be restored in a next release? or can you do a little "addon" to explain how to generate a signed apk? Thanks

[@jfversluis]

I’m afraid I don’t understand. This creates a signed one and you can distribute it outside of the store if that’s what you want to do

[@alessandrocaliaro3418]

@@jfversluis Your video demonstrates how to produce an .aab file. This file cannot be copied to an Android device and installed, correct? (or I don't know how...) I need an apk for this, but the current VS2022 distribution procedure doesn't produce it

[@schulz5patrick]

Thank you! I actually questioned how it will be done a few days ago! But... by any chance.. do you know how to create a simple custom multi-project template like Xamarin.Forms with its PCL project? It seems microsoft docs on vstemplate are not up-to-date... At least it doesn't work with VS2022 :)

[@jfversluis]

In a PCL project? I don't think that's still a thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's not supported anymore

[@broadshare]

Thank you, very helpful. Is that the same process to publish Maui-Blazor app?

[@jfversluis]

Yep! The exact same way :)

[@broadshare]

@@jfversluis What am I waiting for ?

[@miaadib6146]

hii thank you for all this i did all what you do in this video but i get this Error can you help me .. C:\Program Files\dotnet\packs\Microsoft.Android.Sdk.Windows\34.0.113\tools\Xamarin.Android.Common.targets(2409,2): error MSB4044: The "AndroidSignPackage" task was not given a value for the required parameter "KeyAlias". [C:\Users\NMS-PC\source epos\MauiAppafter2\M auiAppafter2\MauiAppafter2.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-android]

[@user-yb9bn6lm6v]

I'm exploring Azure DevOps integration for our MAUI Android app. If you're experienced in this area, could you provide insights or tips? Your guidance would be invaluable.

[@ROWKNOCK]

Excuse me sir ! I am facing a problem after building it for android it is saying that "error XAGJS7004: System.ArgumentException: An item with the same key has already been added." could you help me to solve it

[@jfversluis]

Not really without any more details. Make sure to search for that error online, you might get some hints

[@sharafudeen4734]

Thanks for this.. how can I release versions?

[@jfversluis]

What do you mean with versions?

[@sharafudeen4734]

@@jfversluis Every App updates and release I can maintain version. Can I keep previous version as well as current version of app to download?

[@jfversluis]

@@sharafudeen4734 No, in the app store you can only download the latest version. To release one, up the version number in your apps metadata (and add new functionality to your app :D) and upload the new version!

[@arammargaryan8048]

Hello Gerald, thanks for your video. I have done exact the same, but unfortunately it does not work for me, i get issue "Error XAPRAS7009 System.InvalidOperationException: PE image does not have metadata." Have you experienced it? or do you know what's the problem

[@ThimaKulani]

I struggled to create an installer for windows.. can you please help me with that?

[@jfversluis]

That one is coming!

[@ThimaKulani]

@@jfversluis thank you.

[@adinwashere]

@@jfversluis Looking forward to that myself 👀

[@mishomishev3152]

Great tutortial

[@jfversluis]

Thank you!

[@muks8398]

it's building my aab file but not apk ? Any suggestions?

[@seagirl]

Gerald, ty for ur video. Can i ask where i can get a code for MAUI application advertisement between pages? I searched but couldnt find info bcuz MAUI is pretty new... Help me please. I would like to monetize my app specific way with such Interstitial Ads =^+^=

[@abdrockman]

Halo Gerald. i succeded publish maui template app to my android, but when i added just some xaml element and icon. my app crash when open in android. but its no problem when im running in emulator or debug in my device. could you tell me how i can check this problem? thanks in advance :)

[@sanjanapatel7466]

On one of my projects, I am not getting the android option (On run drop down). On the other one, I am getting the option but it is not working The screen is frozen and nothing working when I close that I get Deploy failed, but it works fine with windows. Can you please help me with this?

[@jfversluis]

I've seen and responded to your email about this. Please just choose email or a comment and not both, I get enough messages as it is ;) thanks

[@Swarajcookingnfun]

Hi Gerald!! Can we publish maui blazor android app without using app store? I mean can we publish it on any Android tablet directly just copying its apk file?

[@jfversluis]

Yep, that should be possible

[@Swarajcookingnfun]

@@jfversluis thanks 🙂

[@andywhite4494]

Watching your video on Publishing a .Net Maui app to an Android device My situation is I am developing an app that will run only on a couple of android tablets on the production floor of where I work. This is a secure environment with no external WIFI etc. I would like to be able to put the app on the android tablets without having to publish to play store is this possible? If so where would I find info on how to do it

[@jfversluis]

Absolutely possible! I would think that you could still all do this but instead of sending it to the store, download the apk/aab to the devices directly and install. You might need to enable a setting to allow installation of apps from outside the app stire

[@WeMakeVideosCA]

The keytool -genkey command never asks me for a key pass. it does ask for the keystore pass. It simply asks if the inputed information is correct. Then it outputs Generating 2,048 bit RSA key pair and self-signed certificate (SHA256withRSA) with a validity of 36,500 days for: ....... [Storing key.keystore] Edit: For anyone having issues saying on google developer saying the aab file is not signed under release. make sure you spell Android with oi not io. I wasted hours on this 🤦. Still don't know why genkey is not asking for a key pass tho. It seems to default take my keystore pass as the key pass

[@jfversluis]

Hm not sure about that one. Have a look at the Android documentation, maybe there is something in there

[@franciscofernandezcasas7924]

Hi good video thanks but it does not work for .Net Maui Hybrid Blazor app, please help

[@jfversluis]

It should and without any specifics its impossible to help 😊

[@franciscofernandezcasas7924]

@@jfversluis my bad, sorry, yeap it is working, I figured it out my error

[@sasino]

10000 days is just 27 years, I would personally use an even higher number just in case

[@jfversluis]

Do whatever you wish! I don’t think a lot of apps will make it that far 😄

[@nikolaosspyrou5660]

I know that this is a year old video, but I am kinda hoping for an answer on this... In case I don't want to publish the app to the Play Store or any store at all, but I want to keep track of the people Installing the app (ex. a corporate application etc...) how can I publish the MAUI application but getting an APK instead?

[@jfversluis]

There is also an apk as result from this command you should be able to just use that!

[@nikolaosspyrou5660]

@@jfversluis Thanks for your answer. I'll try to do that, even though it would be helpful if we had a more, complete, guide for these kind of situations regarding MAUI and deployment methods.

[@klausbjornjensen]

Thank for the guide. Have a strange problem though - Play store keeps saying "You uploaded an APK or Android App Bundle that was signed in debug mode. You need to sign your APK or Android App Bundle in release mode." But I dont even have debug builds!!! Any ideas?

[@jfversluis]

It seems like somehow you do use a debug build or debug keystore then. It's hard to say without any details though

[@klausbjornjensen]

@@jfversluis My bad. Had written instead of :) All good now.

[@jfversluis]

Devil is in the details. Glad you figured it out!

[@KVNgameplay]

nao mostrou como publica no google play

[@jfversluis]

The Google Play Console should be pretty self-explanatory. What is it you can't figure out?

[@alexreyes586]

Hello how are you, you can do the same process with a Blazor Net Maui project

[@jfversluis]

For a Blazor Hybrid app it should work the exact same

[@leroykthx]

Can you say something about how android leanback dev fits into this? It seems very poorly documented

[@jfversluis]

I think it’s pretty well documented 🤷‍♂️ learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/maui/android/deployment/overview?view=net-maui-7.0

[@leroykthx]

@@jfversluis leanback specifically isnt documented very well. the annotations required to generate a proper manifest aren't exactly explained in depth. if you just want a generic android app with dotnet then all is well.

[@jfversluis]

@@leroykthx Ah sorry, it seems I misread something here. Yeah our main focus right now is Android apps on mobile devices. While it’s probably not impossible to do leenbank development it will not have focus, also not for documentation. However, you should be able to use the native documentation and relatively easily translate that to C# code and concepts

[@mahmoudnoufal9276]

I Made like that, but APK file doesn't install in my phone

[@jfversluis]

Does it give you any errors?

[@mahmoudnoufal9276]

you are right, Thank You so much@@jfversluis

[@xskodemedia746]

i keep getting an apk file why?!

[@jfversluis]

There should be an apk _and_ aab file?

[@vugikarabagli6748]

How can I make the application automatically update itself?

[@jfversluis]

You can't. I think there are solutions to do that, but the app stores aren't too fond of those since you're then bypassing their reviewers :) The best and easiest imo is to create a new version and release that

[@AamirKhan-kx3oy]

hi and what about App Center?

[@jfversluis]

No support (announced) yet and even if they will, you ultimately want to release it to the app stores probably anyway

[@colonel666]

Hi, how can I publish a more than 250MB Android App ? Any idea?

[@jfversluis]

I would say no. Make it smaller and if still needed download the rest of the assets afterwards. But not sure if people will like a 250mb+ app, depending on what your target audience is of course :)

[@colonel666]

@@jfversluis Thanks for answering. Actually it is for special purposes. Google Play Store allows only 150 MB and my assets are about 290MB. With React Native or Android Studio I can use Asset Delivery to solve this issue but in MAUI I found nothing

[@jfversluis]

@@colonel666 that should also be possible with .NET MAUI, but we don’t provide anything in the templates or tooling for it right now I think.

[@colonel666]

@@jfversluis how would I do it? where is the start point

[@aberdatsoul]

If your build doesn't work and/or you are not prompted for alias password, add the following to your command line request for keytool after -validity 10000: -storetype jks

[@jfversluis]

Perfect! Thanks for sharing!

[@cverde1234]

Posts a meme about how signing apps for ios can be a pain... ... Releases a video on how to sign Android apps 😂

[@jfversluis]

You didn’t watch closely enough then. iOS video is also already posted 😏

[@FuzzyDPozzy]

Command to publish: dotnet publish -c Release -f:net6.0-android

[@jfversluis]

That is correct!

[@jdia.]

dotnet publish -f net7.0-android -c Release -p:AndroidSigningKeyStore={filename}.keystore -p:AndroidSigningKeyAlias={keyname} -p:AndroidSigningKeyPass={password} -p:AndroidSigningStorePass={password} // from the Microsoft site. this helped me get past a few errors that came up using the short version. After android, add the targeted version if it had been changed

[@jfversluis]

Thanks for sharing!