Android: Verifying the Android APK Signing Workflow in Qt Creator

Qt Creator includes built-in support for signing Android APK packages. This functionality is implemented across multiple code paths within the IDE, each of which plays a role in the APK signing process.

Due to the distributed nature of this implementation, any part of the signing workflow may break silently if not explicitly tested (which recently happened, but was luckily caught just in time: QTCREATORBUG-33077). Therefore, it is critical to verify that APK signing continues to function correctly before each release.

The following instructions outline the APK signing workflow and can be used as a reference for testing and validation purposes.

Create an Android application

Create a project via the Project wizard

Create a Release configuration

Create a keystore and certificate

This step is usually only done once, and the keystore file is later reused.

In the build settings, expand the Build Android APK step

...and press Create.

Fill out the Keystore dialog form and press Save

Use the certificate for the Project

If the keystore file was just created, it gets automatically selected. Otherwise, users check Sign and select the Keystore file.

Type in the Keystore password

Verify that the Certificate alias is selected

Build/Deploy the signed Apk package

Verify that the package builds without errors and deploys to the device.
The apk file name in the build output needs to contain "signed".