Tidbit: com.android.ide.common.signing.KeytoolException: Failed to read key <alias> from store "C:\..\<keystore-name>.keystore"

#reactnative #android

When attempting to create the release bundle for a React Native app, I followed the steps in the (guide)[https://reactnative.dev/docs/signed-apk-android] and generated the keystore. However, when I ran this command to create the release AAB:

cd android
./gradlew bundleRelease

I encountered an error message with the following syntax:

* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':app:packageRelease'.
> A failure occurred while executing com.android.build.gradle.tasks.PackageAndroidArtifact$IncrementalSplitterRunnable
   > com.android.ide.common.signing.KeytoolException: Failed to read key <alias> from store "C:\Users\...\<keystore-name>.keystore": Get Key failed: Given final block not properly padded. Such issues can arise if a bad key is used during decryption.

Given that there was no instruction from the CLI to create a key password, this might be a bit confusing.
The solution is to use the keystore password in the key password field in your build.gradle file. For example,

MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_FILE=my-upload-key.keystore
MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_ALIAS=my-key-alias
MYAPP_UPLOAD_STORE_PASSWORD=<keystore-password>
MYAPP_UPLOAD_KEY_PASSWORD=<keystore-password>

The reason why this works is that different store and key passwords are not supported for PKCS12 keystores.