[SCrid2000]

One of the first things you should do after you submit your first BB10 or PlayBook app to App World is backup your signing keys.
Why?
Because if your computer crashes, or gets stolen, etc. etc., and you lose your signing keys, you can't ever submit an update to any apps you signed with those signing keys. Ever.
RIM doesn't back up your signing keys.

That's not a big deal if you only have free apps; you can just resubmit them.
But if you have a paid app and someone finds a bug, you can't fix it (at least not without requiring everyone to buy your app again).

There's great instructions for backing up your signing keys at http://supportforums.blackberry.com/...ys/ta-p/837925, if you want to do it manually.
If you want an automated tool to do it for you (AND you have Windows Vista or newer), you can download SKBR and let it do the work.

skbr ss.png

You can download SKBR for free from http://scrapps.org/blackberry/skbr/.

If you find SKBR useful, you can buy me a mountain dew here.

Update: In v1.1, SKBR will add/extract your Signing Keys to a .zip file for easier transport.
Update: In v1.2, SKBR automatically zips and unzips your signing keys and saves them either to the SKBR folder or directly to Dropbox if you have Dropbox installed.

[neilmann]

Great work!

You can also backup/restore your keys with the QNX Momentics IDE if you are using the NDK. I couldn't find any documentation on how to backup this way, but its pretty straight forward.

qnx_key_backup.jpg

[SCrid2000]

Great work!

You can also backup/restore your keys with the QNX Momentics IDE if you are using the NDK. I couldn't find any documentation on how to backup this way, but its pretty straight forward.

qnx_key_backup.jpg

That's pretty cool, I didn't know that; I mostly do webworks, and it doesn't have anything like that
That'd probably be better than what I made; although I did what I could to compensate for a renamed .p12 file, the SDK would have anything like that already included.
Where does the native tool back them up to?

[neilmann]

Where does the native tool back them up to?

It prompts you for a location to back it up to then it puts the files into a .zip. Also, make sure you make 15 copies of the backup. I dropped my backup into my Dropbox so it is available on any computer I need to use and so I don't lose it.

[SCrid2000]

It prompts you for a location to back it up to then it puts the files into a .zip. Also, make sure you make 15 copies of the backup. I dropped my backup into my Dropbox so it is available on any computer I need to use and so I don't lose it.

Dropbox is definitely the way to go; I keep all my apps in there too.
I should make this upload the keys to dropbox if possible.

edit - I suppose I could include a db installer in case someone doesn't have dropbox and just move the keys to the dropbox folder; not very eloquent a solution, but a workable one.

[jeroen_13]

That's pretty cool, I didn't know that; I mostly do webworks, and it doesn't have anything like that
That'd probably be better than what I made; although I did what I could to compensate for a renamed .p12 file, the SDK would have anything like that already included.
Where does the native tool back them up to?

Your program works better for Webworks Developers (Like me)
Just made a backup !

Edit; Link is dead !!!!!!! not anymore

[SCrid2000]

Just uploaded v1.2, which has Dropbox support.
Index of /blackberry/skbr/

[DisturbedRocks31]

Can't you just get the keys again from the email they sent us?

[big bb]

Can't you just get the keys again from the email they sent us?

You can but once they are registered they can not be registered again. That is why you have to back them up and use the restore instead of trying to re-register

[DisturbedRocks31]

You can but once they are registered they can not be registered again. That is why you have to back them up and use the restore instead of trying to re-register

What happens if I get a new computer or something? I just go to the restore and restore using the backed up keys?

[SCrid2000]

What happens if I get a new computer or something? I just go to the restore and restore using the backed up keys?

Just run the restore feature on SKBR; you'll only need to do it once, and can do it on as many Windows PCs as you like.

[jeroen_13]

I used this tool when i updated my HP laptop from windows-xp to windows 7. Everything works fine on windows 7 (from a developer aspect) but i cant use the Blackberry Graphical AID anymore for signing apps. It gives me the 'inval argument for commandline' error, eventhough cmd-signing the app still works.

[SCrid2000]

I used this tool when i updated my HP laptop from windows-xp to windows 7. Everything works fine on windows 7 (from a developer aspect) but i cant use the Blackberry Graphical AID anymore for signing apps. It gives me the 'inval argument for commandline' error, eventhough cmd-signing the app still works.

Probably a path problem or something.
I only use the command line for everything, so I can't really help with the graphical tool (don't even use Tim W.'s awesome ANT signing thingy).

[jeroen_13]

Probably a path problem or something.
I only use the command line for everything, so I can't really help with the graphical tool (don't even use Tim W.'s awesome ANT signing thingy).

The path is ok, but webworks packaging + signing doesnt work. Just package a webworks app works, and also convert+sign android apps.

But command signing is just way more fun

[SCrid2000]

Uh, you said you backed up from XP?
SKBR doesn't backup from XP, that requires a different path.
You might need to manually backup your signing keys.

[jeroen_13]

I used a custom path for my signing keys on XP (just on C:/)
Upgraded to Win7 64bit, just had all the developement sdk's set up + signing keys when i was forced to downgrade to 32bit. (PC started to lagg a lot.) Thats where i used your tool !