replace android studio project and keep signature

Question

I've been working on this project for months, and when I started out I knew nothing about android dev, gradle or signatures. Since Android studio was also quite new when I started in June, and updates often brought errors in the gradle, the code is a bit messy.

Now, I've been trying to get the new support library imported into my project - without success. Re-importing the project seems to fix this nice and easy, but this means I have to replace the old project(package anomaly). My question is, since this app is already deployed, will I loose the old signature and with it the possibility to update the app on Google Play store?

Hope to hear from ye! Thanks.

[EDIT] Yep, worked like a charm :) Thank you Samuel!

Answer 1

If I am answering the question I think you are asking, can you change the package name and still upload the application as "updates" to one that is already in the market the answer is no.

Once an application is uploaded to the market, pretty much everything can change except the key and the package.

As long as you still use the same signature and key then you should be able to compile with different things and still upgrade successfully. I highly suggest compiling what you have now and trying to upgrade it in the app market and that will very quickly determine whether or not it is possible. If you do this post back on this post if it worked or not for everyone else to see