I am trying to create a playstore release.
I've followed the guide to create an upload key and keystore, to the letter: https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/app-signing#generate-key
I have then generated a signed app bundle of my app with the upload key, exactly as stated here: https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/app-signing#sign_release
Which resulted in a file named: app-release.aab
Now, because this app is brand new, and has never been released before, there is no need to export the encrypted key and "opt in an existing app into Play App Signing" as I already opted in to this when I created the new app listing in the play console and, of course, I've never uploaded an APK signed with another key for this app listing before.
Next, I go to the play console and create a new production release. When I upload the app-release.aab file however, I see the following error message:
"The Android App Bundle was not signed."
Which is completely baffling.
As far as I can tell, I have followed the instructions to the letter, and I have attempted to do some research on google but I'm finding no answers.
Could anyone with experience of this process help me?
EDIT:
What I did not understand about the entire process, was that I am asked to generate the upload key locally but never actually upload the key to the google play console - how on earth does Google know that the app is signed with the upload key, if they've never seen the upload key? But, no where in the documentation of generating the upload key is it stated that I am supposed to do anything with the locally generated key other than use it to generate the signed app bundle locally, which is exactly what I have done.
EDIT 2:
Here are screenshots showing the process I am following to create the upload key and generate a signed bundle of my app with the upload key:
And then, rather oddly, the result of running keytool -printcert -jarfile app-release.aab from the directory where the bundle is:





