I am trying to update one of my published apps in Android studio that contains a google map, however the app crashes when opening the map. What I’ve done so far: Placed my google API key in the AndroidManifest.xml. Compiled the apk with the keystore I used for the sha1 and tried it on a real device. Doubled checked the api key and the sha1 code on google developer console. Error log: 12-20 11:21:57.806 15989-15989/com.myapp E/MotionRecognitionManager: mSContextService = android.hardware.scontext.ISContextService$Stub$Proxy@34b72b16 12-20 11:21:57.806 15989-15989/com.myapp E/MotionRecognitionManager: motionService = com.samsung.android.motion.IMotionRecognitionService$Stub$Proxy@2a223c97 12-20 11:21:57.806 15989-15989/com.myapp E/MotionRecognitionManager: motionService = com.samsung.android.motion.IMotionRecognitionService$Stub$Proxy@2a223c97 12-20 11:21:57.946 15989-15989/com.myapp D/AndroidRuntime: Shutting down VM 12-20 11:21:57.946 15989-15989/com.myapp E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main Process: com.myapp, PID: 15989 java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap com.google.android.gms.maps.MapFragment.getMap()' on a null object reference at com.myapp.BT_screen_map.onCreateView(BT_screen_map.java:181) at android.app.Fragment.performCreateView(Fragment.java:2114) at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.moveToState(FragmentManager.java:904) at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.moveToState(FragmentManager.java:1082) at android.app.BackStackRecord.run(BackStackRecord.java:834) at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.execPendingActions(FragmentManager.java:1467) at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl$1.run(FragmentManager.java:452) at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:739) at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:95) at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:145) at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6872) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372) at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1404) at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1199) 12-20 11:22:20.606 15989-15989/com.myapp I/Process: Sending signal. PID: 15989 SIG: 9

>> java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'com.google.android.gms.maps.GoogleMap com.google.android.gms.maps.MapFragment.getMap()' on a null object reference at com.myapp.BT_screen_map.onCreateView(BT_screen_map.java:181) >> The key to successful debugging on Android is to find one or two lines which reference the code in your app and see what is missing in it. Here, it will be line 181 in BT_screen_map.java. Going there, we see that it says in line 176 // get the com.google.android.maps.v2.API_KEY from the // AndroidManifest.xml file... From the above log we see that NullPointerException is the problem, i.e. you are referencing something that does not exist. Conclusion: something is wrong with the API key in the manifest file, have a look there and verify that this is the case or not.

Thanks Dusko for your help but the API key is correct (I copied it directly from google developer console into the manifest file) so it has to be something else.

>the API key is correct OK, but what else is wrong? The error java.lang.NullPointerException: means that something was used but not initialized. In Java and many other languages, that will mean that there is no pointer to a structure or record that holds the data. Here is the code around line 181 in bt_screen_map.java: ApplicationInfo ai = null; String tmpAPIKey = ""; try { ai = BT_appDelegate.getApplication().getPackageManager().getApplicationInfo(BT_appDelegate.getApplication().getPackageName(), PackageManager.GET_META_DATA); tmpAPIKey = (String) ai.metaData.get("com.google.android.maps.v2.API_KEY"); } catch (NameNotFoundException e) { BT_debugger.showIt(fragmentName + ":onCreate. EXCEPTION. Google Maps v2 API Key not found in AndroidManifest?"); } So, to see what is (not) going on, print the value of tmpAPIKey, either using a BT_debugger.showIt statement or by putting a breakpoint and executing in the debug mode. If that value is nil, try to put the api key value directly into tmpAPIKey and see whether that produces a different outcome. If not, then somethins else is wrong.

Ok I entered the API key directly in the tmpAPIKey and I got a blank screen (no errors). Doubled checked the API Key and the SHA1 on the google developer console and they're all correct. So something else must wrong.

I was able to pinpoint the problem by adding the following code to line 181 in bt_screen_map.java: try { if(mapView != null){ mapView = ((MapFragment) getFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.mapView)).getMap(); } } catch (Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } Apparently the debug SHA1 key was assigned to my release keystore key. Fixed it by going to file>project structure>app> signing & then build types.

Great stuff, Louie! I used this to debug the exact same problem, and it worked like a charm. Thanks! Mark