Google Maps API V2 - always get authentication error

Question

I found lots of questions regarding this - and I am almost ashamed to ask it myself.

But no matter how hard I try, I simple do not get the Maps API running

Answer 1

I know it is an old thread but it was edited few months ago, and i just run into the same problem. Since the cause of my version of the problem was a bit different i'll add it here. I had checked that all the previously cited conditions where true but it was still giving the same error.

After some hours of randomly trying stuff i finally found out that the xml string translation manager of Android Studio had created a new string with the same identifier of the google api key (which is by default stored in a different xml file from the other strings). This new string resource was indeed empty and conficlting with the true key. It was sufficient to delete it to solve the problem.