No application encryption key has been specified.

The fix on Tanzahost: add an APP_KEY variable to your app, then redeploy.

On your computer, in your Laravel project, make a key and print it, without changing any file:

php artisan key:generate --show

1. Copy the whole value it prints, base64: included.

2. Open your project's Variables tab, choose your app, and add APP_KEY with that value.

3. Choose Redeploy. The new version starts with the key, and visitors switch to it without downtime.

Keep the same key from then on. Laravel encrypts sessions, cookies and anything your code encrypts with it, so a new key logs everyone out and can't read what the old one encrypted.

Why it happens

Laravel reads APP_KEY from its environment. On your computer it's in .env, and .env rightly stays out of Git, so the code we build has no key. On Tanzahost an app's settings and secrets are its variables: stored encrypted, shown masked, and given to every process of the app when it starts, workers and scheduled tasks included.

Running php artisan key:generate in the app's terminal doesn't help: it writes to a .env file, and your app's code is read-only while it runs. A variable is the only place it belongs.

How to check

1. On the Variables tab, look for APP_KEY. If the page says "Redeploy to apply", the live version doesn't have it yet.

2. Open the app's terminal and check that the app sees a key (this prints only its length, not the key):

printenv APP_KEY | wc -c

A Laravel key starting with base64: is about 52 characters. If you moved from another host, use that host's APP_KEY instead of a new one, so your visitors stay logged in and encrypted data still opens.