I renamed my example.env to .env in order to remove previous errors with my application. However, I noticed
APP_KEY=SomeRandomString
near the top of the .env file an new something was off. When I run
PHP artisan key:generate and recheck the .env file...nothing happens.
My stack includes Apache2, Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS (HVM), PHP 5.5.36
Looks like Laravel still uses the older .env file even it has been deleted, try to optimize the class loader using php artisan optimize then regenerate your key.