Demystify code signing and its importance in app development. Get help troubleshooting code signing issues and ensure your app is properly signed for distribution.

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Flutter build fails on iOS physical device in Android Studio, works in Xcode
Hello, I'm encountering an issue when trying to build and launch a Flutter app on a physical iOS device using Android Studio. Here is the full log: `Launching lib/main.dart on (iPhone Name) in debug mode... Automatically signing iOS for device deployment using specified development team in Xcode project: (Project ID) Running Xcode build... Xcode build done. 19.7s Failed to build iOS app Could not build the precompiled application for the device. Error (Xcode): Target debug_unpack_ios failed: Exception: Failed to codesign (Project Names)/build/ios/Debug-iphoneos/Flutter.framework/Flutter with identity (identity ID). Error launching application on (iPhone Name).` This only happens when using Android Studio. When I build the same project using Xcode, it runs fine on the same device. Background: I accidentally deleted all Apple accounts from Xcode recently. In Keychain Access, I had three identical certificates; I deleted the older two and kept the newest one. I suspect this may be related to provisioning or code signing, but I’m not sure how to resolve it within Android Studio. Any advice or steps to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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150
Jun ’25
How to move code signing certificates to another Mac
Hi, I recently created and installed new code signing certificates/keys on my main Mac. How to easily copy these certificates/keys to my another Mac with the same Apple ID? Earlier Quinn suggested: "The easiest way to do this is use Xcode’s import/export feature. Launch Xcode, choose Xcode > Settings, select Accounts, select the account in question, then choose Export Apple ID and Code Signing Assets from the action (…) menu." And it worked fine in 2020-2021. However import/export options are no longer available in XCode 16 anymore. Please suggest a simple solution.
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136
Mar ’25
codesign fails with no explanation
When I first tried to sign my local unit test with the identity generated by Xcode, it failed because the intermediate certificate was missing. In that case, the error message explained that the trust chain could not be completed. But after installing the correct intermediate, codesign still fails, but no longer gives any explanation: codesign -f -s '0EFE7E591A4E690842094B8EC5AFDFE059637D3C' build/Darwin-Xcode-arm64_obf/bin/Release/UNITTEST build/Darwin-Xcode-arm64_obf/bin/Release/UNITTEST: replacing existing signature build/Darwin-Xcode-arm64_obf/bin/Release/UNITTEST: errSecInternalComponent It's the same error line "errSecInternalComponent". Is there a log somewhere that might explain what exactly is the error?
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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93
Apr ’25
Trying to distribute app to Apple Store
I created an MadOS app with xcode 16.5 with a developer id certificate. I've been trying to install a distribution certificate for over a week with several co-workers. I can add a distribution certificate to my key chain, and created a provisioning profile. I've tried every combination but none work. I put xcode in automatic signing but can only see my developer id, if I put it in manual with and without a provisioning profile but if I give the app binary, other users can't run the app because the certificate isn't working. I need support to work with me to look the developer portal and my system to figure this out.
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Jun ’25
Notarytool stuck at "In Progress"
Doing it multiple times (even hours apart) doesn't help. createdDate: 2025-03-14T13:58:40.397Z id: eb49f8a4-bee6-432b-87de-6b11ca9d392a name: panda-app-1.0.0-arm64.dmg status: In Progress -------------------------------------------------- createdDate: 2025-03-14T13:23:31.444Z id: f6f3c938-5356-434c-aba1-c425f18cb4a7 name: panda-app-1.0.0-arm64.dmg status: In Progress
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Mar ’25
Provisioning Profile Missing In-App Purchase Entitlement (Despite Capability Enabled)
I'm facing a persistent issue with provisioning profiles not including the com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase entitlement, even though the In-App Purchase capability is clearly enabled in the Developer Portal for my app. What I’ve already done: Confirmed that the In-App Purchase capability is enabled in the App ID configuration Deleted all provisioning profiles locally (~/Library/MobileDevice/Provisioning Profiles) Regenerated both Development and App Store provisioning profiles from scratch Tried Xcode's automatic signing (after properly registering the device) Verified the provisioning profiles via Terminal (security cms -D -i ...) — the IAP entitlement is missing every time Recreated valid distribution and development certificates Cleaned the Xcode project and settings The result: Every attempt to build or archive the app in Xcode returns: Missing entitlement: com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase I've also opened a support case with Apple, but so far I’ve only been redirected to general documentation. Has anyone encountered this recently? Is there a known delay or sync issue on Apple’s side when enabling capabilities? Can the provisioning profile or entitlement data be manually refreshed by Apple? Is there any workaround that worked for you in this situation?
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186
Jun ’25
store-credentials for notarizing failed – Apple ID locked
Thanks in advance for any hint to solve the following account problem: I tried to store credentials for notarizing. Presumably with the wrong combination of entries (similar to signing) – using the name of my university instead of my Apple Account. xcrun notarytool store-credentials "notarytool-password" --apple-id "Berliner Hochschule fuer Technik" --team-id "8YAW3HL2QP" --password "my Apple-Account-pw" .. retried assuming a syntax error (like missing "). Got the error message: This process stores your credentials securely in the Keychain. You reference these credentials later using a profile name. Validating your credentials... `Error: HTTP status code: 401. Your Apple ID has been locked. Visit iForgot to reset your account (https://iforgot.apple.com), then generate a new app-specific password. Ensure that all authentication arguments are correct.` Happy to see: Signing is not affected and I still an can log in to my account on developer.apple.com. So notarizing “only” seems to be affected. But how to reset the account to resolve the issue? The iforgot.apple.com link does not help - I provided my iPhone-number but did not receive further messages – neither on the iPhone nor on my “developer” macbook. Many thanks in advance All the best Florian
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153
Apr ’25
Codesign Error When Publishing iOS MAUI App in Visual Studio Code
I am experiencing an issue when publishing my .NET MAUI application for iOS using Visual Studio Code. During the publishing process, I encountered a codesign error. Hope someone can help me. This is the error: Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Apple Distribution: SOFTBUILDER SDN. BHD. (********)" /Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/bin/Release/net8.0-ios/ios-arm64/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.app: errSecInternalComponent /usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net8.0_18.0/18.0.8316/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(2335,3): error : /usr/bin/codesign exited with code 1: [/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-ios] /usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net8.0_18.0/18.0.8316/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(2335,3): error : Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Apple Distribution: SOFTBUILDER SDN. BHD. (U44UY7DYY7)" [/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-ios] /usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net8.0_18.0/18.0.8316/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(2335,3): error : /Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/bin/Release/net8.0-ios/ios-arm64/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.app: errSecInternalComponent [/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-ios] /usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net8.0_18.0/18.0.8316/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(2335,3): error : Failed to codesign '/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/bin/Release/net8.0-ios/ios-arm64/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.app': Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Apple Distribution: SOFTBUILDER SDN. BHD. (U44UY7DYY7)" [/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-ios] /usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net8.0_18.0/18.0.8316/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(2335,3): error : /Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/bin/Release/net8.0-ios/ios-arm64/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.app: errSecInternalComponent [/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-ios] /usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net8.0_18.0/18.0.8316/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(2335,3): error : [/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-ios] /usr/local/share/dotnet/packs/Microsoft.iOS.Sdk.net8.0_18.0/18.0.8316/tools/msbuild/iOS/Xamarin.Shared.targets(2335,3): error : [/Users/frankongthuanhong/Desktop/App/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui/MLBusinessCafe_Maui.csproj::TargetFramework=net8.0-ios]
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Mar ’25
SystemPolicyAllFiles code signing requirement
Hello. I have an enterprise application that requires specific privileges to execute correctly on MacOS. One of these privileges is SystemPolicyAllFiles (aka Full Disk Access), as we use the endpoint security framework. When we distribute our application, we generate: A signed, notarized pkg consisting of our application binaries. An MDM-compatible .mobileconfig, which contains the SystemPolicyAllFiles setting. We expect our users to install both to get the application to function correctly. However, we have three environments we deploy to: Internal (local development on a developer's workstation), "development" (where features are integrated prior to release) and "production" (what our customers get). For local, our developers create an Apple account and use a Mac Development certificate for signing. They also generate their own embedded.provisionprofile and drop that into their local installation config. For development/production, we use our Developer ID certificate and Developer Installer certificate, with an endpoint security embedded.provisionprofile bound to those. However, when we generate a .mobileconfig, we need to include a CodeRequirement (CR) for SystemPolicyAllFiles. I've been retrieving this using codesign -dr - ... (i.e., the designated requirement aka DR). However, the designated requirement is very specific to the certificate, which is problematic specifically for local development, where each developer has their own Mac Development certificate. Here's what the relevant section of our generated mobileconfig looks like right now: <dict> <key>SystemPolicyAllFiles</key> <array> <dict> <key>Allowed</key> <true/> <key>CodeRequirement</key> <string>identifier "com.example.app and anchor apple generic and certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.6] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.1.13] /* exists */ and certificate leaf[subject.OU] = <TEAMID></string> <key>Comment</key> <string>app</string> <key>Identifier</key> <string>com.exmple.app</string> <key>IdentifierType</key> <string>bundleID</string> <key>StaticCode</key> <false/> </dict> </array> </dict> That's in a format that works for our Developer ID cert, but the DR for the Mac Development certificate looks like: identifier "com.example.app" and anchor apple generic and certificate leaf[subject.CN] = "Mac Developer: John Doe (12ABC34567)" and certificate 1[field.1.2.840.113635.100.6.2.1] /* exists */ Question: Is it possible to relax the code requirement so that it is generic enough to cover all Mac Developer certificates and Developer ID certificates we use? If not, is there a way to have one code requirement for our Mac Developer certificates and a separate CR for our Developer ID certificate? My use case is deploying a static "local" .mobileconfig using our internal company MDM (Apple Business Essentials) to all developer workstations so we don't have to have each developer manually configure their system for the software to run. Thanks! D
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Mar ’25
Using restricted entitlements in a macOS 26 VM
We have a Mac app that uses some restricted macOS entitlements, thus to test it we embed a development provisioning profile, that needs to contain the correct provisioning UDID. Typically, for test VMs, we extract the provisioning and UDID and add it to the developer portal and then re-generate the provisioning profiles. However when we try to do this in our newly created VM (Apple Silicon), our executable won't run, and macOS logs that the provisioning profile doesn't allow the device: 2025-06-12 12:37:52.168 E taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] embedded provisioning profile not valid: file:///Applications/foo.app/Contents/embedded.provisionprofile error: Error Domain=CPProfileManager Code=-212 "Provisioning profile does not allow this device." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Provisioning profile does not allow this device.} 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] Disallowing com.company.foo because no eligible provisioning profiles found 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df amfid[112:e99b0] [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0xb34c74a00] invalidated because the current process cancelled the connection by calling xpc_connection_cancel() 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df taskgated-helper[27489:e97da] [com.apple.xpc:connection] [0x839144000] invalidated because the client process (pid 112) either cancelled the connection or exited 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E amfid[112:e91ac] [com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity.framework:default] Failure validating against provisioning profiles: <private> 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 E amfid[112:e91ac] [com.apple.MobileFileIntegrity.framework:default] Restricted entitlements not validated, bailing out. Error: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=<private>, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} 2025-06-12 12:37:52.169 Df amfid[112:e91ac] /Applications/foo.app/Contents/MacOS/foo not valid: Error Domain=AppleMobileFileIntegrityError Code=-413 "No matching profile found" UserInfo={NSURL=file:///Applications/foo.app/, NSLocalizedDescription=No matching profile found} The UDID for this VM does look weird, in System Profiler: But I can verify that this UDID string is present in the provisioning profile embedded in the app bundle: $ security cms -D -i /Applications/foo.app/Contents/embedded.provisionprofile | grep -i 7cd9234e9aa4fa8ba528ee417f857b2c993a20a3 <string>7CD9234E9AA4FA8BA528EE417F857B2C993A20A3</string> I also tried deleting the manually added device from the Developer portal and installing Xcode on the VM and letting Xcode register the device, but I end up in the same situation there. Even after letting Xcode itself register the device, it says that "this device not registered to your account" and then when I click "Register device" it changes into " already exists". Has anyone else managed to get Mac development provisioning profiles to work in a VM?
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360
Jun ’25
No Keychain App anymore
The docs here outline how to create a CSR/ and request a certificate. https://developer.apple.com/help/account/certificates/create-a-certificate-signing-request "Accounts preferences Use Accounts preferences to manage developer account assets (signing certificates and provisioning profiles), add repositories, and add servers. To open Accounts preferences, choose Xcode > Preferences and click Accounts." I have the latest version of XCode, I don't see Preferences / Accounts anywhere? I can go here and create a certificate: https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/certificates/add but it wants a CSR, which loops back around to the XCode thing. So, I can't figure out how to create a singing cert for my iOS app. Launch Keychain Access located in /Applications/Utilities. This doesnt seem to exist in Mac OS Sequoia 15.5 https://developer.apple.com/help/account/certificates/create-a-certificate-signing-request
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133
Jun ’25
Apple could not verify `app` is free of malware
Hello, I'm working on an app at work and we finally got to signing and notarizing the app. The app is successfully notarized and stapled, I packaged it in a .dmg using hdiutil and went ahead and notarized and stapled that as well. Now I tried to move this app to another machine through various methods. But every time I download it from another machine, open and extract the contents of the dmg and attempt to open the app, I get the "Apple could not verify my app is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy. When I check the extended attributes there's always the com.apple.quarantine attribute which from what I know, is the reason that this popup appears I've tried uploading it to google drive, sending through slack, onedrive, even tried our AWS servers and last but not least, I tried our Azure servers (which is what we use for distribution of the windows version of our app). I tried uploading to Azure through CloudBerry (MSP360 now), and azure-cli defining the content-type as "application/octet-stream", the content-disposition as "attachment; filename=myApp.dmg", and content-cache-control as "no-transform". None of these worked The only times where a download actually worked with no problems was when I downloaded through the terminal using curl, which obviously not a great solution especially that we're distributing to users who aren't exactly "tech savy" I want the installation experience to be as smooth as other apps outside the App Store (i.e Discord, Slack, Firefox, Chrome etc....) but I've been stuck on this for more than a week with no luck. Any help is greatly appreciated, and if you want me to clarify something further I'd be happy to do so
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488
Jun ’25
Provisioning profile doesn't support the External Link Account capability
Hello, i have a problem. From one day to another i get following error (I never experienced this error with the same profile before) while trying to build and release my app via fastlane: exportArchive Provisioning profile "" doesn't support the External Link Account capability. Looking in the App developer website, it seems, that the existing and valid profile includes this capability. On the other side, inspecting the profile via xcode profile download, there is no hint that this capability is enabled. Any suggestions? Thanks!
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302
Jul ’25
Notarization takes more than a day
Hello everyone, I'm encountering significant delays with the notarization process for our Electron application using a newly created developer account. The process is taking an unusually long time (1-2 days), which is disrupting our workflow. Details: We've attempted notarization multiple times over the past 2 weeks. The process consistently takes 8+ hours before I typically abort it. (due going offline etc) Interestingly, when I check the notary history later, it shows the notarization was actually successful. Our application package is relatively large, which might be contributing to the delay (archive: 226 mb, app:800mb) Recent Examples: Current submission (still in progress): 52db12c3-4a54-4e14-9d77-e141d7f28227 Previous successful submission: 49273be6-3e13-4f3f-83a4-945114d899b9 Has anyone else experienced similar issues with notarizing applications? Are there any optimizations or best practices I should implement to reduce these processing times? I'm using the default notarization feature that comes with electron forge. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated!
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735
Mar ’25
In-App Purchase Grayed Out & Provisioning Profile Error
Hello, I’m facing an issue with enabling In-App Purchases (IAP) for my iOS app, and it’s causing provisioning errors during the build process. Issue: • In Apple Developer Portal → Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, the In-App Purchase capability is checked but grayed out, so I can’t modify it. • In Xcode, under Signing & Capabilities, I don’t see In-App Purchase listed. • When trying to build, I get the following error: Provisioning profile “BillionMines_Dev_Profile” doesn’t include the com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase entitlement. • Automatic signing in Xcode fails with: Xcode failed to provision this target. What I Have Tried: 1. Verified that my App ID is explicitly defined (not a wildcard ID). 2. Regenerated and downloaded a new Provisioning Profile, ensuring it matches my app. 3. Confirmed that In-App Purchase is enabled in App Store Connect under Features. 4. Cleaned the build folder and restarted Xcode. 5. Manually added com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase to my .entitlements file. Questions: • Why is the In-App Purchase option grayed out in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles? • How can I ensure my provisioning profile includes the com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase entitlement? • Are there additional steps required to fully activate In-App Purchases? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
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621
Mar ’25
Notarization takes almost a week
Hi everyone! I've send my .dmg file for notarization, it has been accepted on March 5. Since then there weren't any updates, it hasn't changed its status. What might be the problem? Info about submission: createdDate: 2025-03-05T12:13:18.802Z id: 202d877d-d0c4-4211-bba4-6ebdb169a843 status: Accepted
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366
Mar ’25
Notarization of Electron MacOS App taking too long
I started the notarization process for my electron app (just a browser window loading a URL) yesterday (26/03/2025) at around 05:23 GMT. I noticed in a couple of posts here in the forum that it may sometimes take a day to notarize the first app submitted by a team, but it has been over 30 hours since I submitted the app for notarization Here's the log. createdDate: 2025-03-26T05:23:11.102Z id: ddcb3fca-4667-4acb-8fd1-3298a7c244cc name: xolock-browser.zip status: In Progress Is there any reason why it is taking so long? Thanks in advance!
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97
Mar ’25
TestFlight warning when uploading macOS app via Transporter
I'm attempting to upload an updated version of our macOS app for distribution via the App Store. We've done this without issue before, but I am now receiving a warning when I upload the app via Transporter: "Cannot be used with TestFlight because the signature for the bundle at “AXON Studio.app” is missing an application identifier but has an application identifier in the provisioning profile for the bundle. Bundles with application identifiers in the provisioning profile are expected to have the same identifier signed into the bundle in order to be eligible for TestFlight." (90886) I just recently started seeing this warning when I upload our application via Transporter. Before this warning started happening, I was using the exact same process and scripts to build/package/codesign our application. NOTE: we are not using Xcode to build our application, so we can't take advantage of any codesigning/packaging automation provided by Xcode (the app is written in C#/.NET 6.0), so we are doing all build/package/codesign steps using the appropriate macOS command line utilities. Also, I have verified that the app bundle and its contents have valid signatures. Does anyone have any idea what may have changed to cause this warning, or how I might go about determining the root cause so I can fix it?
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134
Jun ’25