General: Forums topic: Code Signing Forums subtopics: Code Signing > General, Code Signing > Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Code Signing > Notarization, Code Signing > Entitlements Forums tags: Code Signing, Signing Certificates, Provisioning Profiles, Entitlements Developer Account Help — This document is good in general but, in particular, the Reference section is chock-full of useful information, including the names and purposes of all certificate types issued by Apple Developer web site, tables of which capabilities are supported by which distribution models on iOS and macOS, and information on how to use managed capabilities. Developer > Support > Certificates covers some important policy issues Bundle Resources > Entitlements documentation TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles — This includes links to the other technotes in the Inside Code Signing series. WWDC 2021 Session 10204 Distribute apps in Xcode with cloud signing Certificate Signing Requests Explained forums post --deep Considered Harmful forums post Don’t Run App Store Distribution-Signed Code forums post Resolving errSecInternalComponent errors during code signing forums post Finding a Capability’s Distribution Restrictions forums post Signing code with a hardware-based code-signing identity forums post New Capabilities Request Tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles forums post Isolating Code Signing Problems from Build Problems forums post Investigating Third-Party IDE Code-Signing Problems forums post Determining if an entitlement is real forums post Code Signing Identifiers Explained forums post Mac code signing: Forums tag: Developer ID Creating distribution-signed code for macOS documentation Packaging Mac software for distribution documentation Placing Content in a Bundle documentation Embedding nonstandard code structures in a bundle documentation Embedding a command-line tool in a sandboxed app documentation Signing a daemon with a restricted entitlement documentation Defining launch environment and library constraints documentation WWDC 2023 Session 10266 Protect your Mac app with environment constraints TN2206 macOS Code Signing In Depth archived technote — This doc has mostly been replaced by the other resources linked to here but it still contains a few unique tidbits and it’s a great historical reference. Manual Code Signing Example forums post The Care and Feeding of Developer ID forums post TestFlight, Provisioning Profiles, and the Mac App Store forums post For problems with notarisation, see Notarisation Resources. For problems with the trusted execution system, including Gatekeeper, see Trusted Execution Resources. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

You can now easily request access to managed capabilities for your App IDs directly from the new Capability Requests tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles > Identifiers. With this update, view available capabilities in one convenient location, check the status of your requested capabilities, and see any notes from Apple related to your requests. Learn more about capability requests.

I’m prototyping a personal-use system that lets an iPhone with a physically attached controller act as an input device for a Mac. End goal: Use the iPhone as the transport and sensor host Use the attached physical controller for buttons/sticks Map the iPhone gyroscope to the controller’s right stick to get gyro aim in Mac games / cloud-streamed games such as GeForce NOW that don't support the gyro. What I’m trying to understand is whether Apple supports any path for this on macOS that does NOT require restricted entitlements or paid-program-only capabilities. What I’ve already found: CoreHID virtual HID device creation appears to require com.apple.developer.hid.virtual.device HIDDriverKit / system extensions appear to require Apple-granted entitlements as well GCVirtualController does not seem to solve the problem because I need a controller-visible device that other apps can see, not just controls inside my own app So my concrete question is: Is there any supported, entitlement-free way for a personal macOS app to expose a game-controller-like input device that other apps can consume system-wide? If not, is the official answer that this class of solution necessarily requires one of: CoreHID with restricted entitlement HIDDriverKit/system extension entitlement some other Apple-approved framework or program I’m missing I’m not asking about App Store distribution. This is primarily for local/personal use during development. I’m trying to understand the supported platform boundary before investing further. Any guidance on the recommended architecture for this use case would be appreciated.

Hi, I'm developing a Tauri V2 app on MacOS, and am wanting to implement playback controls. It seems that Apple locks down playback, requiring a signed application. My app also has capabilities to "get currently playing track", and I confirmed this works; Apple produces a popup triggered by my await MusicAuthorization.request() call. It returns nil, of course, because I can't get anything to play via the ApplicationMusicPlayer; only through the system's Apple Music app. I understand SystemMusicPlayer is not available on MacOS, which is fine. I'm just a little confused as it seems pretty standard to need to test playback controls quickly without having to codesign and do some provisionprofile embedding acrobatics each time Rust re-compiles target/debug. This slows down development a lot. I do have these entries in my Entitlements.plist: <key>com.apple.security.personal-information.media-library</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.developer.music-kit</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key> <true/> In my tauri.conf.json, I have: "macOS": { "entitlements": "./Entitlements.plist", "signingIdentity": "Apple Development: ()" } My application works like this: I have a temporary button click to fire off a tauriinvoke() command which goes to a #tauri::command, which bridges to Swift code. Again, I validated that my less-permissive "get currently playing track" works; i.e., does not get permission denied. exact error message: [swift] playMedia error: .permissionDenied (^specifically, ".permissionDenied") My code to trigger playback of a specific media item: Task { print("[swift] entered sema Task") let status: MusicAuthorization.Status = await MusicAuthorization.request() print("auth status: \(status)") guard status == .authorized else { sema.signal(); return } print("passed the status guard.") do { var request = MusicCatalogResourceRequest<Song>(matching: \.id, equalTo: MusicItemID(rawValue: songId)) request.limit = 1 let response = try await request.response() guard let song = response.items.first else { sema.signal(); return } let player = ApplicationMusicPlayer.shared player.queue = [song] try await player.play() success = true } catch { print("[swift] playMedia error: \(error)") } sema.signal()

Hi, I submitted a Family Controls (Distribution) entitlement request for my app Faith Lock (com.faithlock.ios) - a prayer-focused iOS app that uses the Screen Time API to help users block distracting apps. I received an approval email, but the portal still shows the request as "Submitted" and the Distribution option does not appear under Additional Capabilities for my identifier. This is blocking me from submitting to App Store Connect. Details: Bundle ID: com.faithlock.ios Team ID: F86P575UNP Request IDs: 3PWTDR8KL3 / 885ZK276KK Status in portal: Submitted (unchanged since approval email) Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way to get the portal manually updated to reflect the approval? Any help or escalation from a DTS engineer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, I submitted a request for the Family Controls (Distribution) entitlement, but haven't received status update regarding approval/rejection etc. I submitted a previous contact support ticket as well. I'm wondering the timeline and also if my request went through - currently it says 'submitted' but it's remained this way for a while... I've had other developers in communities saying they were approved earlier, so curious if it's an app issue. Thank you

Hi, I’m building a macOS tool that analyzes process behavior to detect autonomous / AI-like activity locally (process trees, file access patterns, and network usage). The system is fully user-space and runs locally in real time. I’m planning to use the Endpoint Security Framework for process and file event monitoring. This is an open-source project (non-enterprise), developed by a solo developer. My question: What are the realistic chances of getting Endpoint Security entitlements approved for this type of project? Are there specific requirements or common reasons for rejection I should be aware of? Thanks, sivan-rnd

I have an existing app in App Store Connect. I added the SharedWithYou functionality to the app code and tested it on several devices. Everything is working as expected. One of the first steps was to add the com.apple.developer.shared-with-you entitlement to the Entitlements.plist file. This required a round of updates for app identifiers and provisioning profiles. When I upload the production build for testing in TestFlight I receive the following error: 90919: Invalid entitlement. The “” bundle has the com.apple.developer.shared-with-you entitlement, but it doesn’t use the Shared with You framework. Please remove the entitlement and upload a new build. I'm using SWHighlight, SWHighlightCenter, and SWAttributionView in several places throughout my app... I filed an issue in the Feedback Assistant but so far, have not received any response.

Hi everyone, I recently submitted the Family Controls request form and received the following request IDs: 429MKWT5VX
 KNL6T2DC7A
 N62KV78DKC However, I haven’t received any updates yet and I’m not sure how these requests are tracked or when we’ll know if they’re approved. Our app is almost ready to launch and this capability is critical for us. Both the main app and an extension depend on Family Controls, so we’re currently blocked from moving forward. I also raised a support ticket with Apple Developer Support (Case ID: 102838723073), but I haven’t received any response there either. To be honest, this is becoming really stressful. Months of work are stuck at the final step and we’re unable to move forward without this approval. This isn’t just a small personal project and we’re building a production app and were hoping to launch very soon. If anyone has been through this process or has any guidance on the approval timeline, or if someone from Apple could help look into these request IDs, it would genuinely mean a lot to us.

 Thank you

Hi, I’m requesting the Family Controls distribution capability for my app and its extensions. The main app bundle ID was approved within 1 day. However, I later realized the associated extensions (Shield Configuration, Device Activity Monitor, Device Activity Report) also require separate approval. I submitted those extension requests 4 days ago, and they are still in "Submitted" with no updates. This is currently blocking me from proceeding with TestFlight/App Store submission, since the extensions require the approved capability. Is this delay expected for extension bundle IDs? Thanks for your help.

Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for your support. I have reviewed the documentation for Local Push Connectivity (see URL below) and, following the instruction in the "Important" section to "Request this entitlement from the Entitlement Request Page," I completed the application process for this Entitlement on March 11, 2026. [Local push connectivity] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/networkextension/local-push-connectivity?language=objc#Supporting-APNs-and-local-push-connectivity-in-one-app Subsequently, on March 13, 2026, I received the following reply from Apple: Sub : Re: Requesting Network Extension App Push Entitlement From: Local Push Review Sent: Friday, March 13, 2026 4:09 AM Hi, Thank you for your interest in the Local Push Connectivity entitlement. Your entitlement request has been approved for: Team ID: NWKYYYYYYY Technical documentation on this API is available here: -(Omission) - Best Regards, Apple Developer Relations My understanding is that upon approval of this application, an "Entitlements" field should be added to the input fields for creating provisioning profiles. However, as of today(March 18, 2026), it has not yet been added. Will the Entitlements field be added if I simply wait? My account (Apple ID), which submitted the application, belongs to three Team IDs. For convenience, I will refer to them as Team ID SV3XXXXXXX, Team ID NWKYYYYYYY, and Team ID WEJZZZZZZZ. The application status for Entitlements for each Team ID is as follows: Team ID SV3XXXXXXX Entitlements: Present. Applied for Entitlements on February 6, 2021. (Received "Re: Requesting Network Extension App Push Entitlement" email on February 6, 2021) Team ID NWKYYYYYYY Entitlements: Not present. Applied for Entitlements on March 13, 2026. (Received "Re: Requesting Network Extension App Push Entitlement" email on March 13, 2026) Team ID WEJZZZZZZZ Entitlements: Present. No record (email) of applying for Entitlements. Because of this, I am concerned that the Entitlements applied for Team ID NWKYYYYYYY may have been mistakenly granted to Team ID WEJZZZZZZZ, and I am inquiring about this. Will the Entitlements field for Team ID NWKYYYYYYY be added if I simply wait? Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone, we’ve been waiting since May 30 for our Tap to Pay on iPhone entitlement to be enabled for distribution, but it’s still only active for development (Case‑ID: 14485444). We submitted: A new video recorded from an external device showing the full checkout flow Updated merchant education using the ProximityReaderDiscovery.Topic.payment(.howToTap) API, as suggested by Apple The team initially said the education was compliant, then said it wasn’t. We fixed everything, sent the updated materials, and haven’t heard back in days. We can’t even upload the app to TestFlight because of this error: Profile doesn't include the com.apple.developer.proximity-reader.payment.acceptance entitlement It’s now been almost a month and a half, and this delay is becoming critical. It’s blocking both internal testing and our production release. We’d really appreciate clarity on: Do we need to submit another request via the form? Or is it enough to reply to the existing email thread? Also, are there any direct contacts or escalation paths we can use? Any help or guidance appreciated

My application will create a virtual touchpad. The problem I encountered is: click on the Product menu, select Archives, then select the Distribute App, then click on Drill Distribution, then click on Distribute, and then a prompt appears: Provisioning profile "Mac Team direct Provisioning Profile:"com.xxx.xxx"doesn't match the entitlements file's valuefor the com.apple.developer.driverkit.userclient-access entitlement. But My Identifiers Selected the:DriverKit Allow Any UserClient (development) Do I need toRequest a System Extension or DriverKit Entitlement Select "Virtual HID" in here? https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/system-extension/

While I welcome the arrival of a userspace implementation of drivers, DriverKit as it stands has some notable flaws. My main concern is the ability of open-source projects like HoRNDIS being able to access paid developer accounts and the limited entitlement scope (plus the waiting period) for what is essentially a hobbyist free project. Even if the developer is a professional company, some legacy hardware will go unsupported because of a lack of support from the vendor. Providing a way for users who need access to older hardware would be needed. Three concrete requests: A class-level or wildcard VID/PID entitlement for open source projects with a verifiable public repository A free or reduced-cost entitlement path for non-commercial volunteer-maintained drivers Published approval criteria and timelines so projects can plan accordingly Depreciating kexts without providing an accessible successor for community projects isn't security, it is gatekeeping access to hardware that is critically needed. Is this use case on the roadmap at all? Developers deserve a clear answer.

I am attempting to configure appclips, but I am getting this error in App Store Connect. I created an app clips target in my project, I have checked the XCAsset files and it is included when archived and pushed to App Store Connect. In both my parent and my app clips target I've added the associated domains capabilities, with the following associated same domains for both targets: appclips:akin-server-side-staging.onrender.com appclips:akin-server-side.onrender.com applinks:akin-server-side-staging.onrender.com applinks:akin-server-side.onrender.com My server is configured to serve the following json at all permutations of the staging endpoints and prod endpoints for both well known and aasa without well known. Here is one of them: https://akin-server-side.onrender.com/.well-known/apple-app-site-association Here is the JSON it is returning: {"applinks":{"details":[{"appIDs":["8PJ28P9ZZ8.com.ElevatedUnderdogs.akin1"],"components":[{"\/":"\/appClips\/referral\/venueToUser\/*"}]}]},"appclips":{"apps":["8PJ28P9ZZ8.com.ElevatedUnderdogs.akin1.Clip"]}} And yet I'm still getting Invalid Entitlement: Unknown ID in the store.

Hi everyone, I’m honestly trying to understand what’s going on with the Family Controls API review process. I submitted my entitlement request on March 5, and as of today (March 19), there has been zero response. I also opened a support ticket on March 16, and that hasn’t received any response either. What’s confusing is that updates to another app on the same developer account were approved within days — so clearly the account is in good standing and active. At this point, it feels like there’s no visibility into what’s happening: Is the request under review? Is it waiting for additional information? Or is it just sitting in a queue indefinitely? I understand that Family Controls is a sensitive API, but a two-week silence with no status or communication makes it very difficult to plan or ship features. For those who’ve gone through this: How long did your approval actually take? Did you receive any communication during the process? Is there any reliable way to get visibility or speed this up? Right now, this is blocking a feature we’ve invested significant time building, and the lack of feedback is the most frustrating part. This is really giving me pain. Would really appreciate any insights.

Hello, We recently resubmitted our Family Controls (Distribution) request with a much more detailed explanation after our previous declined. Our entire app (including an extension) depends on this capability, and right now we’re completely blocked from launching. Months of work are stuck at this final step and it’s honestly becoming very stressful with no visibility on the timeline. If anyone has experience with the approval timeline after resubmitting, or if someone from Apple could help look into it, it would truly mean a lot. 4C6XLQWZQY Y5JJ7GT6BP 3ZBSC333WU Thank you

I'm developing a watchOS nap app that detects when the user falls asleep by monitoring heart rate changes. == Technical Implementation == HKWorkoutSession (.mindAndBody) for background execution HKAnchoredObjectQuery for real-time heart rate data CoreMotion for movement detection == Battery Considerations == Heart rate monitoring ONLY active when user explicitly starts a session Monitoring continues until user is awakened OR 60-minute limit is reached If no sleep detected within 60 minutes, session auto-ends (user may have abandoned or forgotten to stop) App displays clear UI indicating monitoring is active Typical session: 15-30 minutes, keeping battery usage minimal == The Problem == HKWorkoutSession affects Activity Rings during the session. Users receive "Exercise goal reached" notifications while resting — confusing. == What I've Tried == Not using HKLiveWorkoutBuilder → Activity Rings still affected Using builder but not calling finishWorkout() (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/780220) → Activity Rings still affected WKExtendedRuntimeSession (self-care type) (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/721077) → Only ~10 min runtime, need up to 60 min HKObserverQuery + enableBackgroundDelivery (per https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/779101) → ~4 updates/hour, too slow for real-time detection Audio background session for continuous processing (suggested in https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/130287) → Concerned about App Store rejection for non-audio app; if official approves this technical route, I can implement in this direction Some online resources mention "Health Monitoring Entitlement" from WWDC 2019 Session 251, but I could not find any official documentation for this entitlement. Apple Developer Support also confirmed they cannot locate it? == My Question == Is there any supported way to: Monitor heart rate in background for up to 60 minutes WITHOUT affecting Activity Rings or creating workout records? If this requires a special entitlement or API access, please advise on the application process. Or allow me to submit a code-level support request. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

We are using SecItemCopyMatching from LocalAuthentication to access the private key to sign a challenge in our native iOS app twice in a few seconds from user interactions. This was working as expected up until about a week ago where we started getting reports of it hanging on the biometrics screen (see screenshot below). From our investigation we've found the following: It impacts newer iPhones using iOS 26.1 and later. We have replicated on these devices: iPhone 17 Pro max iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 15 Pro max iPhone 15 Only reproducible if the app tries to access the private key twice in quick succession after granting access to face ID. Looks like a race condition between the biometrics permission prompt and Keychain private key access We were able to make it work by waiting 10 seconds between private key actions, but this is terrible UX. We tried adding adding retries over the span of 10 seconds which fixed it on some devices, but not all. We checked the release notes for iOS 26.1, but there is nothing related to this. Screenshot:

Hello, I'm trying to develop a driver that uses PCIe through the mac's thunderbold ports. I requested a PCI entitlement, and it's just an empty array in the entitlements file by default. I was wondering if the vendor ID submitted with my entitlement request is supposed to populate this dictionary? I'm currently getting an entitlement check failed from kernel: DK: IOUserServer and was unsure if the PCI entitlement configuration was incorrect. Default entitlement: <key>com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.pci</key> <array> </array> I'd be happy to provide more information as needed, but any guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

We've got an in-house Swift macOS desktop app with a FileProvider extension, which has been working fine on various machines up through Sonoma (and still does). We've just installed it on a Sequoia machine, and on it the FileProvider extension has lost the ability to access the shared app group. It can neither log to the Group Containers folder under ~/Library, nor access the pipe to the main app. The group name is formatted as group.XXXXXXXXXX.com.orgname.appname in both targets. I'm not sure why it combines the iOS and macOS conventions, with both the group prefix and the teamIdentifier one -- it was first built some time before the point in 2025 when macOS supported iOS-style groups -- but again, it's been working. For the record, The provisioning profile for EMPFileProvider has the App Groups capability enabled, and the App Groups capability is present in both build targets in Xcode. The existing group identifier is registered on the website; I've also manually registered the team-ID-less group name, so I can migrate. The question is, is this actually the right approach? Will such a change break the app on pre-Sequoia machines? And if I proceed, what do I need to do to complete the migration? The app was built back in Xcode 12.5; will I need to update the entire build environment to take advantage of Xcode 16.3's explicit support for iOS-style group names, or can I get away with it since I've manually registered the new group?

Hello, I submitted a Family Controls (Distribution) entitlement request on February 25, 2026 for my prayer/productivity app that uses the Screen Time API to block distracting apps. I also submitted requests for two extensions on March 6, 2026: com.prayfirst.prayFirst.ShieldAction com.prayfirst.prayFirst.ShieldConfiguration All three requests still show "Submitted" status in the Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles portal with no progress. I contacted Apple Developer Support (Case #102839422791), and they mentioned I should have received a "follow-up number" after submission — but I never received one. This entitlement is the only blocker preventing me from building and distributing my app. Could a DTS engineer please assist or escalate this? Team ID: BH752TBX9L Thank you.