Dear Support,
I am trying to verify the installation of my macOS app via Test Flight. I have verified through code sign that it is properly signed and has all of the the required entitlements, including sandbox. The package uploaded successfully via Transporter, and the app installs with Test Flight.
However, the app will not run. After numerous attempts, I discovered that the embedded.provisionprofile is missing from the Contents of the app bundle in the version that installs via Test Flight. If I install directly from the same PKG I uploaded to Transporter (that TestFlight is using for the build) I can verify that the embedded.provisionprofile is present.
Why does uploading the PKG and installing through Test Flight result in the removal of the embedded provisioning file? Is this expected and/or could be another reason why my app is refusing to run?
Much appreciated,
~Ross
Why does uploading the PKG and installing through Test Flight result in the removal of the embedded provisioning file?
Because App Store, and hence TestFlight, re-sign your app before distribution. Given that a provisioning profile is tied to your signing identity, the profile that you originally included won’t do any good because the app is now signed by Apple.
If you want to learn more about how this actually works, have a read of:
So how is a TestFlight-installed app ever supposed to run? Well, TestFlight is able to issues profiles for your app and install them on the system. These profiles are not embedded in your app, but rather stored elsewhere on the system [1].
Most problems like this are covered by one of the issues discussed in TestFlight, Provisioning Profiles, and the Mac App Store.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
[1] We don’t document the location but last I checked you can see them with the profiles command-line tool. For example, you can list the installed provisioning profiles like so:
% profiles list -type=provisioning
TTTTTTTTTT.BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB[1] attribute: identifier: F6CB4571-7AC4-4941-B6CD-2CC3A3F9A817
Here TTT… is the Team ID and BBB… is the bundle ID and F6CB4571-7AC4-4941-B6CD-2CC3A3F9A817 is the profile’s UUID. You can pass the UUID to the show command to get a dump of the profile:
% profiles show -type=provisioning -uuid=F6CB4571-7AC4-4941-B6CD-2CC3A3F9A817 -output=result
% ls -l result.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 quinn staff 1781 Feb 7 08:14 result.plist