This bundle is invalid - Your archive contains paths that are not allowed:

The problem has been resolved.

This problem occurred in the process of building a Unity project into an XCode project and archiving it into bundle.

Here's how I did it to resolve it..

1. rebooted my Macbook Air.
2. rechecked the Unity project's certificate settings (iOS).
3. I had proceeded with a new iOS build.
4. opened the XCode project and proceeded with "Clean Build Folder"
5. cleaned up the "Derival Data" folder. (Manually)
6. Finished setting up categories and certificates, and proceeded with the archive.
7. Processing was successfully completed on the server after the upload was completed.

I don't know if it was a temporary problem or if there was a problem with some files in the Unity project.

Getting the exact same cryptic error all of a sudden after updating to XCode 16.3. It's an Ionic Capacitor project. I guess I'll start by rebooting the thing...

same error with Flutter

Your archive contains paths that are not allowed: [._Symbols]

Regarding Flutter you can give more input and get updates in this issue: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/166367

Same. Cannot upload a build to TestFlight currently, because of the exact same error on a regular app (no Unity/Flutter, etc.). I am using Xcode 16.3.

Hopefully this is just a temporary issue on App Store Connect.

Here's how I did it to resolve it..

@BU1LD's suggestions did not work for me. This problem happens for our React Native app too and we've been unable to build for TestFlight.

Still stuck with this roadblock for releases. Contacting Apple Dev Relations by email so far only links me back to this forum thread.

I just downgraded to Xcode and Command Line Tools 16.2, and our IPA still gets rejected by App Store Connect with the same error. I have to say we didn't have any issue at all with that Xcode version until some days ago. The only bigger change I can think of (besides updating the Xcode to 16.3, was that I also updated my macOS to 15.4.

Upon inspection of the IPA (zip) archive I can see a "Symbols" folder, and an empty "._Symbols" folder. No clue where the latter comes from by i will try to remove it from the zip/IPA before trying to upload again.

Seeing this on some but not all of my CI machines. All on macOS 15.4 and Xcode 16.3. Started the same day we upgraded from macOS 15.3 and Xcode 16.2.

This feels like an Apple tooling problem and not a "holding it wrong" problem. I'm following the instructions in the linked Flutter issue above to work around.

the recommend solution is not a solution unfortunately apple forum they provide solution which is not solution instead of fixing the issue

The accepted answer is not working for me. I also tried downgrading to 16.2 and using those command line tools, but it does not resolve the problem. Also, I'm on macOS 15.4

Here is a working workaround

1. Archive app
2. Distribute App
3. Custom
4. App Store Connect
5. Export
6. Save
7. In terminal, navigate to saved exported folder and run

zip -d NameOfFile.ipa ._Symbols/

1. Use Transporter App to upload
2. Success

I've been digging into this, as it's affecting Unreal Engine builds as well, and I've tracked it down to an rsync call being made to copy symbol files into the Root folder of what will become the .ipa later.

2025-04-03 21:42:52 +0000 [MT] Running /usr/bin/rsync '-8aPhhE' '/var/folders/49/_n6lvt951xxdxhf016j1pslr0000gs/T/XcodeDistPipeline.~~~si0ws0/Symbols' '--link-dest' '/var/folders/49/_n6lvt951xxdxhf016j1pslr0000gs/T/XcodeDistPipeline.~~~si0ws0' '/var/folders/49/_n6lvt951xxdxhf016j1pslr0000gs/T/XcodeDistPipeline.~~~si0ws0/Root'
2025-04-03 21:42:52 +0000  ._Symbols/
Symbols/
Symbols/1A2A0969-1932-3CE7-8ACF-232496AA2577.symbols
Symbols/._1A2A0969-1932-3CE7-8ACF-232496AA2577.symbols

Running this command manually, if I remove the '-E' portion of the arguments, the '._Symbols' folder is no longer created.

This doesn't make much sense to me, as -E is related to perserving executability.

     -E, --executability
             Preserve the executability of regular files (i.e., a file is "executable" if at least one 'x' mode bit is enabled in its permissions).  If the source
             file is executable, then for each 'r' mode bit enabled in the destination file's permissions, the corresponding 'x' mode bit will be enabled.  If the
             source file is not executable then all ugo 'x' mode bits of the destination file will be disabled.  This option has no effect if --perms is also
             specified.

My suspicion is that MacOS 15.4 shipped either shipped with a new version of rsync that is misbehaving, or something the the OS changes such that rsync is providnig a different result.

Following up on my previous post, I confirmed that if I install the latest version of rsync via brew, and re-run the rsync command from my previous post, a ._Symbols folder is not created.

Unfortunately, xcodebuild appears to be hard-coded to using /usr/bin/rsync rather than the version that I installed via brew, and replacing the version at that path requires disabling some core system file protections.

macOS 15.4 does indeed include a significant revision to the built-in rsync. If that’s causing you grief, I encourage you to file a bug about the specific problem you’re having. Please post your bug number, just for the record.

Having said that, this ._ stuff is a concern. That’s indicative of an AppleDouble file. See Extended Attributes and Zip Archives.

The things that you rsync into your .ipa shouldn’t have extended attributes, and thus you shouldn’t see rsync processing AppleDouble files. If you do, I recommend that you research where these extended attributes are coming from, because removing them at the source is likely to be the better long-term fix for this problem.

Share and Enjoy
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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

@projects-poly how did you force xcodebuild to use homebrew rsync version ?