Could not launch app on watchOS downloaded from TestFlight

I will try delete testflight after install👌 Today the app just keep freezing for me

Only been 6 hours, but early signs from our side that dropping TestFlight and doing Adhoc distribution outside of TestFlight fixes this issue.

No one on the adhoc (non-TestFlight) build has experienced this issue at all yet.

We'll keep monitoring, but our plan is to double down on this approach and wave goodbye to TestFlight.

Obviously, it does still leave open the question of: what fixed things, ditching TestFlight or moving to adhoc signing?

This is important because it's currently unknown for us if AppStore downloads would behave like TestFlight and our AppStore watch app users would be impacted at random.

Very keen to hear from Apple engineers so we can resolve this uncertainty before going to AppStore.

Ad hoc working is encouraging at least, doesn't that use the production version of the provisioning profile?

It depends what you mean by “production”.

Ad hoc is still distribution signing, so it can share production-like pieces such as the Apple Distribution certificate and production APNs environment.

But it does not use the same App Store/TestFlight provisioning profile class. In our Bitrise setup, ad hoc export uses distribution_method: ad-hoc, while TestFlight/App Store export uses distribution_method: app-store.

Bitrise and Apple docs both say ad hoc export uses an Ad Hoc provisioning profile tied to registered device UDIDs; App Store/TestFlight export uses an App Store Connect provisioning profile.

So ad hoc working is encouraging, but it does not prove AppStore installs are safe.

Ah that's right, I forgot they had separate provisioning profiles. Been a long time since I did an ad hoc build!

@developer555 @tph Deleting TestFlight seemed to be working as well, so far😄

Wow this is looking an awful lot like a watchOS regression was shipped into TestFlight itself.

The next question is, why are we uniquely affected?

Why isn't this thread swamped with other watchOS developers with our TestFlight issue?

Is there something special about our apps' provisioning profiles?

🤔

For me the issue starts in a very akward time. the time overlapped with our app team transfer and adding a huge feature to the app, I don't even know where to start😄.

Who knows it is caused by TestFlight?

@tph @developer555 And do you know if there are other victims or we are the only unlucky ones?

I dont see any related issue on the internet

@tph @developer555 And do you know if there are other victims or we are the only unlucky ones?

This thread is only indexed by Google up to April 11, so will be hard for others to find us currently.

I've since heard of two other popular apps affected. There aren't all that many Apple Watch apps compared to the number of iPhone apps, and this may only be affecting ones that are set to run independently of their iPhone counterpart (so an even smaller percentage).

Jumping in to say I've also experienced the same issue over the last week. I was beating my head trying to understand what sort of bug I could have introduced, and then decided to check the forums here.

I've just reinstalled TestFlight and, if it still occurs, will also file a ticket with a sysdiagnose.

Reinstalling TestFlight did not help the issue. I have submitted a bug report (FB22779045) with references to FB19339644 and FB22765369 and this thread.

Jumping in to say I've also experienced the same issue over the last week. I was beating my head trying to understand what sort of bug I could have introduced, and then decided to check the forums here.

Wondering if all of us on this thread should start actively spreading the word to other watchOS developers that this is going on?

(Given that Google search isn't getting updates since before we all piled in).

Every Watch developer with the problem that shows up here helps to show Apple that this is widespread. And can be another linked feedback ticket.

Thank you, everyone, for creating these reports.

I have been in communication with the relevant engineering team to share these reports directly with them as they come in. They are monitoring this closely to determine if this is an emerging issue. Please continue to file and share your feedback reports here so I can relay them to that team.

Generally, updates are provided through Feedback Assistant, however, if they provide any updates to me directly, I will make sure to share them here.

For more details on what to expect after reporting, see What to expect after submission.

Currently, I have not seen this issue reported outside of this thread. That's just as far as I can see.

I hope this helps,

 Travis