Notary service: submissions stuck "In Progress" for days, never completing

Question

Created 1w

Replies 4

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I'm hitting what looks like a service-side notarization problem and could use a pointer on how to get it escalated.

Over the past 3 days I've submitted 9 times with notarytool. Only 2 came back Accepted. The other 7 are stuck at "In Progress" and never reach a terminal state, no Accepted, no Invalid, no log (notarytool log says it isn't available yet), and no email. The oldest has been sitting ~71 hours.

Signing checks out: codesign --verify --deep --strict passes and satisfies the Designated Requirement, hardened runtime with a secure timestamp, no get-task-allow, signed with my Developer ID, and the DMGs are signed before submission. The 2 submissions that completed were Accepted, so credentials and signing are fine. It really looks like the service just isn't processing most of my submissions.

This is a newly enrolled account, and I've filed FB22939442 and have an open Developer Support case.

Is this a known issue for new accounts, and is there a way to get these submissions looked at?

Environment: macOS 26.2, Xcode 26.5, notarytool 1.1.2 (41).

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

1w

You can expect that most uploads will be notarised quickly. Occasionally, some uploads are held for in-depth analysis and may take longer to complete. As you notarise your apps, the system will learn how to recognise them, and you should see fewer delays.

For lots of additional info about notarisation, see Notarisation Resources. Specifically, it links to a Q&A with the notary service team that’s quite instructive.

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

Answer 2

aadnan OP

6d

Thanks Quinn, this is really helpful. I went through the notary service Q&A and it lines up with what I'm seeing, a new app from a new Developer ID getting extra evaluation while the system builds a profile of it. That makes sense.

One practical question. Several of my submissions are now held at "In Progress" anywhere from about 73 hours up to over 106 hours (more than four days) without completing. A couple of others did go through and came back Accepted, so I know the signing and credentials are good. For the ones held this long, should I expect them to finish on their own eventually, or is it better to stop waiting on those and just keep submitting updated versions so newer uploads can go through as the system learns my app?

Mostly want to make sure I'm not sitting on submissions that are effectively stuck. Happy to share the specific submission IDs if that helps. Thanks again.

Answer 3

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

6d

For the ones held this long, should I expect them to finish on their own eventually

Yes. Quoting that Q&A I mentioned:

rest assured that we’ve received your file and will complete the analysis, though it may take longer than usual

or is it better to stop waiting on those and just keep submitting updated versions so newer uploads can go through as the system learns my app?

Again, the Q&A has advice on this front:

if you’ve made changes to your app while a prior upload has been delayed, it’s fine to upload a new build.

So, if you’re making genuine progress on your app it’s fine to submit your new builds, but I wouldn’t bother submitting new requests for the same, or very similar, builds.

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

Answer 4

aadnan OP

1d

Hey Quinn, a status update since it's now been over a week.

Since June 2 I've submitted 17 times. 2 came back Accepted. 13 are still stuck at "In Progress" with no terminal state. The oldest has been sitting around 234 hours now (June 2), there's a group from June 3 at about 200 hours, and another from June 6 at 130-plus hours. The two newest are from today so I'm not counting those.

Same as before, the signing checks out on all of them, codesign --verify --deep --strict passes, hardened runtime with a secure timestamp, no get-task-allow, Developer ID, and the DMGs are signed before submission. One thing I noticed: it doesn't seem to be architecture or format specific. One of the two that went through was an x64 DMG, but other x64 DMGs from the same builds are among the stuck ones, with identical signing. So it really looks like the service is just not processing most of what I send.

Here are the stuck submission IDs, oldest first, in case they help:

a4a00bca-8c8a-470e-b5e8-cd12502166e0, Jun 2 c7d6a78c-eb77-42f3-bcac-bee5c45087ce, Jun 2 17231cbb-f3d7-4515-a332-3412aa9383eb, Jun 2 03a9f77a-b9e6-4c87-a248-578d0ed658a4, Jun 2 b0370f43-d853-40db-8baa-fde0802c0d15, Jun 3 86cea307-bf66-4e96-bc74-425f9c628fa9, Jun 3 06870927-c658-4eca-abce-abcbf03b9e05, Jun 3 a501ba81-1f40-439b-8317-4fb836cd6d92, Jun 6 fedfb6c6-0816-4f9d-916d-d6444207a2d8, Jun 6 865404c2-0986-48d4-8c76-f82886549d70, Jun 6 a6d39244-0d08-4ae6-84ba-8a91d8f294d9, Jun 6 beb2e92a-4141-438d-af92-4215cd221579, Jun 7 e7a4fc67-8e44-456c-887b-f3132ab16f36, Jun 7

I get from the Q&A that held submissions should complete eventually, and I'm not trying to rush the new-account evaluation, but ten days with no movement on the oldest ones is past the point where waiting feels right, and it's holding up a shipping app. Is there any way to get these specific IDs looked at on the back end, rather than waiting them out further? FB22939442 is still open and so is my Developer Support case.

Thanks again your help and happy to provide any more details!