Demystify code signing and its importance in app development. Get help troubleshooting code signing issues and ensure your app is properly signed for distribution.

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Malware warnings on properly notarized apps
Hello, I've been developing a mac app built with Electron Builder. In August, I was successfully notarizing my app and able to send it to testers without them receiving a malware warning. I took a two month break. When I came back in October, I am not able to distribute my app without the malware warning. I can't for the life of me figure out what I could be missing, unless my developer account was flagged by Apple for some reason. All the diagnostics I run on my app package show that it is properly signed, notarized, and stapled. Here are some diagnostics I have run on the app: Command: codesign -dv --verbose=4 "/Volumes/Form Desktop 1/Form.app" Output: Executable=/Volumes/Form Desktop 1/Form.app/Contents/MacOS/Form Identifier=co.Form.desktop Format=app bundle with Mach-O thin (arm64) CodeDirectory v=20500 size=763 flags=0x10000(runtime) hashes=13+7 location=embedded VersionPlatform=1 VersionMin=720896 VersionSDK=917504 Hash type=sha256 size=32 CandidateCDHash sha256=cedcaef933c003c01b4d9ef6925a413fe6b4a585 CandidateCDHashFull sha256=cedcaef933c003c01b4d9ef6925a413fe6b4a585bf61e19751e8158775600b00 Hash choices=sha256 CMSDigest=cedcaef933c003c01b4d9ef6925a413fe6b4a585bf61e19751e8158775600b00 CMSDigestType=2 Executable Segment base=0 Executable Segment limit=16384 Executable Segment flags=0x1 Page size=4096 CDHash=cedcaef933c003c01b4d9ef6925a413fe6b4a585 Signature size=8973 Authority=Developer ID Application: Jacob LEELAND (92D98F49FU) Authority=Developer ID Certification Authority Authority=Apple Root CA Timestamp=Nov 14, 2025 at 8:25:09 PM Notarization Ticket=stapled Info.plist entries=30 TeamIdentifier=92D98F49FU Runtime Version=14.0.0 Sealed Resources version=2 rules=13 files=35090 Internal requirements count=1 size=176 RESULT: ✅ SIGNED WITH DEVELOPER ID ✅ NOTARIZATION TICKET STAPLED ✅ HARDENED RUNTIME ENABLED ---------------------------------------------------------------- Command: spctl --assess --verbose=4 --type execute "/Volumes/Form Desktop 1/Form.app" Output: /Volumes/Form Desktop 1/Form.app: accepted source=Notarized Developer ID RESULT: ✅ GATEKEEPER ACCEPTS APPLICATION ---------------------------------------------------------------- Command: xattr -l "/Volumes/Form Desktop 1/Form.app" Output: (No extended attributes) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Command: stapler validate "/Volumes/Form Desktop 1/Form.app" Output: Processing: /Volumes/Form Desktop 1/Form.app The validate action worked! RESULT: ✅ NOTARIZATION TICKET VALID [signing-verification-report.txt](https://developer.apple.com/forums/content/attachment/45b41936-6e7a-4f4f-8e80-bc1e3136c84e) code-block I have attached a more complete diagnostic text file as well. I have tried notarizing the .dmg in addition to the app bundle, but no combination seems to work as far as I can tell. I appreciate any help or point in the right direction. I've wasted many days of development time on this, lol.
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Nov ’25
Archive Fails: Conflict with Existing KEXT Developer ID Certificate
Hi everyone, We're trying to prepare a DriverKit App for a client test, and we've run into an unavoidable signing conflict that seems to be caused by the Xcode Archive process itself. Background & Environment: Environment: macOS 15.6.1, Xcode 16.4 Our project consists of a main App Target and a DEXT Target. Both the Debug and Release configurations for both targets are set to Xcode's default: Automatically manage signing. Our developer account holds a valid, active Developer ID Application (With Kext) certificate, which we use for signing our legacy KEXT. The Action That Triggers Failure: From this clean state, we execute Product -> Archive. The Archive process fails during the signing validation phase and presents the following three errors, completely halting the process: There is a problem with the request entity - You already have a current Developer ID Application Managed (With Kext) certificate... No profiles for 'com.company.Acxxx.driver' were found... No profiles for 'com.company.Acxxx.app' were found... This error seems to indicate that the Xcode Archive process: Ignores the project's Release configuration (even the default 'Auto' setting). Attempts to automatically create a new, standard Developer ID certificate for us. This action conflicts with the existing (With Kext) certificate in our account, causing the entire Archive process to fail. The "Failed Experiment" to Resolve This: To work around this automation conflict, we tried the solution: configuring a fully manual signing process for the Release configuration to explicitly tell Xcode to use our existing KEXT certificate. Our Steps: We disabled automatic signing for both the App and DEXT targets for the Release configuration and manually assigned the Developer ID Provisioning Profiles created for our Developer ID (With Kext) certificate. The New Problem: After doing this, the Signing Certificate field for the DEXT Target's Signing & Capabilities interface now shows None, accompanied by the misleading warning about needing a DriverKit development profile. The Outcome: This None issue now prevents us from even starting the Archive process, as the project fails to build due to the incorrect signing configuration. We've tried every debugging step — including rebuilding profiles, validating the keychain, and clearing caches — but nothing resolves this None issue. Our Dilemma: State A (Fully Automatic Signing): The Archive process fails due to the KEXT certificate conflict. State B (Manual Release Signing): The project fails to build due to the Signing Certificate: None issue, preventing us from initiating an Archive. For a development team holding a KEXT Developer ID certificate, how should an Xcode project be configured when migrating to DriverKit, so that the Archive process: Does not trigger the flawed automation logic that attempts to create a new certificate? And, does not fall into the Signing Certificate: None configuration trap? Related Forum Threads We've Studied: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/781932 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/751490 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/767152 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/721563 Best Reagrds, Charles
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Notarization time
Hi Team, i'm running into same issue with notarization time. I create new, small app for a customer but however the notarization is running since this morning, so almost a few hours. This isn't normal or ? Is there anything what i can do ? Best regard, Lars
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Nov ’25
Notarization stuck on “In Progress” for hours
Hi everyone, I’m trying to notarize a macOS app for direct distribution in Xcode. The upload finished, but the notarization has been stuck on “In Progress” for hours. I’m not getting any emails or errors, and the status log in Organizer only shows the same “In Progress” message without any extra details. I tried reopening Organizer and creating a new archive, but it always ends up in the same state. Is this normal, or is there something I should check on my side? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Nov ’25
KeyChain Error
I'm experiencing an issue when exporting an Enterprise distribution certificate where the certificate and private key won't export together - the private key keeps getting left out. I'm running macOS Tahoe. Has anyone encountered the same issue or know of a solution? Any help would be appreciated.
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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Some of the apps I have developed are being flagged as malware
I have a free developer account, and I have been creating applications. When I tried to open one of them, it said that this app has been flagged as malware. It is not malware, so I don't know why it has been flagged as this. Not just this app, but suddenly a whole bunch of my apps have been flagged as malware as well! The app I have been developing is basically a windows Taskbar for my macbook air, and it has been working well until the latest update i made where it hides in full screen, suddenly it started taking up significant energy, so i reverted to an older version while i was fixing it. Then, when i try to open it another time, it starts to open, and it says "Malware Blocked and Moved to Bin" “Taskbar.app” was not opened because it contains malware. This action did not harm your Mac”. All versions of the taskbar now contain this message. I try opening some of my other apps, a shared storage client and a shared storage server (where i was testing with app groups), and they couldn't open either, the same malware message appeared. ProPermission couldn't open either (changes permissions on files for me so i don't have to use the terminal or finder). I can run these apps through the Xcode environment (attached process), but when I archieve it into an app bundle, the malware flag appears. Please note that I am certain that these apps do not contain malware, apparently XProtect has incorrectly flagged my apps as malware. Because I do not have the paid developer account, I cannot notarize my apps. I am using MacOS Tahoe 26.1 with Xcode 26.0, and I have tested it with a iMac Intel 2017 with MacOS Ventura.
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Nov ’25
Notarization queue stuck — all submissions remain “In Progress” after assisting another team
Hello Quinn and Apple Developer Support, We are encountering an issue where our notarization queue appears to be stuck, and we would greatly appreciate your help. A few days ago, we assisted another team by submitting their app for notarization using our own Apple Developer account, because their own notarization attempts were getting stuck. However, the submission we made for them under our account has now been stuck in the “In Progress” state for about 5 days. Later, their own submission (using their account) was rejected after 2–3 days, but our submission for them (under our account) has never completed. Since then, all our subsequent notarization requests have also remained “In Progress”, which strongly suggests that the stuck submission is blocking our entire notarization queue. Here are the details from our submission history: xcrun notarytool history --apple-id "xxx" --team-id "xxx" --password "xxx" Partial results: id: 0bafa66f-4f47-4327-811f-a05481be5d0b status: In Progress id: 2d00b75a-a17a-44fc-afa1-71e0e39ec2cd status: In Progress The first ID is our own app’s submission. The second ID belongs to the submission we made for the other team. Both have been stuck in “In Progress” for several days, which seems abnormal. Could you please help us clear or reset the notarization queue for our account so that we can continue submitting our own apps? Thank you very much for your time and assistance! Best regards, gongcj
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Nov ’25
Notarization time for new developer and new app
I've submitted my app, signed with a new Developer Id Certificate for a distribution outside of the App Store, 88 hours ago. xcrun notarytool history ... Shows the submission as "In Progress". xcrun notarytool log ... Tells me "Submission log is not yet available or submissionId does not exist". I don't know if that's expected for an "In Progress" submission. As far as I can tell the signing worked without problems. I'm using the Tauri toolchain, which under its hood is using notarytool. How long can I expect this to take? If there is a problem with my submission does the status just stay on "In Progress" or do I get an error? Thanks
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Nov ’25
"Signing certificate" and post-installation assignment fail due to IOPCIPrimaryMatch
I'm having trouble configuring the "IOPCIPrimaryMatch" entitlement. I'm currently developing using "sign to run locally" and have been able to confirm the expected behavior. I was considering signing with "Developer ID Application" for future distribution to customers, but after finding the following forum, I'm now aiming to sign with "Apple Development." https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/743021 I'm currently having trouble with the IOPCIPrimaryMatch value. The "signing certificate" status in Xcode changes depending on the value, as follows: Successful if the value is as follows: IOPCIPrimaryMatch 0xFFFFFFFF&0x00161916 An error occurs if the value is as follows: IOPCIPrimaryMatch 0xFFFFFFFF&0x00161916 So I tried building and installing using "0xFFFFFFFF&0x00161916", but this time the driver was not assigned to the PCI device. By the way, when I used "sign to run locally", both the installation and assignment were successful with the following: IOPCIPrimaryMatch 0xFFFFFFFF&0x00161916 Could you please tell me the correct way to write this?
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Unable to find identity (but have private key and certificate)
I'm unable to sign the an example application using xcode and "automatically manage signing". The error I'm getting is: CodeSign [...] (in target 'foobar' from project 'foobar') Signing Identity: "Apple Development: [xxxx] " /usr/bin/codesign --force --sign 4ABB258102FF656E9F597546A49274C28D2B8B3E -o runtime --timestamp\=none --generate-entitlement-der [filename] 4ABB258102FF656E9F597546A49274C28D2B8B3E: no identity found Command CodeSign failed with a nonzero exit code However, I am able to see a certificate and a private identity on my keychain: % security find-certificate -aZ | grep -i 4ABB258102FF656E9F597546A49274C28D2B8B3E SHA-1 hash: 4ABB258102FF656E9F597546A49274C28D2B8B3E and % security find-key -s | grep -q 'Apple Development' && echo YES YES what is puzzling is that security does not find an identity: % security find-identity -p codesigning Policy: Code Signing Matching identities 0 identities found Valid identities only 0 valid identities found but XCode claims that everything is working fine. Anybody knows what might I be missing? I tried logging out, requesting new certificates, rebooting, moving them to another keychain, and asking to developer friends.
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Request Assistance with Stuck Notarization Queue
Hello, We are experiencing an issue with the notarization queue and would appreciate your assistance. A few days ago, we helped another team submit their app for notarization. However, that submission has been stuck in the “In Progress” state for about three days now. Unfortunately, this also seems to have caused our own team’s notarization requests to get stuck as well. We ran the following command to review the submission history: xcrun notarytool history --apple-id "xxx" --team-id "xxx" --password "xxx" Successfully received submission history. Partial results: id: 0bafa66f-4f47-4327-811f-a05481be5d0b status: In Progress id: 2d00b75a-a17a-44fc-afa1-71e0e39ec2cd status: In Progress It appears that one of these belongs to another team’s app we helped submit, and the other is our own submission. Both have remained In Progress for several days, and we are now unable to proceed with any new notarization requests. Could you please help us clear or reset the stuck notarization queue so we can continue our submissions? Thank you very much for your help!
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Nov ’25
Persistent Code Signing Failure (HTTP 403) After Accepting Apple Developer Agreement
Hi everyone, We're experiencing a critical and persistent code signing failure (HTTP 403) after accepting the latest Apple Developer Agreement, blocking our application release. Problem: Despite confirming the new Apple Developer Agreement is signed and active on the portal, code signing attempts return an HTTP 403 error, stating a "required agreement is missing or has expired." Steps Taken: Accepted new Apple Developer Agreement. Verified active developer membership and valid certificates (good for years). Cleared caches, restarted systems. Confirmed Team ID, Apple ID, and provisioning profile validity. Any help is greatly appreciated, its been stuck for more than 2 days now.
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Nov ’25
Notarization submission times out.
I am currently having issues uploading my app to appstoreconnect.apple.com/notary/ for notarization. It times out after hanging for a while. I get the following error. 13:42:04 "LocalDataTask <D84AED32-B05B-4439-8BDC-40C0F89B89F1>.<1>" 13:42:04 ), NSLocalizedDescription=The request timed out., NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/notary/v2/asp?, NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/notary/v2/asp?, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=4})
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Nov ’25
App Packaging: bundle format unrecognized, invalid, or unsuitable
I am trying to package a Filemaker 18 Runtime app. A week ago, I managed to get 90% of the way towards doing as much, using MS Copilot as a guide. Unfortunately, due to my confusion over the landing stage files, I decided to start the process from scratch. This time, I fell at the first stage: Code Signing my .app Bundle. The Terminal command: codesign --deep --force --verify --verbose \ --sign "Developer ID Application: ME (V********)" \ "/Users/Me/Documents/Apps/MyApp/Runtime/MyApp/My App.app" Returned the error: /Users/Me/Documents/Apps/MyApp/Runtime/MyApp/My App.app: bundle format unrecognized, invalid, or unsuitable In subcomponent: /Users/Me/Documents/Apps/MyApp/Runtime/MyApp/My App.app/Contents/Frameworks/FMWrapper.framework No matter how many separate elements within the bundle I sign, I encounter the same error message. A few days ago, the identical command worked first time. I would be obliged for any help you can provide. Thanks.
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Nov ’25
Notary service down again?
Is the Notary service unavailable again? The system-status page shows it as being green but I am back to receiving the same error as previously which fixed itself once the notary service went green again and I am unable to notarize and staple my Distribution PKG.
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Nov ’25
Provisioning profile entitlements
Hi, I am developing a iOS app with Packet Tunnel Provider Network Extension. I manage signing manually. I created a distribution provisioning profile. Then when I archive and click "validate" I get this error: Your application bundle's signature contains code signing entitlements that are not supported on iOS. Specifically, value 'url-filter-provider' for key 'com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension' So I run security cms -D -i profiles/vpn_distribution.mobileprovision and I see there <key>Entitlements</key> <dict> <key>com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension</key> <array> <string>app-proxy-provider</string> <string>content-filter-provider</string> <string>packet-tunnel-provider</string> <string>dns-proxy</string> <string>dns-settings</string> <string>relay</string> <string>url-filter-provider</string> <string>hotspot-provider</string> </array> Where are those coming from. My entitlement file has <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension</key> <array> <string>packet-tunnel-provider</string> </array> <key>com.apple.security.application-groups</key> <array> <string>group.my-app-group</string> </array> </dict> </plist> What is happening here. How can I get a provisioning profile that only has the entitlements that I actually need?
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Nov ’25
How to use the WebAssembly (wasm) binary module in macos App
During the release of our macOS App, we encountered the following issue: We need to support dynamic code loading of WebAssembly (wasm) inside our App, mainly by loading WebAssembly (wasm) binary modules. We discovered a problem: a wasm file is neither an executable nor a bundle, so it cannot be code-signed. Since our App needs to pass notarization, we have not set the com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory entitlement. Without setting com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory, loading a wasm module results in an “unsigned code” error that causes the process to crash. Could you please advise on what we should do to avoid this problem? Is it possible to apply for a special entitlement to allow com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory?
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Nov ’25
App ID Prefix Mismatch When Updating Old iOS App (2010) - "An App ID with Identifier is not available"
Hi all, I'm a solo iOS developer trying to update an app I released in 2010. My current Team ID is Q37598Q8GE, but the app's original App ID uses an old prefix, YHX995W43P. When I try to create a new App ID with the original Bundle ID (eu.andela.woordenes) to generate a new distribution provisioning profile, I get the error:An attribute in the provided entity has invalid value An App ID with Identifier 'eu.andela.woordenes' is not available. Please enter a different string. I understand this might be due to the old prefix from pre-2011, when Apple allowed multiple prefixes per account. I still have access to the app in App Store Connect and want to push an update, not create a new app. How can I resolve this?Can I reuse the existing App ID (eu.andela.woordenes with prefix YHX995W43P) for a new provisioning profile, or do I need to match my current Team ID (Q37598Q8GE)? If the Bundle ID is already taken by my current app, how do I update the app without changing the Bundle ID? Any steps to fix the prefix mismatch in Xcode or App Store Connect?
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Nov ’25