How to generate a .ipa file from my app using Visual Studio? - ios

I'm using Visual Studio community 2022 and Xamarin to create a mobile app which is compatible with both iOS and Android. I would like to be able to download the app on my iPhone so I can test it properly and eventually be able to share the app with other people. I have been able to archive the Android version of my app (generate the .apk file) with Visual Studio since, from what I gather, I have an Android simulator in my computer. However, I am unable to archive the iOS version of my app and generate a .ipa file because I don't have such a simulator on my computer. I can't use my iPhone to play it since I don't have an Apple Developer account (and getting one would cost me $119 CAD which I'm not very eager to pay) so the remaining solution would be to pair to a Mac computer.
I own a Mac computer, but I don't use it anymore since it was getting pretty old (Macbook pro purchased in 2013). When I try and pair to my mac, I get the same error message every time and I don't know what to do about it:
"An error occurred while trying to establish an SSH connection with SSH keys to"
followed by my mac's IP address. However, even if I managed to pair my mac to visual studio on my Windows computer, I have a feeling I would still be unable to sign my code without the Apple Developer account.
I've tried many things:
I've downloaded Visual Studio for mac on my mac and run the code, but since my mac is old the version of xamarin I used in my code is incompatible with the versions of XCode and Visual Studio I can download.
When that failed, I've tried doing what's indicated on this website but I didn't succeed since archiving the app always failed, because the XCode version I can download isn't recent enough (I can only download version 12.4 and I need at least 13.3)
-I've looked a lot into signing the app without paying $119 to Apple for a developer account but have found nothing else.
If anyone has any suggestions about how to potentially get the .ipa file it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks:)

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Xamarin.iOS does not support running or debugging the previous version of your project

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Tried adding a new iOS project.
Tried creating a completely new project. Same issue.
I've got an iPad plugged in externally with a USB type C cable to my laptop and I have set up all the developer requirements from apple to be able to access my device via visual studio.
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There is no more information I can provide with the error because I myself do no get more to work with either.
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My environment is a windows laptop and a macbook pro running visual studio from windows.
I can pair to mac just fine
I am using automatic provisioning which appears to be correct since my team shows up in the team dropdown.
I feel like i did the provisioning correct because team would not show up in dropdown if not.
I have latest xcode installed on mac
I verified simulator runs fine on mac by starting through xcode
In the videos i watched as soon as mac was paired then more options appeared besides just simulator. (ipad, tvos, etc)
One question is when i registered my device i used the UUID from the macbook and not UUID of simulator. Could not get straight answer for this.
To be clear i am just trying to run the simulator and not a remote device.
Honestly i just want to be able to test the ios application. It should not be this many steps to just run a test. Is there a more simple way to test or am i on the right track?
Updating visual studio on my windows machine did the trick. I really wish the error would give me some kind of warning that would lead me to the conclusion that i needed to update visual studio. That would have saved me many hours.

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So I just got my Apple Developer account.
I got myself a MacBook Pro.
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I started off by connecting to my mac, it did connect successfully.
That's what it said at least.
Then I added a button to the form and here is where it all starts going downhill.
I can't find my device in the device log
When I try to build to my device it keeps saying
Could not find any available provisioning profiles for iOS.
I looked into this issue and got told that I need to add my developer account in Tools > Options > Xamarin > Apple Accounts
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Here is a picture of the bundle singing

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After several months I finally found a working solution:
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Interestingly, Apple seems to have changed their strategy not much time ago , finally allowing to sign and deploy apps on non-rooted iOS devices.
Whenever an app is built for the iOS simulator, vs-mda-remote will create a whole new build folder (named using a 3 - 5 digit random number) located in ~/remote-builds/builds. Inside that build folder, you will need to find and open the XCode project file with XCode 7 (example path: ~/remote-builds/builds/654/cordovaApp/platforms/ios/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME.codeproj).
After having connected and detected your iOS device, you should be able to select it as deployment target. Then you should follow these instructions, basically just adding an AppleID which should be used to sign the app. This wasn't possible with earlier XCode versions and is certainly much easier than using one of the "hack"-like techniques involving jailbreaking your device and practically voiding it's warranty.
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If there are any other questions, please feel free to ask.
in Visual Studio 2015 Community RC, there is an option to debug the app developed by cordova in 'remote device' (iPhone or ipad) connected to the Mac osx. Pls. try it.

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