Is it possible to distribute old app for ad-hoc use? - ios

A friend commissioned an app to be developed some years ago but the developers went out of business. It was removed from the AppStore in 2015 but she still has it running on 4 devices (she's a university professor and uses it for her research). She now wants to put the app onto other devices and as an app developer myself I'm trying to help.
Is this possible? If so, how?
We've tried to contact the original developers but they are unable to find the source code. Rewriting is out of the question as she can't get funding for this until she can prove her results - for which she needs the app on more devices.
We have managed to get the original .ipa file off one of the existing devices. When I try to put it onto my iPhone using XCode Devices it does it, but when I try to run it it pops up asking for an appstore user name & password and won't go any further, even if I enter my own valid id. Perhaps it's contacting the appstore, finding that the app isn't on there any more and bombing out?
I've tried resigning the .app with an ad-hoc development one using my own developer id but when I try to install that on my iphone it starts doing it then says "The application could not be verified". I've also tried creating a dummy app with the same name and version number and following these instructions Resign IPA from development to enterprise but that doesn't work either. I've researched the error message to no avail. I am deleting the previous app each time I try to put a new one on.
Is there anything else I can try?

Related

Unable to install app from TestFlight (works fine from Xcode)

I'm trying to install my app from TestFlight.
When I press INSTALL, the download indicator runs for a sec and then stops.
I can see the app on my phone, clicking on the app raises
Unable to install the app, please try again later.
It's very weird, since I run the app on a physical device using Xcode, and everything was just fine. Also, older versions of the app are downloaded from TestFlight without any problem.
The app passed through all checks before uploading to the store.
How is it possible that I cannot install the app from TestFight?
What can I do in order to debug this issue?
This can be happen with number of reasons as given below:
Might be you are using the developer profile instead of Adhoc profile
OR using an app identifier that is different from the one that belongs to your profile
OR might be an issue in enable/disable of iCloud and Gamecenter
What you can do is you can connect the device to PC/Mac. Open the iPhone Configuration Utility and see the logs after you press install from the build in TestFlight. It will helps you to dig it.
And last hope is this issue can be at apple side as many developer are facing as given below: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/26759
It's not the correct answer.
In case you are in a rash, and your project was already uploaded from another Mac to the store, a temporary solution will be to import the project to a well-configured Xcode from another computer and send it configured back to your computer. Make sure you have all necessary certificates, Build, and upload to the store. Then I was able to run the app on TestFlight and upload new updates without problems.
IMO, Apple did a really bad job connecting and configuring Xcode projects to the store. As a Flutter developer, I upload apps for both App Store and Play Store, and working with Apple is frustrating. There were no logs or indications about this issue, and it's almost impossible to track the mistake.

iOS 10 Enterprise Deployment Failing - Authentication Required

I have been working to solve this issue for about a month now and I'm finally turning to the good people of Stack Overflow for some assistance.
To make a long story short, our enterprise app provisioning profile expired, so I created a new profile, recompiled the app, and put the IPA and manifest.plist on our server. The issue is that the app refuses to actually download now. After the user clicks "Install" in the dialog on our website, they are bombarded with "Authentication Required" alerts, and no matter what is done, the app WILL NOT install. Per Apple's suggestion, I installed the IPA through Configurator 2 and it installs perfectly, so according to the documentation, this means the issue is not in the signing of the app. I have triple-checked to make sure everything in the manifest is 100% accurate, and the link to the manifest matches the example given in Apple's documentation. It fails in iOS 9 and iOS 10. It fails on my iPhone and iPad. IIS has the mime types setup correctly, and the server can ping Apple's servers required for Enterprise installations. I am no closer to solving this than I was a month ago. Has anybody had any issues with something similar to this? Any input at all will help tremendously. Thanks!

can I distribute my iOS app to a few people for testing without having a developer account

I have not renewed my developer account since I am just developing an app for a school project. I want to distribute my app to a few folks to get some test-feedback (I think there will be lots of bugs, crashes and other issues detected even if 5-10 friends/family use it and provide feedback).
Since I don't plan to publish this on the app store but use it just to improve my app development skills, I want to distribute the app using appaloosa instead of paying the $99 developer account fee to use TestFlight.
This requires uploading an ipa file. I tried following steps in other posts but I am stuck at the step where they ask to "select the archived app and hit 'Share'". I don see any Share button when I select the archived app.
Is it possible to create the ipa file without a developer account? if yes, how is this done? Also, after creating the ipa file and uploading it to appaloosa, will things just work or are there any other gotchas?
Can someone share a screenshot of how creating the .ipa from the archived file would look like? Maybe I'm overlooking the share button?
No, you can only test on your own device for free. Any other distribution requires a Developer Account.
It is indeed possible. You can create the .ipa by using the method shown in How to create ipa in xcode 6 without Apple Developer account?. The second method (of creating empty Payload folder") is what worked for me. I then renamed the compressed file to .ipa instead of Payload.zip and uploaded to appaloosa. I just successfully installed it on multiple devices and they work! Now I'm ready to get some real user feedback. How awesome is that!

Distribute iOS App executable ( iPA ) to a set of users over email to install

I recently finished an application in Unity for a client who runs a sporting event and wanted the app to let the referees keep a more accurate log of the statistics of each game. When building for android, i get a single file that i can send to my device and install it/run it. The part that i have some questions is re-building that same project for IOS.
I know i MUST have xcode which means i MUST have a mac OS, but here are a few questions that i am unaware of.
1) With the most recent release of xcode, developers dont need the $99 apple developers kit to produce something and test it on their device. From what i learned, is it true that you need to verify each device you send the application to in order to test it?
2) Is there a way to compile the IOS application in a way that i can get a single file, or even a folder, and send it via email to my client, at which point they can download the file to their phone and have the application installed?
3) What is the easiest route i can take in order to get my application into ~30 peoples iphones without individually signing each phone to my application?
Thankyou for your help!
You will have to remove this question as what i understand this is a programming site, Please find the answer for reference below as per your question order.
with xCode 7.0 you can do this, we dont need any licenses and its free for any number of devices to test , refer :- link
Yes you can generate a executable which is termed as iPA , but if you want anyone else to install the iPA, either you will have to generate this using a enterprise profile, or you wil have to add you client device id while generating the profile on apple developer protal :- refer :- link
post which they can install the iPA using itunes
This is not possible as per my knowledge, as Apple has strict poilicies as you cant distribute witout their knowledge. that is the reason of having the apple developer account at first place.
Hope the following helps:
1) For testing on your local device XCode should set up proper provisioning files for the development builds of your app automatically once you purchase a developer license.
2) I build Enterprise Ad Hoc applications for a large publicly traded client and I'm able to send the compiled .IPA file to the client and have him test it by installing it via iTunes after I've signed it with a production certificate through XCode. He tests the app using that method before using a third party vendor to distribute the app on their corporately owned iPhones. The same should work if you sign your application with a production cert, although the aforementioned may be limited to the enterprise account's certificate.
3) If you're trying to remotely install a development version of the app on a test phone you will need to verify the phone via UDID in the Apple Developer center for AdHoc distribution, or use the TestFlight method. You can read more about how to do both of these methods here.
Hope this answer will help you out & good luck!
I think for that what you want you need a Paid Apple Developer because it is not possible (without Jailbreak) to install Apps which are not from the AppStore in iOS. So you have to "test" the App on each iPhone you want the App to run on, or you have to publish it to the AppStore, where you can set, that only specific Apple-IDs may download your app.
Thanks luca4499 and Max. I guess the $99 apple dev kit is the way i'm going to have to go then.
To clarify to other users interested in the same questions.
You can develop for multiple people without using the dev kit as long as your list of people isnt changing often, or you are ok with adding each device separately.
If you want to distribute your application, the easiest way is to get the apple dev kit.

exporting your iOS app [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
How do you beta test an iphone app?
In Android you can export your app and get the .apk file that can be installed on any phone for testing. Is this possible with Xcode and iOS? I mean, I got assigned a job and I want to send my first demo.
My questions are the following:
1) What should I send? is there something similar with .apk file?
2) I know the procedure of publishing an app. If i just want to send it fro testing do I have to create a distribution profile and all that staff? The thing is the final app will not be published from my developer account but from the employee's. Is that a problem?
3) Does the person that I will send my file needs Xcode to run the app or something? I do not want to send him my code before he pays me.
You can send demo files of your apps by building them as "ADHOC" versions, but to do this you'll need the device identifiers (UUID's) of all the devices that you want to run your demo app on (in other words, this is the "distribution profile" you're asking about; you need to create a provisioning profile that gets included in the distributable app package). Here's some instructions that can help you get started.
The person can install your ADHOC app either through iTunes (syncing) or directly downloading & installing the ".ipa" file via their device's Safari browser. They don't need to use Xcode.
If your client has an iPhone, then use TestFlight - it makes the whole process of building for ad-hoc distribution much easier and a lot more efficient if you plan on sending multiple builds during development.
You can check them out on http://www.testflightapp.com - They have great getting-started docs and it only takes a few minutes to start the whole process - also, you don't need to install their SDK if you're just sending a pre-release build to somone.
To answer your questions more specifically:
The file that gets exported for iOS development is an .ipa
The .ipa must indeed be signed by an ad-hoc distribution certificate
If you use TestFlight, your client will be able to install your app
from an email - super simple!
Oh, and did I mention that it's completely free? :)
EDIT:
As mmc pointed out, you should check out the basics of Ad-Hoc distribution before using TestFlight, just for your own peace of mind. mmc recommended looking at How do you beta test an iphone app?, and an intro to TestFlight can be found in their tutorial base, here.

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