I have an iOS Xcode project with 3 targets - AppTarget, Lib1 and Lib2.
Hierarchy:
AppTarget is dependent on Lib1 and Lib2. It has no code (SceneDelegate, AppDelegate etc. is moved to Lib1).
Lib1 is a static library containing the AppDelegate and SceneDelegate (Lets not get into why they were moved here from the AppTarget).
Lib2 is a static library, dependent on Lib1. It extends the SceneDelegate class using swift extensions.
In order to get the above structure, I had to add, remove file references and set dependencies.
When I run the AppTarget, I get the following popup after build succeeds,
Pasting the above error as a text,
Details
Executable Path is a Directory
Domain: DVTMachOErrorDomain
Code: 5
Recovery Suggestion: /Users/<user_name>/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/<project_name>-bnytgzvocmpwyuajjxxjivpkymui/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/<project_name>.app is not a valid path to an executable file.
User Info: {
DVTErrorCreationDateKey = "2022-11-03 08:04:49 +0000";
}
I'm not sure why this happened. I didn't mess with the default executable path in Xcode->Preferences->Location tab.
There's an Apple forum post which describes a similar error (not the same).
The solution was to check for references of old files, which are not present now. I have verified the Target->Build Phases->Compile Sources of all 3 targets and things are as expected....Didn't see any 'faint files'.
What am I missing here? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
I'm using Xcode 14.0.1 and swift 5+.
One of the reasons for this can be if there are no sources in the app target. If there is no code, the executable does not get generated as expected. See if adding a dummy/sample source code works i.e. Just a swift file with an empty class should also do the trick.
What worked for me:
Delete app from simulator
Delete DerivedData folder -> ~/Xcode/DerivedData
Quit Xcode
Restart computer
Launch Xcode, clean project (command + k), clean build folder (shift+command+k)
From there I was able to run my app target successfully ✅
Exclude the arm64 arch when building for the Simulator. The reason is the Simulator is using X86 based architecture. When building for a real device, like an iPhone, you must remove the Architecture exclusion. The iPhone is using arm based arch.
See the snapshot here
I have a problem generating a iOS App archive from an application. The application compiles just fine and even works in the simulator. Now I wanted to make som ad hoc testing and cannot generate the iOS App Archive. When I click on the Product -> Archive it generates a generic xcode archive. Can anyone help me. I should mention, that I have already generated an iOS App Archive of this application. It has just stopped to generate iOS Archive for some reason. Thanks a lot.
Check Build Settings:
Skip install is NO for the main project target
Skip install is YES for framework (sub-projects) targets
In Build Phases for sub-projects, Copy Headers needs to be in Project, not Public (does not apply if building static library)
Installation Directory under Deployment is valid (/Applications for example)
This can happen if you've added a framework/library ... you need to edit the Target->Build Settings of that library and set the 'Skip Install' setting to 'Yes'. When you re-archive, XCode should start producing a 'iOS App Archive' again rather than a 'generic xcode archive'.
In addition of Skip Install to Yes and in case you opened another lib/framwork project within your app project you have to move headers (if any) from public to project in the Build Phase / Copy Headers.
I did the following to make it work for me:
I had a three20 static library, I used cocoapods to include the files within the main project
followed the skip install for all other sub projects/static libraries and switched the copy headers from public to project as stated above
most importantly: in each library your project uses go to build phases -> Copy Files and ensured that destination is changed from Absolute path to products directory. Note: see the hint below to narrow your search to find the library causing this error.
and that was it!
hint: to get an idea of the offending files that's causing your archive to create an archive file rather than an ipa do this:
Select the archive and click the Distribute button.
Select the 'Save Built Products' option.
Hit Next and Save.
Browse the created directory in Finder.
The 'libraries' subdirectory will identify the libraries that you need to set the Skip Install to Yes.
in some cases usr/local/include will identify the culprit header files you need to move from Public to Project or the files that you have to change from absolute path to products directory (or even the files you forgot to set the skip install to yes flag). but that directory (ie usr/local/include) varies depending on your sublibrary directory structure. In many cases.. you will see all the files listed under Copy Files in step 3 above listed here. If you find them here, then you have a definite answer for the cause of your problem.
update to hint: to make life even more simpler.. whatever files appears under step 4 in hint above.. simply search for it in the global search of xcode.. and you should get immediate results for what you want.. for example, this was the content of my folder (following the steps in hint above):
So I could tell it has something to do with the crypto and ssl libraries.. searching for them:
made me realize that i forgot to set skip install to yes.
If you export the archive, open it and see /urs/local/include in Products try this suggestion:
In each pod, under Packaging, Private Headers Folder Path and Public Headers Folder Path is set to /usr/local/include. If I clear them then I get a valid archive.
Worked for me after upgrading my React Native app to 0.11.0, Xcode 7 and CocoaPods 0.39.0.beta.4.
If you're using CocoaPods as well as WatchKit or a Today Extension, there is an open issue on the CocoaPods repo explaining what your problem might be.
The solution for me was to remove the Copy Pod Resources phase from the WatchKit Extension and Today Extension targets under Build Phases. The project compiled and archived as expected once I did this.
Hope this helps someone, this had me stumped for an entire day!
If any of the above answers don't work, your issue is probably with cocoaPods. The latest update 0.38.1 messed things up for me, but then i downgraded to 0.37.1 and things returned to normal. Using Xcode 6.3.1
Later edit: updating to 0.38.2 will also fix this. More info about what caused this issue here: Cocoapods 0.38.1 failed to create valid Archive
Although I'm using Xcode5 and what sorted it for me was editing the Build Scheme - trying all of the above suggestions that were applicable didn't help in my case.
I had two targets, say, "App" and "App FREE". My problems with the generic archive happened when I was trying to Archive the FREE version, which I added after the 'normal' version of the app. In my case, when I selected its Scheme in the toolbar and chose Edit Scheme ... I saw that Build section had two targets, namely App and App FREE.
I unchecked all columns for App, leaving only App FREE's columns checked, and clicked OK. Next time I chose Product > Archive I got my App FREE instead of a Generic Archive. :)
If you have only single project, maybe this solution would be useful.
This problem had occurred, when I duplicated the target. As a result I had two targets parallel built. This was causing the issue. Generic IOS archive was built.
To turn the parallel built off go to
Manage schemes,
Edit scheme,
Build,
Remove the other target.
I had this problem after updating to iOS 9 and Xcode 7. Josh H's solution worked for me:
In each pod, under Packaging, Private Headers Folder Path and Public
Headers Folder Path is set to /usr/local/include. If I clear them then
I get a valid archive.
I also made a post install script for my Podfile to do this automatically!
post_install do |installer_representation|
installer_representation.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
target.build_configurations.each do |config|
config.build_settings['PUBLIC_HEADERS_FOLDER_PATH'] = [""];
config.build_settings['PRIVATE_HEADERS_FOLDER_PATH'] = [""];
end
end
end
Just add it to the bottom of your Podfile and run pod install
I had this issue. In my case, it was caused by keeping a Mac app target as a dependency of the iOS app.
The reason it was setup like this was that the Mac app was a tool used to generate some data for the iOS app, which was then included in the bundle.
I had to remove that dependency and build the tool separately before making a build of the iOS app itself.
In my scenario I was getting the erroneous "Generic Archive" only after I began including Swift code in my predominantly Objective-C project. After lots of troubleshooting and examination of the archive file that Xcode was spitting out, I noticed that the SwiftSupport folder (with the required dylibs for the Swift runtime) was in a different place in my archive than from a vanilla brand-new Swift project app archive.
I found the Installation Directory build setting and noticed it was set to a custom path in my project. I simply deleted it (setting it to its generic value of /Applications) and the next Build -> Archive I did worked as expected and gave me a proper iOS App Archive.
TL; DR: Make sure your Installation Directory build setting is set to its default value of /Applications when including Swift code in your app, especially if you are starting with an older project file that may have some unexpected legacy build settings.
I have multiple project in my workspace, (GTL, Pods and my main project) and this is what worked for me:
Select the Project, there will be 2 types there, there's the Project and there's the Targets.
For projects that is not your main like GTL or PODS:
Projects:
Skip Install = NO
Installation Directory = /Applications
// For pods
Private Headers Folder Path = ""
Public Headers Folder Path = ""
Targets:
Skip Install = YES
Installation Directory = /Applications
// For pods
Private Headers Folder Path = ""
Public Headers Folder Path = ""
For the main project (which is usually named the same as your product name):
Projects:
Skip Install = NO
Installation Directory = /Applications
Targets:
Skip Install = NO
Installation Directory = /Applications
Check the ios deployment target on each projects and targets to make sure they are all the same.
Leaving this here to save others from the same journey.
I found I needed to remove the same Copy Pod Resources build phase from a static library target in my workspace too.
Addition to Alex L 's answer.
Point 3. Change 'Build Settings' -> 'Public Header Folder Path' to 'include/xxx' also works.
If none of the above helped you...after a lot of time.......
I deleted the value in the Info.plist for Bundle Version because I was happy enough with just Bundle Version Short 1.0. Bad. Don't do this.
*Note I actually did this by editing it in the UI on the right not realizing it would put an empty key in the Info.plist file. I think that makes it invalid. My bundle showed up as other items while archiving and had no icon, and I couldn't upload to anywhere.
This boils down to invalid values in the Info.plist. If it's not a valid archive, try unzipping an old archive and dropping in / overwriting your current one and see if it fixes it when rebuilding the archive.
Go to Build Settings and add
yourAppName/Resources/dist.plist to the Code Signing Entitlements
Press cmd + B with iOS Device or a Real Device selected as Build Target
When done -> scroll to "Products" folder and right-click on yourAppName.app
Choose "Show in Finder"
Create a folder with Name Payload (capital "P")
Copy yourAppName into your Payload Folder
Create a zip from your Payload Folder
Rename the zip to yourAppName.ipa
DONE
After trying just about everything:
Clean, Archive
delete DerivedData, Archive
restart Xcode (I was using XCode7), Archive
combinations of above...
I then noticed my boot partition was 'low on free disk space'... about 1GB or so.
I rebooted, then got about 18GB free.
Then opened Xcode and project, performed Archive... and surprisingly (after an hour of trying to build an Archive) I finally got a non Generic Archive.
No idea if its a free disk issue which fixed it or a reboot of the macOS that fixed it, but it worked for me.
If you have any .xcodeproj files in Project>Targets>Build Phases>target dependencies remove it from there and then build your ipa. It works for me. Cheers
You can get answer here : xcode is creating generic xcode archive instead of iOS App Archive
In my case, i had to move both FMDB and BlocksKit to static libraries. Previously they were built as subprojects. Remember you can use lipo to create universal libraries. When building the final products, the simulator code will be stripped automagically.
Another possible reason for this is to have references in "Target Dependencies" to projects for a different platform. In my particular case, I was working on a project that shares code for OSX and iOS. In one of the iOS targets, I had accidentally added an OSX target as dependency.
In order to be thorough, I am posting my solution.
I experienced the exact same problem trying to build an Archive of an iOS project in Xcode 5.1.1 (5B1008). None of the above suggestions fixed the problem, and most of them were irrelevant (I had not added any Frameworks, and did not have any Public entries in the Copy Headers section of my Build Phases).
In my case, fixing the problem consisted of simply closing my project, deleting any archives that I had previously made, going to Preferences > Accounts, removing my developer account, quitting Xcode, relaunching, re-adding my developer account, starting the Archive process again. This fixed my problem immediately.
One more solution, since all the above didn't work for me...
Changed the User Header Search Paths (I suppose Header Search Paths would work just as elegantly) to "$(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/BlocksKit".
Background:
In BlockKit, the developers have structured the headers in the main project differently than the structure on deployment. So, you can't reference the headers in the project, and must reference the headers copied into the build directory.
The way this worked for me in (Xcode 5) I had 2 targets and when I edited the scheme, on the left pane of the scheme editor, you will see the [BUILD, RUN, TEST, PROFILE XXX.APP, ANALYZE, ARCHIVE] from the BUILD pane, you will see your project targets listed in a list. At the far right end you will see the ARCHIVE selections, make sure only one target is selected for archiving.
I had 2 of my targets selected in my project, I checked only the target I wanted in the product, and it worked!
I solved this error by opening solely the app project in XCode, ie. not opening a workspace comprising the application and other projects/libraries/frameworks.
Having 2 separate project, a framework or shared library and an iOS application, I had to open 2 different XCode windows, each by directly opening the .xcodeproj file instead of the common .xcworkspace, in order to preperly build each.
As a nice side effect, XCode no longer rebuilds every target of every project after I do a Clean, resulting in shorted build times.
Background: I am creating an open source SDK, and a demo iOS application. I had both opened in a single workspace.
Setting Skip install to YES on the SDK targets would prevent anyone from creating an archive, as it would be empty, so this was not an option. Using Project instead of Public headers would lead to an archive missing the header files that should be distributed, so this was not an option either.
For it was because i was working in a workspace.
The project did archived but would ne be displayed in the organizer window.
I closed the workspace and open the project on its own.
The archived has been opened in the organizer ... hope it's help.
In my case, I had a custom script that was copying some temporary files into:
${TARGET_BUILD_DIR}/myTempDir
That meant that, after investigating the archive to inspect its contents, I found right next to the .app file a myTempDir folder. Once I modified the script to save elsewhere things were sorted.
Try setting $(PROJECT_NAME)Headers in Framework projet's Public Headers Folder Path. You have to go to build settings of the Library Target then edit the Public Headers Folder path as $(PROJECT_NAME)Headers.
If using Xcode 7 with cocoapods v.0.38.2. Try removing copy pod resources from your today extension target.
I encountered this problem after adding a OS X command line tool to my iOS app's project, and Skip Install was set to NO by default for the command line tool's target. Since you obviously can't install an OS X binary to an iOS device, archiving defaulted to a generic Xcode archive. Setting Skip Install to YES for this target fixed the problem.
I have an XCode workspace created with XCode 6.0.1. It constains 2 (Swift) libraries and one iOS app (Swift) that depends on those 2 libraries. I had stable setup that allowed me to run the iOS app on both iPhone and simulators: The 2 library projects were added as Embedded Binaries (see picture) of the app.
Now, I have XCode 6.1. Recently, I deleted DerivedData folder in ~/Library/Developer/Xcode folder while XCode was running. After that my workspace did not work - the iOS app would fail to compile and I got linker error saying it cannot find the library projects.
I tried to solve it by removing my the 2 libraries from Embedded Binaries of the app project - and I cannot add them back. Clicking + button under Embedded Binaries in project settings displays workspace projects correctly but selecting and adding my library project does not add them to the list of Embedded Binaries. I have solved the linker error by creating new workspace. The app compiles but how it links the libraries is a mystery to me: They are not in listed Embedded Binaries or Linked Frameworks and Libraries not in the Frameworks search path. There appears to be no link between the app and the libraries it needs (and obviously have as it compiles) except that libraries projects are in the same workspace.
Why I cannot add library projects to Embedded Binaries? Is it normal in XCode 6.1 that dependency projects just compile and gets embedded into an app without being listed or linked anywhere?
This is a summary of my answer to the question Xcode won't add “Embedded binary” after deleting “DerivedData”, see the original question and answer for more context and information:
Remove all framework projects from the workspace
Perform a "clean build" and/or remove the "DerivedData"
Add project back into the workspace
Build the project (possibly optional)
In the General tab of the app target click the + under "Linked Frameworks and Libraries", select the framework.
Build and run in the Simulator (there should be no issues building or running)
Build and run for device (this might cause a crash due to the framework not being correctly linked, ignore this crash)
Click the + under "Embedded Binaries", select the framework. This should add it to the project (possible duplicate under "Linked Frameworks and Libraries")
Repeat for all required frameworks
Once building and running (on device) is confirmed you can remove any duplicate (and/or red) frameworks in the Project Navigator or target General tab
Ok, I ran into the same problem as you. After deleting the derived data, I could not re-link my binaries again. I think the reason is because the derived data is where the binaries are written to and linked against in your project.
What I did to solve was to select my Framework as my build target. After building it, the Framework target turned from red to black. I can see in your screenshot it is red, meaning it has not been compiled into a binary and written on disk.
Once I did this, I was able to re-link the Framework to my Project because there was a reference to it on disk. Hope this helps!
Clean your projects & build your framework first. Thereafter you can embed it.
Here is how I solved the problem:
Build the framwork.
Open the build folder and drag built framework into the app project (so it uses the path to DerivedData).
Add the framework to the list of embedded frameworks.
In the Finder, do a Show Contents on the app's xcodeproj file, then open project.pbxproj in your favorite text editor.
Find the line with the long DerivedData path. Change it so there is no name, the path is the framework name, and source tree is BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR
Xcode should notice the change and the library in the app project will be black instead of red and will now build and run properly.
I have a very similar issue and fixed it just last night. Decided to come back to this thread and offer my workaround, as rjstelling's solution above did not help my case.
I have a workspace that contains two frameworks and one application. The App was making use of both frameworks happily for a while until I got hit by a mysterious compile eror where it decided that adding a property access to an instance variable called "cube" of a class type found in one of the framework, made access to "_cube" impossible (complaining it was not declared, while it had actually worked previously in a setter method).
Long story short, after a clean, somehow the workspace/app project lost track of the embedded framework of my iOS 8+ project. Removing the embedded framework was the last straw in that line of failure, causing my project to no longer allow be to select any frameworks for embedding.
Reverting the project & workspace to an earlier version did not get rid of the voodoo.
I ended up adding the to-be-embeded framework projects in the main app project (as files) and introduced target dependencies on the frameworks.
I was then able to re-embed the frameworks and link.
As for the _cube thing, I had to specify a getter for the property and #synthesize the property to a different name. I dont have an explanation for this one.
It's probably because your framework is a separate project and not a separate target. Try watching carefully Session 416: Building a Modern Framework at around minutes 34-36. It will show you how to set it up correctly.
This makes it a bit confusing if you wanted to share a framework across multiple projects by the way
I've discovered that Xcode 4.3.1 has a serious issue validating apps with resources within a directory tree inside an application bundle.
Apps can pass validation within the Xcode "Build for Archive" process - it only fails when the validation is run via Organizer, which is required to save for ad hoc or App Store submittal.
After spending hours trying to trace down the usual code signing entitlement issues, I eventually noticed the following line in the system console when the export fails:
3/10/12 2:32:48.450 PM [0x0-0x261261].com.apple.dt.Xcode: /Users/chris/Library/Developer/Xcode/Archives/2012-03-10/Coverage 3-10-12 2.32 PM.xcarchive/Products/Applications/Coverage.app/Tiles/T-Mobile-roam/4: Is a directory
The "Tiles" directory has been added to my project via "Create folder reference for any added folders".
I discovered that removing the Tiles directory allows the app to build and validate. Adding it back results in this code sign failure.
It seems that adding a multi-level directory tree completely screws up the validation process, and the error messages send developers on a wild goose chase trying to track down code signing and entitlement issues that really aren't an issue.
I never had any issues with prior releases of Xcode - this seems to be a new serious bug in Xcode 4.3.1.
Is there any workaround possible that will allow us to submit updates to our app?
Notes:
This thread seems related: https://devforums.apple.com/message/630800
This question touches on a similar issue as well:
Xcode 4.3: Codesign operation failed (Check that the identity you selected is valid)
I spent a day trying to isolate this bug, and I've finally nailed it.
The code signer in XCode 4.3.1 when validating for the App Store or saving for AdHoc distribution chokes whenever there is a subdirectory in your bundle that has the same name as its parent directory.
For example:
test/test/file.x -- FAIL
test/test2/file.x -- WORKS
This seems to be new in Xcode 4.3.1, and hopefully will be fixed soon.
UPDATE: I have heard back from Apple DTS support confirming the issue, and indicating that there is no known workaround yet other than renaming the directories in the bundle. ugh
Maybe I've found a workaround:
Open Organizer;
Right click on the archive you want to export and select "Reveal in Finder";
Right click on the xcarchive file and select "Show package content";
Go to Products/Applications;
Create a folder and name it Payload;
Drag the .app file into the folder (don't copy it, since it would invalidate the signing);
Zip the folder;
Rename the .zip file to .ipa
It worked for me.
Let me know if it's ok even for you.
I had the same problem. The solution was to remove files beginning by "._".
Be careful, these files are hidden even when you display hidden files !
In my case, I think that these files were generated by Photoshop.
I had the same problem and solved it like this:
There was a script (under Build Phases) which did try to "clean up" frameworks, by removing seemingly unneeded items, such as the Headers.
However, this destroyed the basic structure of the framework, which probably led to it not being detected properly any more, thus failing the signing or verify operation.
For example, the "Headers" folder and symlink should not be removed, only the *.h files inside the Headers folder!
So, check if your .framework folder contains the basic structure that looks like this:
mylib.framework/
mylib -> symlink to Versions/Current/mylib
Headers -> symlink to Versions/Current/Headers
Resources -> symlink to Versions/Current/Resources
Versions/
A/
Headers/
Resources/
mylib
Current -> symlink to A
We just ran into this where somehow, our .app was getting other .apps built into its bundle. Presumably code signing was choking on the nested app.