How to notify testers of new build in TestFlight? - ios

Over the past two years, we've had around 3-400 beta testers. After Apples update to TestFlight the summer of 2017, we've had problems with nearly all our TestFlight-uploads. Sometimes our beta testers receive email/notification about "a new build is ready to test" 90 days too late, at the exact time the build expires, and sometimes they don't receive notification at all. Just a handful of times it works as expected, that they get notified when we the build is available to test.
Is there a secret trick to managing TestFlight?
I upload the build, click "provide export compliance"-thing, add my internal and external group, and click "Start testing". The build automatically gets available for internal testing, and is sent to beta-review for Apple for external testing. They approve it within 24h, and the build is available in the TestFlight-app for all our beta-testers. But none of them got a notification saying there's a new build..
Followup: How can we fix this now? Do we have to upload a completely new build, or can I remove the "external testers"-group from the build and re-add them again. Will they receive a "new build available"-notifications?
Will they also receive "Build is no longer available for testing" at the moment I remove the external group from the currently active new build? Meh..


Ok. It baffles me how extremely bad Apples dev-websites and services are.
So, in my newly uploaded build, there are two "groups". One called "iTunes Connect Users", which are the internal users who are invited to the developer team. They got an email and a notification immediately when I clicked "Start Testing", because a review is not needed for internal testing.
The other group is called "External testers". The build is available for them, but they didn't get notified when the build was approved by Apple.
I was considering removing the "External testers"-group from the build, hoping for a notification when re-adding the group. But, I also thought the group might first receive "This build is no longer available for testing" or something if I removed the group from the build.
I figured I wanted to test this first, to see if testers receive a notification when I remove their group from a build, so I created a new group (called "ExternalTest"), added one single (new)test-member, and added this new group to the same active build, so that there are three groups under that build.
At the very moment I clicked "add group to build", all of our test-devices here, and apparently every single beta-tester, received a push notification from TestFlight, saying that the new build is available to test. Now, our "installed"-number is skyrocketing, as people are updating.
What the hell, Apple?
I agree with you, #Nitish, TestFlight sucks badly.


Having the exact same problem - a build was approved for external testing by Apple yesterday, but no one received a notification. I created a new group now, added my private email to it, and then added the group to the build. Swoosh! All out test devices received the push notification about the new build. Thumb down emote from me, Apple.


I myself have encountered the same problem. My client who is added as a Beta Tester receives a notification when a build is uploaded. (Never reached a state where he would need a notification where build has expired after 90 days). However, his further client is also added as a Beta tester. But doesn't receive notifications.
This is where I would like to say keenly, TestFlight sucks badly. I would suggest, the best way to track this is to check the status of Build installed or not. Usually Apple reviews the Beta build within 24 hours. At that time, make sure to check the above mentioned status. Re-invite the tester if it still doesn't work.
That's the lame way to get along this, unfortunately.
Otherwise, I would suggest going for other libraries such as Hockey or Diawi.
This is the best I can offer :)


I had a go round with the TestFlight crew a while ago about how bad their interface was. I wanted them to have a simple list that you filled out and a Save button so that you didn't have to do it all at once. Then there should be another button, Send To Testers, that you touched when done. Simple, no? Nah, they rejected my suggestion. I pointed out that when you submit an app to iTunes that's exactly how you do it. Nope, we're doing it this stupid way.
The best I can figure out is that you should walk down the left hand list in the TestFlight section one at a time starting with Builds/iOS . When you reach the bottom and fill out App Information/Test Information hitting Save sends out the invitation. Maybe...

Related

TestFlight Can't add build to Internal Test group

I have already published my app to the app store. I have already a couple of versions. I created an internal test group and an external test group.
Today, I published a new version of the app to App Store Connect, which I want to add to the internal test group. But somehow, I can't select it. When I go to the Internal Test Group, there is no (+)-Sign next to Builds. When I go to the external Test group, there is. And when I select the build and click on the (+)-Sign next to Groups, I can't select the internal test group.
I checked the build version. I should have incremented it correctly. I also tried to disable the other builds, but it still didn't work.
Here are some screenshots:
Any ideas what could be wrong here?

Okay, it seems the new build is added to Internal Testing automatically, and it just takes some time. So this can be closed.

Simply create a new internal Group with manual distribution mode. Then you can select Testers and Build to test easily.
Once you have a manual distribution group and testers received build, you can create a new group with automatic distribution.

If the build is taking too long to be made available, I've found it helpful to submit a new build to re-trigger App Store Connect flows.

Filling up the test information solved the problem for me. Go to > Test Flight > Test Information > Review Notes. Just added "Test" and saved it, the build magically appeared right after.

The same happened to me as well, looks like a bug in test-flight, what I had to do solve was following :
Create a New External Test Group with one or two internal users itself.
Assign the build to this new External Test Group.
Right away the same then reflects for internal users also ( wanted to achieve this only ).
Delete the External Test Group created in Step 1.

Berk's answer works on our case too. Thanks a lot!
After downloading the version now enabled for AS testers, i noted that Apple added a couple of new screens before our app is shown for testing. More like splash screens showing what the developers have said to testers in the Test Info box. In this case it's simply "test".
Looks like a bug on testflight that should have made this compulsory before allowing ppl to upload a build.

My app went from "has one or more issues" to "completed processing" without me touching it. What caused the change?

When I initially tried to submit my app for review in the IOS store, I immediately I received an email saying I had one or more issues with my app. Approximately 10 minutes later, I received another email saying that app has completed processing. I did nothing to change anything in the 10 minutes that elapsed.
I went back to the drawing board and built another version of my app and submitted that about 3 hours later. Only to receive the same rejection response, followed by a "completed processing" email.
Because I wasn't aware of that my initial app completed processing, I ended up using the second version that I created. I was able to submit that version of the app for review.
Here is a screenshot of the initial "issues" email.
Here is a screenshot of the completed processing email for the same app that was submitted just 10 minutes prior.
Since it happened twice in almost the same exact fashion, I believe that it's something on Apple's side. Any ideas how/why this happened or does anyone have experience initially have their app rejected and then 10 minutes later completing the process?

From the first screenshot I can see apple review team has rejected app due to push notification issue.
So resolve it here few things you will need to take care of before submitting new binary :
Make sure your app is using push notification or not
If its not using than disable push notification from APP Id from developer account
Lets say if your app using push notification than make sure its properly enabled on your App Id on developer account & also have proper certificate attached from Push notification distribution
Also make sure that certificate is installed on your system keychain
Go to targets -> Capabilities & switch on Push notification
Now at last make sure you have Push notification frameworks & methods imported properly in to application & its checking the permission alert
Once this all things done than you are good to go with submitting new App version.
Important Note :
Before submitting new version keep Add review note for review team that new have done changes with the push notification issue & now it works fine so Kindly get us approval quickly as possible
Hope it helps.

Test flight sending email notification after app release | iOS

I'm using test flight to share builds with internal testers. But I noticed a weird behavior last week.
I deployed a build almost a month ago, and now the app is live with that build. However, Testflight sent an automated email to testers again saying the build is available for testing. (I know that in current version, we may test the app even if it's live).
The question is:
Is it some bug at test-flight's end that it's sending email notification of
an old build again?
Should I manually expire this build to avoid any
such issue in future? Please note, my app is live with this build
and I don't want it to be affected.

FYI - Same thing just happened to me, but almost 48 hours after I released the app. I don't even have any Testflight users other than me.
I had to double-check to make sure it was really in the App Store. Must be a bug...

What is the UX when I add additional builds to an existing external beta test in iTunesConnect

I currently have an app on iTunesConnect with a few hundred external beta testers using it. Important to note, we will have 2000 testers by the end of the month. I want to push new builds to this app- and this, I know how to do.
What I don't know is, what is the expected behavior for my beta users when I add a new build?
Our company cares a lot about user experience, and we don't want to have our current testers of our current build open the version that they've already installed, only to see it crash because I added a new build that i'm hoping will just update their current version automatically.
Apple does a good job of making a developer think this might happen. I've searched everywhere to find this answer in the docs- please help! After selecting a newly approved build to switch to in the External Testing portal, upon selecting Save, this alert appears:
(405 is the first build, 407 is the new build)
So, what happens when I save this- will users be notified that they need to update the app?
Will the "update" happen automatically for them if they've already installed the first build?
If they open the already installed version, will it simply crash?
If so, what can I do to prevent this from happening?
My team will likely want to send out 1-2 builds / week (of the same app, with fixes and improvements) to the same group of testers until we're ready to officially launch the app. I'd hate to think this would crash the app on them every time. As far as I know, there is no way for me to test this before performing this action- I'm already added as an Internal Tester, but that's a completely different UX in TestFlight (builds are made available to internal testers immediately after uploading)
If you think this has been asked already:
This is not a duplicate of this question- because I haven't attempted to send out the build yet. I want to make sure that linked issue does not happen to my testers!
My question is unlike this one where the user did not know how to properly increase his build number, unlike this one, referring to testing a new build of an app that already has a version in the app store, unlike this one which refers to a bug in the app store where a user couldn't initiate an external test after uploading a build, and unlike this one where the user just didn't know how the iTunesConnect portal works.

iTunesConnect: cannot transfer app because of "You must turn off TestFlight beta testing for the app that you want to transfer"

Below you can see that testing for external testers are turned off:
same for internal testing:
but when I transfer app, one of the criterias are not met:
Why?

I had the exact same issue, resolved by removing all Tester and Build from the TestFlight as discussed above also (!important) remove everything fields at the App Information - Test Information.

For me it was localised test descriptions. Make sure you check that drop down list on the right and clear out info for all languages.

I just solved the transfer issue, you just need to expire your build from tester by following the steps below. and then app will available for transfer..
open your app and click on testflight then click on the icon of your app as shown in below screenshot.
The click on expire build.
Now you can transfer your app :)

I've search for a long time and to me this worked:
Clean all builds inside: My Apps --> App Name --> TestFlight
Go to: Itunes Connect --> Users and Roles --> Tab "TestFlight Beta Testers" and click in the name from another user that isn't you.
Save.
Go back to the App in Itunes Connect: "Itunes Connect --> App Name --> Transfer App" and attempt to transfer again by clicking in "Transfer App".
To me this works. Hope help someone.

i had the same issue i deleted (mark expired) all the versions of app testing version in App TestFlight section and done the trick for me ;) attach is the screen shot of activity.

Another possible reason:
When you delete all test information from TestFlight, make sure you delete it for every language.
In the testinformation page, select every localised language and check if the form is empty.

I struggled with this for an entire day, I tried everything and finally found another workaround:
1) Expire all the builds
2) Delete all testers
3) Clear all the informations in the Testflight tab
4) Delete all langages except the main one
And finally the step which fixed the Testflight criteria for us
5) Create a new app version (no need to submit or even edit it)
now you check transfer.
Good Luck.

I know it's an old question, but it still bugs people to this day.
So the solution here, after you have removed all the testers, and expired all builds, go to TestFlight > Test Information and clear all the fields.
Also make sure you delete any localization you might have there. Give it 5 minutes, after which transfering will be possible.

Not sure if this is going to help,
Check Users and Roles > TestFlight Beta Testers
Do you have a tester who is testing the app that you want to transfer?

I have the exact same issue and I'm currently getting from Apple "our engineering team is still working diligently to have this resolved for you". I have been supplied with a workaround:
Enable TestFlight by adding a tester to a build
Then deactivate the build, by turning off TestFlight beta testing
Attempt to transfer again
unfortunately, I still haven't been able to resolve the issue.

We found that in addition to the other answers here, logging out and logging back in to iTunesConnect allowed us to continue after it was saying TestFlight was still enabled.

I was facing the same issue, going inside tranferring app console multiple times automatically fixed the issue and started showing all criteria as met.

Do the same step as #Imran Iqbal answer, if your app is Sign-in Required, uncheck Sign-in Required also, like:
then, you can transfer app.

I've exactly the same problem and could not solve it. The good news: After contacting Apple, they have confirmed a bug and they're working on a solutions. Apple confirmed also, that many developers ran into this.
Got that workaround from the support (that did not work for me):
1. Enable TestFlight by adding a tester to a build
2. Then deactivate the build, by turning off TestFlight beta testing
3. Attempt to transfer again

It looks like this is being done on purpose for new apps.
Now, A newly created app CANNOT be transferred into an account, until 14 - 21 days have passed.
An expiration period.

First, You must remove all build and user from TestFlight of that app. After its looks like below.
If you still not match last criteria than Sign Out and login again.

Creating new app version did it for me! Thanks!

The tricky solution is to enable testing again, add some tester in. The visit the TestFlight and under test flight users, you will see old active test flight users. Simple delete them.

Resources