I need a private key p12 file in order to generate a PEM file for push notifications.
I found in many places the steps to create the file, but I always have the same problem on the final step:
Open Keychain Access on my Mac. Within the Keychain Access drop down menu, select Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate from a Certificate Authority. This generates the CSR.
Login into my developer account. Create an unique Apple ID for my application, with push notifications selected (Certificates, Identifiers and Profiles > iOS Apps > Certificates > App IDs).
Open settings for the newly created appliction's id. Go to "Push notifications" and create an "Production SSL certificate". Upload the CSR when it ask for it.
When it finishes download the .cer file.
Double click on the certificate file to install it on the "Keychain Access" app.
Select the private key item under the installed certificate and right click to export it into a p12 file.
Here it´s an screen shot of what i see.
But I can not find any private key item under the certificate item.
Please I really need someone to help me.
Thanks for your patience.
I just got a similar problem looking for apns certificate so here is the solution if someone else need it : APNs certificate missing private key when generating with custom keychain
Just drag and drop the certificate currently in the "System" keychain into the "login" keychain and you will get your certificate with its associated key in the "login" keychain.
Normally, I can export the certificate from the keychain that I download from the apple member center as a p12 file. However, it seems that Apple may have changed something?!
I require it as a p12 to import it into Amazon's SNS service. I have tried converting to PEM files but it's producing an error on the console.
The solution I have found has been posted here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/19502944/1198404
I copy and paste the answer: Turns out all you have to do is select "My Certificates" on the left panel and it enables the .p12 option.
You can't export to a .p12 because you don't have the private key installed on your machine (if you did, you would have an "expand" arrow next to the certificate like your iPhone Distribution certificate has.) You will need to get the private key from the machine that generated the certificate before you export.
If the accepted answer doesn't apply to you (e.g., because you created the CSR from the same Mac, and should have the private key on this Mac), here's one more possibility:
When you happen to have selected the wrong keychain (like if you accidentally had single clicked on the System keychain rather than Login keychain), you may run into the same problem. If the cert signing request came from that machine, it would associate the private key with the Login keychain (at least, that seems to be the default). So if you somehow then downloaded and imported the certificate into another keychain like the System keychain (or iCloud keychain, as some comments have mentioned), Keychain Access would not find the matching private key and would not put the cert under "My certificates", and so it cannot export a p12. It would be similar to the case of importing to the keychain on a different Mac.
Make sure the import is into the keychain associated with the private key. Often this would be the Login keychain.
You don't have the private key.
So the solution is you have to revoke the previous certificate and create a new APNS profile again.
You can export from Cert just like below.
I downloaded a personal development certificate from the Apple Developer center and imported it to my keychain. Now, I want to export it as a .p12 file and encrypt it with a password. When I right click the certificate in the Keychain tab Certificates, and press the Export button, the .p12 option is not highlighted/available. Instead of the other 3 options (.cer, .pem, .p7b), which are available.
I tried a couple of things yet, like adding the Apple ID, which was used to create the certificate, to System preferences->Users and Groups->My account, but that didn't solve it. The certificate was created on a different Macbook than I'm using now.
Is it possible to export it as a .p12 in any way?
One point of interest: the Keychain Assistant window has a "Category" list in the right pane below the title bar (used to be in the lower part of the left panel). You can only export a p12 from the "(My) Certificates" view.
In the "All Items" view, you can see the certificates and the keys alongside, so that they're distinct items with no possibility of multiple selection; in the Certificates view, there's a tree structure with keys as child items of certificates, so that selecting a certificate implicitly selects the corresponding private key too.
The missing .p12 option means that you only have either the private key or the certificate on your machine. You need both of these to generate a .p12 (and incidentally, you'll need both the private key and certificate to sign your apps).
So, find out which of these you're missing, add the missing piece to Keychain, and the .p12 option will be available.
You can check in your keychain whether the private key is associated with the development certificate.
You can export the private key and certificate as .p12 only if it is there.
I was struggling with the same issue - I was able to sign macOS applications locally with my "Developer ID certificate", but wasn't able to export that certificate as a .p12 file (required by Azure Pipelines). What I found after maybe an hour of trying everything is that you need to store the Developer ID certificate in the "login" keychain (only there you can see also your private key and the "Export as .p12" option), not in the "System" keychain as I used to have for many years...
So although the Developer ID certificate stored in the System keychain works fine with Xcode, it doesn't allow you to export it as a .p12 file until you reimport it to the "login" keychain...
Just select Certificate from the left panel to export it as .p12
I have the following problem which I could not find a solution for anywhere. Basically, we have a company developer account (not enterprise) and so in order to submit our app, I requested from our team lead to send me the distribution certificate and create and send me a distribution provisioning profile.
With the developer profile, everything works good, but when I installed the cert and the provisioning profile, I did not see the distribution profile on Xcode, and nor do I have a private key under the dist cert in the keychain.
Does anyone know how to solve this? I read in diff places that I will need to revoke the certificate and create a new one, but I can't really do that since we have a bunch of apps in the company and I can't revoke it for everyone.
Ahh this is a common issue, The solution is simple:
Who ever created the developer credentials originally needs to go to the keychain on their computer and right click on the key(s) for private and public and export the key to a file.
Then you just download that file on your computer and open it, and it will be added to your keychain.
You need to have both the private key (.pem file) and the certificate for your provisioning profiles.
As long as you still have access to the mac which was used to generate the original distribution certificate it's very simple.
Just use that mac's Keychain Access application to export both the certificate and the private key. Select both using shift or command and right click to export to a .p12 file.
Attached a screenshot to make it very clear.
On your mac, import that .p12 file and you are good to go (just make sure you have a valid provisioning profile).
To add on to others' answers, if you don't have access to that private key anymore it's fairly simple to get back up and running:
revoke your active certificate in the provisioning portal
create new developer certificate (keychain access/.../request for csr...etc.)
download and install a new certificate
create a new provisioning profile for existing app id (on provisioning portal)
download and install new provisioning profile and in the build, settings set the appropriate code signing identities
Delete the existing one from KeyChain, get and add the .p12 file to your mac from where the certificate was created.
To get .p12 from source Mac, go to KeyChain, expand the certificate, select both and export 2 items. This will save .p12 file in your location:
For person who are afraid on re-creating AppStore distribution certificate Apple documentation says:
Important: Re-creating your development or distribution certificates
doesn’t affect apps that you’ve submitted to the App Store nor does it
affect your ability to update them.
But it affects apps for Apple Developer Enterprise ecosystem.
I lost hours and hours to resolve this issue, but it's fixed by just restarting MAC...
In my case, I've lost all private keys in my keychain, new ones were imported correctly, but doesn't show the private key as well. The only thing that helped was generating new CertificateSigningRequest
After you changed a Mac which are not the origin one who created the disitribution certificate, you will missing the private key.Just delete the origin certificate and recreate a new one, that works for me~
When I try to upload iOS build to test flight then error was appear.
"Missing privacy key".
Just 2 step for fix this error.
Remove old certificate from developer.apple.com
Create new certificate from Xcode or developer.apple.com
My problem has been solved (I am using Xcode 9.4.1).
Please check, Xcode created new certificate.
If you are creating your own Distribution cert, not using someone else's then this could help.
Spent quite a bit of time on this today, issues from not being able to create a SigningRequest to generating a distribution cert and not having it attached to my private key in KeyChain Access. These steps helped solve this for me.
If you are still having issues, revoke your current cert and start fresh.
Creating a new signing request
The Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate from a Certificate Authority is actually contextually aware of what you currently have selected when you launch it. Just to be sure that you aren't accidentally skewing your Request with some random selection, go to your Login Items and select the Apple Worldwide Developer item. Then launch the above Request and create the CertificateSigningRequest.certSigningRequest file.
Go to Apple Dev portal, add new distribution certificate, upload your CertificateSigningRequest.certSigningRequest file and download the newly created distribution certificate.
To import the distribution cert into your keychain, instead of just double clicking it, I recommend opening your keychain, go to "login/Certificates" area and drag and drop the cert here.
I had an issue where my cert would auto-install into the System area, instead of the login area where my private key existed and this caused my key not to be linked to the new cert.
At the Menu > Visual Studio (mac) > Preferences > Publishing > Apple Developer Accounts > [Select your apple id] > View Details > Create Certificate
To delete unused/invalid certificates, go to website: https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/certificates/list
delete any unwanted certificate there
Next is to create App ID (identifiers), go to website:
https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/identifiers/list
Next, go to website to create provisioning profiles:
https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/profiles/add
use the certificate to bind with your app id.
Next is to download the profiles:
At your mac > At the Menu > Visual Studio (mac) > Preferences > Publishing > Apple Developer Accounts > [Select your apple id] > View Details > Download All Profiles
I got into this situation ("Missing private key.") after Xcode failed to create new distribution certificate - an unknown error occurred.
Then, I struggled to obtain the private key or to generate new certificate. From the certificate manager in Xcode I got strange errors like "The passphrase you entered is wrong". But it did not even ask me for any passphrase.
What helped me was:
Revoke all not-working distribution certificates at developer.apple.com
Restart my Mac
After that, Xcode was able to create new distribution certificate and no private key was missing.
Lesson learned: Restart your Mac as much as your Windows ;)
I accessed that certificate on apple's developer website and after downloaded it I opened it. Likewise, at open I got a little window asking if I wanted to add the certificate to keychain. Just tapped "add" and the "missing private key" error was gone.
My problem was that for whatever reason, the login keychain was missing in the Keychain Access. Xcode created a new certificate and added it to the login keychain but could not use it. Restarting the computer solved my problem.
Just to shed some light on this.
After I deleted my p12 certificate from Keychain. I re-downloaded my own certificate from Apple developer portal.
I was only able to download the certificate. But to sign you need the private key as well. So you either:
export both private key and certificate from Keychain to get it.
Upload a Certificate Signing Request and generate new certificates
That certificate by itself has no value for signing purposes. My guess is that the private key is created by keychain the moment you 'request a certificate from a certificate authority' but isn't shown to you until you add its matching certificate.
Check whether you are using Login or not to add the certificates, if you are checking in System at top left hand side then we wont be able to see it.
So drag and drop the .cer into login then check you are able to get the private key or not.
I'm the creator of the key, but the key was attached to an expired Certificate.
To solve it I went to -> Xcode/Preferences/Accounts/"Account you use to archive"/Manage Certificates..
Then click on the dropdown menu with the "+" sign on the bottom left corner, and choose the type of certificate you need updated (mine was Apple Distribution).
This updated my new certificate with its key attached.
Contact with the creator of iOS Distribution key and tell to export certificate and private key, then just download and double click it to access in your keychain.
I assume you have switched device and trying to create a new certificate for your new device,
First revive the development certificate form the developers portal,
Go to xcode > preferences > accounts > select your apple id with the dev portal access > manage certificates > click on the team account > click on the little + button > click on apple distribution
Go to the apple developer portal , you can see a distribution certificate is created ,
Go to profiles create a new profile with the new certificate.
Download > install
done
An old XCode version will also cause this. I was on XCode10 (old for 2022). Updated to latest version, which resolved the issue.
I could resolve this problem by updating macOS and XCode.
I got new computer. Firstly i copied iOS-project from old one. Then, i refreshed profiles in organizer, but all of them got status "valid signing identity not found"
So in Keychain Access all certificates are OK
Any ideas? How should i valid all this profiles? Thnx
There is no private keys in your certificate
Go to your old mac click on 3 right click on private key and export that key give a password for the key. copy that to private key to pendrive and import that to new Mac Keychain it asks for Password so give the password you set in old mac when Exporting. Restart the xcode it works fine
The certificates are okay, but the private keys required to sign the certificate are not here : you can see this because there is no disclose triangle near the certificate in the Keychain.app.
The keys that goes along the certificate should have a .p12 extension, but if you can't find it, your best bet is to revoke the certificates using the DevCenter, and create them back again and download them onto that new system.
If you have your private keys in your old mac you can create your .p12 file like this:
http://seventhsoulmountain.blogspot.com/2013/09/how-do-i-create-p12-file.html
But if you do not, you have to revoke your old certificate and create a new one.
This is such a pain sometimes. Recently I had to face this. The certificates may appear but you do not have the private keys with you. For a complete guide click below:
http://seventhsoulmountain.blogspot.com/2013/09/ios-code-sign-in-complete-walkthrough.html