Apple Silicon macOS app shown as 'Kind: iOS' in System Info

Question

Created 1d

Replies 2

Boosts 0

Participants 2

I have a notarized Apple Silicon application running on macOS Tahoe 26.5.1, and in File Info's General section it reports 'Kind: Application (Apple Silicon)'. In its Info.plist, NSPrincipalClass is set to 'NSApplication'. Running lipo on each of the app's executables reports 'arm64'.

In the Software | Applications section of System Information, though, it is shown as 'Kind: iOS'.

Can anyone suggest why this might be? The application is not built using Xcode, rather it is built on the command-line using make etc.

Thanks for any advice!

Answered by DTS Engineer in 890230022

Problems like this are usually caused by a malformed bundle, either in the bundle structure itself or in the Info.plist. For the bundle structure we have good docs: Placing content in a bundle. Review your bundle structure to ensure that it follows those rules.

For the Info.plist things are trickier. While there’s good documentation about each Info.plist key, there isn’t a good reference for exactly what keys are expected in each product type.

My standard approach to problems like this is:

In Xcode, create a test project with the same name and bundle ID.
Build it.
Move it to the Applications folder.
Check that System Information shows the right result.

You can now diff the Info.plist that Xcode created with the Info.plist that you have, apply any relevant changes, and retest.

Let us know how you get along.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

7h

Accepted Answer

Recommended

Problems like this are usually caused by a malformed bundle, either in the bundle structure itself or in the Info.plist. For the bundle structure we have good docs: Placing content in a bundle. Review your bundle structure to ensure that it follows those rules.

For the Info.plist things are trickier. While there’s good documentation about each Info.plist key, there isn’t a good reference for exactly what keys are expected in each product type.

My standard approach to problems like this is:

In Xcode, create a test project with the same name and bundle ID.
Build it.
Move it to the Applications folder.
Check that System Information shows the right result.

You can now diff the Info.plist that Xcode created with the Info.plist that you have, apply any relevant changes, and retest.

Let us know how you get along.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Answer 2

Touchstone64 OP

6h

@DTS Engineer that's a great idea, thanks for taking the time to post 👍

Sure enough, the 'mock' Info.plist contained keys that weren't present in the original. After adding CFBundleSupportedPlatforms with an array containing the single string MacOSX, System Information now reports the app as Apple Silicon instead of iOS.

Issue resolved!