You can now easily request access to managed capabilities for your App IDs directly from the new Capability Requests tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles > Identifiers. With this update, view available capabilities in one convenient location, check the status of your requested capabilities, and see any notes from Apple related to your requests. Learn more about capability requests.
Demystify code signing and its importance in app development. Get help troubleshooting code signing issues and ensure your app is properly signed for distribution.
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Forums topic: Code Signing
Forums subtopics: Code Signing > General, Code Signing > Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Code Signing > Notarization, Code Signing > Entitlements
Forums tags: Code Signing, Signing Certificates, Provisioning Profiles, Entitlements
Developer Account Help — This document is good in general but, in particular, the Reference section is chock-full of useful information, including the names and purposes of all certificate types issued by Apple Developer web site, tables of which capabilities are supported by which distribution models on iOS and macOS, and information on how to use managed capabilities.
Developer > Support > Certificates covers some important policy issues
Bundle Resources > Entitlements documentation
TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles — This includes links to the other technotes in the Inside Code Signing series.
WWDC 2021 Session 10204 Distribute apps in Xcode with cloud signing
Certificate Signing Requests Explained forums post
--deep Considered Harmful forums post
Don’t Run App Store Distribution-Signed Code forums post
Resolving errSecInternalComponent errors during code signing forums post
Finding a Capability’s Distribution Restrictions forums post
Signing code with a hardware-based code-signing identity forums post
New Capabilities Request Tab in Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles forums post
Isolating Code Signing Problems from Build Problems forums post
Investigating Third-Party IDE Code-Signing Problems forums post
Determining if an entitlement is real forums post
Code Signing Identifiers Explained forums post
Mac code signing:
Forums tag: Developer ID
Creating distribution-signed code for macOS documentation
Packaging Mac software for distribution documentation
Placing Content in a Bundle documentation
Embedding nonstandard code structures in a bundle documentation
Embedding a command-line tool in a sandboxed app documentation
Signing a daemon with a restricted entitlement documentation
Defining launch environment and library constraints documentation
WWDC 2023 Session 10266 Protect your Mac app with environment constraints
TN2206 macOS Code Signing In Depth archived technote — This doc has mostly been replaced by the other resources linked to here but it still contains a few unique tidbits and it’s a great historical reference.
Manual Code Signing Example forums post
The Care and Feeding of Developer ID forums post
TestFlight, Provisioning Profiles, and the Mac App Store forums post
For problems with notarisation, see Notarisation Resources. For problems with the trusted execution system, including Gatekeeper, see Trusted Execution Resources.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Entitlements
Provisioning Profiles
Signing Certificates
Code Signing
This issue keeps cropping up on the forums and so I decided to write up a single post with all the details. If you have questions or comments:
If you were referred here from an existing thread, reply on that thread.
If not, feel free to start a new thread. Use whatever topic and subtopic is appropriate for your question, but also add the Entitlements tag so that I see it.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Determining if an entitlement is real
In recent months there’s been a spate of forums threads involving ‘hallucinated’ entitlements. This typically pans out as follows:
The developer, or an agent working on behalf of the developer, changes their .entitlements file to claim an entitlement that’s not real. That is, the entitlement key is a value that is not, and never has been, supported in any way.
Xcode’s code signing machinery tries to find or create a provisioning profile to authorise this claim.
That’s impossible, because the entitlement isn’t a real entitlement. Xcode reports this as a code signing error.
The developer misinterprets that error [1] in one of two ways:
As a generic Xcode code signing failure, and so they start a forums thread asking about how to fix that problem.
As an indication that the entitlement is managed — that is, requires authorisation from Apple to use — and so they start a forums thread asking how to request such authorisation.
The fundamental problem is step 1. Once you start claiming entitlements that aren’t real, you’re on a path to confusion.
Note If you’re curious about how provisioning profiles authorise entitlement claims, read TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles.
There are a couple of ways to check whether an entitlement is real. My preferred option is to create a new test project and use Xcode’s Signing & Capabilities editor to add the corresponding capability to it. Then look at what Xcode did. You might find that Xcode claimed a different entitlement, or added an Info.plist key, or did nothing at all.
IMPORTANT If you can’t find the correct capability in the Signing & Capabilities editor, it’s likely that this feature is available to all apps, that is, it’s not gated by an entitlement or anything else.
Another thing you can do is search the documentation. The vast majority of real entitlements are documented in Bundle Resources > Entitlements.
IMPORTANT When you search for documentation, focus on the Apple documentation. If, for example, you search the Apple Developer Forums, you might be mislead by other folks who are similarly confused.
If you find that you’re mistakenly trying to claim a hallucinated entitlement, the fix is trivial:
Remove it from your .entitlements file so that your app starts to build again.
Then add the capability using Xcode’s Signing & Capabilities editor. This will do the right thing.
If you continue to have problems, feel free to ask for help here on the forums. See the top of this post for advice on how to do that.
[1] Xcode 26.2, currently being seeded as Release Candidate, is much better about this (r. 155327166). Give it a whirl!
Commonly Hallucinated Entitlements
This section lists some of the more commonly hallucinated entitlements:
com.apple.developer.push-notifications — The correct entitlement is aps-environment (com.apple.developer.aps-environment on macOS), documented here. There’s also the remote-notification value in the UIBackgroundModes property.
com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase — There’s no entitlement for in-app purchase. Rather, in-app purchase is available to all apps with an explicit App ID (as opposed to a wildcard App ID).
com.apple.InAppPurchase — Likewise.
com.apple.developer.storekit — Likewise.
com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase.non-consumable — Likewise.
com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase.subscription — Likewise.
com.apple.developer.app-groups — The correct entitlement is com.apple.security.application-groups, documented here. And if you’re working on the Mac, see App Groups: macOS vs iOS: Working Towards Harmony.
com.apple.developer.background-modes — Background modes are controlled by the UIBackgroundModes key in your Info.plist, documented here.
UIBackgroundModes — See the previous point.
com.apple.developer.voip-push-notification — There’s no entitlement for this. VoIP is gated by the voip value in the UIBackgroundModes property.
com.apple.developer.family-controls.user-authorization — The correct entitlement is com.apple.developer.family-controls, documented here.
IMPORTANT As explained in the docs, this entitlement is available to all developers during development but you must request authorisation for distribution.
com.apple.developer.device-activity — The DeviceActivity framework has the same restrictions as Family Controls.
com.apple.developer.managed-settings — If you’re trying to use the ManagedSettings framework, that has the same restrictions as Family Controls. If you’re trying to use the ManagedApp framework, that’s not gated by an entitlement.
com.apple.developer.callkit.call-directory — There’s no entitlement for the Call Directory app extension feature.
com.apple.developer.nearby-interaction — There’s no entitlement for the Nearby interaction framework.
com.apple.developer.secure-enclave — On iOS and its child platforms, there’s no entitlement required to use the Secure Enclave. For macOS specifically, any program that has access to the data protection keychain also has access to the Secure Enclave [1]. See TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations for more about the data protection keychain.
com.apple.developer.networking.configuration — If you’re trying to configure the Wi-Fi network on iOS, the correct entitlement is com.apple.developer.networking.HotspotConfiguration, documented here.
com.apple.developer.musickit — There is no MusicKit capability. Rather, enable MusicKit via the App Services column in the App ID editor, accessible from Developer > Certificates, Identifiers, and Profiles > Identifiers.
com.apple.mail.extension — Creating an app extension based on the MailKit framework does not require any specific entitlement.
com.apple.security.accessibility — There’s no entitlement that gates access to the Accessibility APIs on macOS. Rather, this is controlled by the user in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Note that sandboxed apps can’t use these APIs. See the Review functionality that is incompatible with App Sandbox section of Protecting user data with App Sandbox.
com.apple.developer.adservices — Using the AdServices framework does not require any specific entitlement.
[1] While technically these are different features, they are closely associated and it turns out that, if you have access to the data protection keychain, you also have access to the SE.
Revision History
2025-12-09 Updated the Xcode footnote to mention the improvements in Xcode 26.2rc.
2025-11-03 Added com.apple.developer.adservices to the common hallucinations list.
2025-10-30 Added com.apple.security.accessibility to the common hallucinations list.
2025-10-22 Added com.apple.mail.extension to the common hallucinations list. Also added two new in-app purchase hallucinations.
2025-09-26 Added com.apple.developer.musickit to the common hallucinations list.
2025-09-22 Added com.apple.developer.storekit to the common hallucinations list.
2025-09-05 Added com.apple.developer.device-activity to the common hallucinations list.
2025-09-02 First posted.
I am distributing a macOS application outside the App Store using Developer ID and need to provide provisioning profiles to customers for installation during the package installation process.
I have two questions:
How can I package and provide the provisioning profile(s) so that the customer can install them easily during the application installation process? Are there any best practices or tools that could simplify this step?
In my case, there are multiple provisioning profiles. Should I instruct the customer to install each profile individually, or is there a way to combine them and have them installed all at once?
Any guidance on the best practices for this process would be greatly appreciated.
I have two apps - say A and B in my AppStore account, deployed in the AppStore.
App A has obtained the com.apple.developer.usernotifications.filtering entitlement and this is added to my AppStore account by Apple after approval. Note that this is added for the account, and not for the specific app.
Now, my app B also wants this functionality.
Followed all the steps as done for app A - adding the already approved entitlement to my app B's identifier, regenerating the profiles, adding the key in the entitlements file, calling the completion handler with empty content like - contentHandler(UNNotificationContent())
Still the notifications show, the filtering is not working.
Do I have to request the entitlement for App B separately?
Even if I do request again, I am not sure if there is going to be any difference in the steps already done. The difference can only be if Apple has a mapping with the app id internally in their system, for the filtering to work?
If I have white-labelled versions of apps A or B, do I have to request again then?
Or does Apple restrict only one app to have this entitlement from one AppStore account?
Please guide on the next steps here.
Hi, I have some doubts about certificates expiration given this "new" requirement around signing for some common third party SDKs:
https://developer.apple.com/support/third-party-SDK-requirements/
Use case:
I build an SDK that will be distributed as an XCFramework and will be used in AppStore apps from different people.
My SDK internally uses some other third party libraries that are integrated as binaries
Let's assume some of those third party libraries are from the list above and therefore seem to be required to be signed.
I distribute my SDK with all in order (third party SDKs from that list with valid signatures)
People using my SDK over the time provide an update to their apps on the AppStore but by then some of the third party libraries of my SDK has an expired certificate.
What would happen?
People using my SDK won't have any issues as far as my SDK has a valid signature (despite third party libraries from the list have expired signatures)
People using my SDK will get a warning about it but still will be able to submit to the AppStore. In that case, would AppStore Review process decline the update?
People using my SDK will get an error, not being able to submit to the AppStore and will require me an update version of the SDK with those third party libraries re-signed.
My understanding is that all would work as far as my SDK has a valid signature (after all is the one taking responsibility of the code inside), independently of what happens with the signature of those libraries themselves, am I correct?.
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles
Tags:
App Store
Frameworks
App Review
Xcode
This post is a ‘child’ of Resolving errSecInternalComponent errors during code signing. If you found your way here directly, I recommend that you start at the top.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Fixing an untrusted code-signing certificate
If your code-signing identity is set up correctly, selecting its certificate in Keychain Access should display a green checkmark with the text “This certificate is valid”. If it does not, you need to fix that before trying to sign code. There are three common causes of an untrusted certificate:
Expired
Missing issuer
Trust settings overrides
Check for an expired certificate
If your code-signing identity’s certificate has expired, Keychain Access shows a red cross with the text “… certificate is expired”. If you try to sign with it, codesign will fail like so:
% codesign -s "Apple Development" -f "MyTrue"
error: The specified item could not be found in the keychain.
If you use security to list your code-signing identities, it will show the CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED status:
% security find-identity -p codesigning
Policy: Code Signing
Matching identities
1) 4E587951B705280CBB8086325CD134D4CDA04977 "Apple Development: …" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
1 identities found
Valid identities only
0 valid identities found
The most likely cause of this problem is that… yep… your certificate has expired. To confirm that, select the certificate in Keychain Access and look at the Expires field. Or double click the certificate, expand the Details section, and look at the Not Valid Before and Not Valid After fields.
If your code-signing identity’s certificate has expired, you’ll need to renew it. For information on how to do that, see Developer Account Help.
If your certificate hasn’t expired, check that your Mac’s clock is set correctly.
Check for a missing issuer
In the X.509 public key infrastructure (PKI), every certificate has an issuer, who signed the certificate with their private key. These issuers form a chain of trust from the certificate to a trusted anchor. In most cases the trusted anchor is a root certificate, a certificate that’s self signed. Certificates between the leaf and the root are known as intermediate certificates, or intermediates for short.
Your code-signing identity’s certificate is issued by Apple. The exact chain of trust depends on the type of certificate and the date that it was issued. For example, in 2022 Apple Development certificates are issued by the Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority — G3 intermediate, which in turn was issued by the Apple Root CA certificate authority.
If there’s a missing issuer in the chain of trust between your code-signing identity’s certificate and a trusted anchor, Keychain Access shows a red cross with the text “… certificate is not trusted”. If you try to sign with it, codesign will fail like so:
% codesign -s "Apple Development" -f "MyTrue"
MyTrue: replacing existing signature
Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Apple Development: …"
MyTrue: errSecInternalComponent
The message unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer is key.
If you use security to list your identities, it will not show up in the Valid identities only list but there’s no explanation as to why:
% security find-identity -p codesigning
Policy: Code Signing
Matching identities
1) 4E587951B705280CBB8086325CD134D4CDA04977 "Apple Development: …"
1 identities found
Valid identities only
0 valid identities found
IMPORTANT These symptoms can have multiple potential causes. The most common cause is a missing issuer, as discussed in this section. Another potential cause is a trust settings override, as discussed in the next section.
There are steps you can take to investigate this further but, because this problem is most commonly caused by a missing intermediate, try taking a shortcut by assuming that’s the problem. If that fixes things, you’re all set. If not, you have at least ruled out this problem.
Apple publishes its intermediates on the Apple PKI page. The simplest way to resolve this problem is to download all of the certificates in the Apple Intermediate Certificates list and use Keychain Access to add them to your keychain. Having extra intermediates installed is generally not a problem.
If you want to apply a more targeted fix:
In Keychain Access, find your code-signing identity’s certificate and double click it.
If the Details section is collapsed, expand it.
Look at the Issuer Name section. Note the value in the Common Name field and, if present, the Organizational Unit field. For example, for an Apple Development certificate that’s likely to be Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority and G3, respectively.
Go to the Apple PKI and download the corresponding intermediate. To continue the above example, the right intermediate is labelled Worldwide Developer Relations - G3.
Use Keychain Access to add the intermediate to your keychain.
Sometimes it’s not obvious which intermediate to choose in step 4. If you’re uncertain, download all the intermediates and preview each one using Quick Look in the Finder. Look in the Subject Name section for a certificate whose Common Name and Organizational Unit field matches the values from step 3.
Finally, double check the chain of trust:
In Keychain Access, select your code-signing identity’s certificate and choose Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Evaluate.
In the resulting Certificate Assistant window, make sure that Generic (certificate chain validation only) is selected and click Continue.
It might seem like selecting Code Signing here would make more sense. If you do that, however, things don’t work as you might expect. Specifically, in this case Certificate Assistant is smart enough to temporarily download a missing intermediate certificate in order to resolve the chain of trust, and that’ll prevent you from seeing any problems with your chain of trust.
The resulting UI shows a list of certificates that form the chain of trust. The first item is your code-signing identity’s certificate and the last is an Apple root certificate. Double click the first item.
Keychain Access presents the standard the certificate trust sheet, showing the chain of trust from the root to the leaf. You should expect to see three items in that list:
An Apple root certificate
An Apple intermediate
Your code-signing identity’s certificate
If so, that’s your chain of trust built correctly.
Select each certificate in that list. The UI should show a green checkmark with the text “This certificate is valid”. If you see anything else, check your trust settings as described in the next section.
Check for a trust settings override
macOS allows you to customise trust settings. For example, you might tell the system to trust a particular certificate when verifying a signed email but not when connecting to a TLS server.
The code-signing certificates issued by Apple are trusted by default. They don’t require you to customise any trust settings. Moreover, customising trust settings might cause problems.
If code signing fails with the message unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer, first determine the chain of trust per the previous section then make sure that none of these certificates have customised trust settings. Specifically, for each certificate in the chain:
Find the certificate in Keychain Access.
Note that there may be multiple instances of the certificate in different keychains. If that’s the case, follow these steps for each copy of the certificate.
Double click the certificate to open it in a window.
If the Trust section is collapsed, expand it.
Ensure that all the popups are set to their default values (Use System Defaults for the first, “no value specified” for the rest).
If they are, move on to the next certificate.
If not, set the popups to the default values and close the window. Closing the window may require authentication to save the trust settings.
Another way to explore trust settings is with the dump-trust-settings subcommand of the security tool. On a stock macOS system you should see this:
% security dump-trust-settings
SecTrustSettingsCopyCertificates: No Trust Settings were found.
% security dump-trust-settings -d
SecTrustSettingsCopyCertificates: No Trust Settings were found.
That is, there are no user or admin trust settings overrides. If you run these commands and see custom trust settings, investigate their origins.
IMPORTANT If you’re working in a managed environment, you might see custom trust settings associated with that environment. For example, on my personal Mac I see this:
% security dump-trust-settings -d
Number of trusted certs = 1
Cert 2: QuinnNetCA
Number of trust settings : 10
…
because my home network infrastructure uses a custom certificate authority and I’ve configured my Mac to trust its root certificate (QuinnNetCA). Critically, this custom trust settings are nothing to do with code signing. If you dump trust settings and see an override you can’t explain, and specifically one related to code-signing certificate, use Keychain Access to remove it.
Revision History
2025-09-29 Added information about the dump-trust-settings command to Check for a trust settings override. Made other minor editorial changes.
2022-08-10 First posted.
Hello, we are currently encountering a similar issue. We need to inject our capabilities into a third-party app by re-signing it (not a full re-signing process—just requiring the provisioning profile and certificate to match). However, this seems to affect the functionality of universal links. We've found that this issue only occurs on iOS 18.
We noticed that when re-signing the app, the entitlements related to associated domains are changed to a wildcard:
[Key] com.apple.developer.associated-domains
[Value]
[Array]
[String] *
However, this doesn’t cause any issues on iOS 17.
Through further testing, we discovered that in order for universal links to work properly, we need to restore the original value of com.apple.developer.associated-domains and use a provisioning profile that matches the app's bundle ID. This means our previous re-signing approach using a certificate and provisioning profile from another bundle will no longer work.
We’d like to ask: is this a new restriction introduced in iOS 18? If we manually restore the original com.apple.developer.associated-domains entitlement and use a provisioning profile that matches the app’s bundle ID, will universal links function correctly going forward?
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles
Tags:
Entitlements
Provisioning Profiles
Universal Links
Code Signing
Hello everyone,
I’m trying to notarize my macOS app (DockIt.zip) using the new notarytool CLI, but every submission remains in In Progress status forever, it never moves to Accepted or Rejected. I’ve tried multiple rebuilds, credential resets, and even the Xcode GUI method, but the result is the same.
Environment
• macOS 14.x
• Xcode 15.x / Command-Line Tools 15.x
• Apple ID: afonsocruz.dev@icloud.com (Team ID: 264Z9XKCT6)
• Keychain profile: DockItCreds
Steps taken
1. zip -r DockIt.zip DockIt.app
2. xcrun notarytool store-credentials DockItCreds --apple-id ... --team-id 264Z9XKCT6
3. xcrun notarytool submit DockIt.zip --keychain-profile DockItCreds --wait
4. xcrun notarytool history --keychain-profile DockItCreds
History snapshot
167a9600-5c7c-4bc4-b984-dd967d30e161 (2025-05-19T11:37:59Z) – In Progress
7167f7c8-d448-4b35-9817-055009f2730a (2025-05-19T04:59:34Z) – In Progress
6ef0610a-595f-4c57-b0f2-f5fe783e8679 (2025-05-18T22:04:10Z) – In Progress
bddde388-a34a-42c4-afb8-f06f2b0fe8fa (2025-05-17T10:24:07Z) – In Progress
Questions
Is it normal to stay “In Progress” for so long?
Any recent service changes or outages?
How can I get more detailed logs?
Also, I'm still learning about macOS development and these steps! If there's something obvious and I was not able to see, please, take into consideration!
Thanks!
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
Notarization
I've submitted my app four times, each time waiting a few hours for something to happen, then reducing the file size of my *.dmg and trying again. The first two seemed to have completed after 36 hours, but I no longer have that specific signed binary (and its a much smaller binary now anyway). The latest two are still "In Progress" and its almost been 48 hours.
I know my process isn't wrong, and my app isn't somehow incorrectly built or being denied because two were accepted. The outage page shows green for the notary tool (https://developer.apple.com/system-status/) so I'm not sure what the hold up is.
Hello,
I've been trying to notarize a Unity 2023.2 app since yesterday, but our submissions stay stuck in In Progress. The first one has been running for 18 hours now with no signs of stopping, and two more attempts have been made since with no results.
Here are the submission IDs in case someone on the team wants to take a look:
00ef6def-601b-46f3-a94f-699d8956a28f
d03f5748-2261-430c-934e-14fa9679afd9
a42d3b5c-3cdb-4bf2-9c86-c92320358ff3
Thank you!
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
Notarization
I have added an in-app purchase function into my app, and have enabled in-app purchase profile in developer portal(it's on by default and is marked gray in developer portal, I don't know if that's how it supposed to look like). I have issued the agreements and tried signing the app both manually and automatically, but neither of that worked. App can be built successfully in simulator but does not show the simulation window, but cannot build on real device or archive.
Errors: Missing com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase,
com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase.non-consumable, and com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase.subscription entitlements.
Automatic signing failed
Xcode failed to provision this target.
Topic:
Code Signing
SubTopic:
Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles
Tags:
StoreKit
Entitlements
Provisioning Profiles
Signing Certificates
The notary service requires that all Mach-O images be linked against the macOS 10.9 SDK or later. This isn’t an arbitrary limitation. The hardened runtime, another notarisation requirement, relies on code signing features that were introduced along with macOS 10.9 and it uses the SDK version to check for their presence. Specifically, it checks the SDK version using the sdk field in the LC_BUILD_VERSION Mach-O load command (or the older LC_VERSION_MIN_MACOSX command).
There are three common symptoms of this problem:
When notarising your product, the notary service rejects a Mach-O image with the error The binary uses an SDK older than the 10.9 SDK.
When loading a dynamic library, the system fails with the error mapped file has no cdhash, completely unsigned?.
When displaying the code signature of a library, codesign prints this warning:
% codesign -d vvv /path/to/your.dylib
…
Library validation warning=OS X SDK version before 10.9 does not support Library Validation
…
If you see any of these errors, read on…
The best way to avoid this problem is to rebuild your code with modern tools. However, in some cases that’s not possible. Imagine if your app relies on the closed source libDodo.dylib library. That library’s vendor went out of business 10 years ago, and so the library hasn’t been updated since then. Indeed, the library was linked against the macOS 10.6 SDK. What can you do?
The first thing to do is come up with a medium-term plan for breaking your dependency on libDodo.dylib. Relying on an unmaintained library is not something that’s sustainable in the long term. The history of the Mac is one of architecture transitions — 68K to PowerPC to Intel, 32- to 64-bit, and so on — and this unmaintained library will make it much harder to deal with the next transition.
IMPORTANT I wrote the above prior to the announcement of the latest Apple architecture transition, Apple silicon. When you update your product to a universal binary, you might as well fix this problem on the Intel side as well. Do not delay that any further: While Apple silicon Macs are currently able to run Intel code using Rosetta 2, that’s not something you want to rely on in the long term. Heed this advice from About the Rosetta Translation Environment:
Rosetta is meant to ease the transition to Apple silicon, giving you
time to create a universal binary for your app. It is not a substitute
for creating a native version of your app.
But what about the short term? Historically I wasn’t able to offer any help on that front, but this has changed recently. Xcode 11 ships with a command-line tool, vtool, that can change the LC_BUILD_VERSION and LC_VERSION_MIN_MACOSX commands in a Mach-O. You can use this to change the sdk field of these commands, and thus make your Mach-O image ‘compatible’ with notarisation and the hardened runtime.
Before doing this, consider these caveats:
Any given Mach-O image has only a limited amount of space for load commands. When you use vtool to set or modify the SDK version, the Mach-O could run out of load command space. The tool will fail cleanly in this case but, if it that happens, this technique simply won’t work.
Changing a Mach-O image’s load commands will break the seal on its code signature. If the image is signed, remove the signature before doing that. To do this run codesign with the --remove-signature argument. You must then re-sign the library as part of your normal development and distribution process.
Remember that a Mach-O image might contain multiple architectures. All of the tools discussed here have an option to work with a specific architecture (usually -arch or --architecture). Keep in mind, however, that macOS 10.7 and later do not run on 32-bit Macs, so if your deployment target is 10.7 or later then it’s safe to drop any 32-bit code. If you’re dealing with a Mach-O image that includes 32-bit Intel code, or indeed PowerPC code, make your life simpler by removing it from the image. Use lipo for this; see its man page for details.
It’s possible that changing a Mach-O image’s SDK version could break something. Indeed, many system components use the main executable’s SDK version as part of their backwards compatibility story. If you change a main executable’s SDK version, you might run into hard-to-debug compatibility problems. Test such a change extensively.
It’s also possible, but much less likely, that changing the SDK version of a non-main executable Mach-O image might break something. Again, this is something you should test extensively.
This list of caveats should make it clear that this is a technique of last resort. I strongly recommend that you build your code with modern tools, and work with your vendors to ensure that they do the same. Only use this technique as part of a short-term compatibility measure while you implement a proper solution in the medium term.
For more details on vtool, read its man page. Also familiarise yourself with otool, and specifically the -l option which dumps a Mach-O image’s load commands. Read its man page for details.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Revision history:
2025-04-03 — Added a discussion of common symptoms. Made other minor editorial changes.
2022-05-09 — Updated with a note about Apple silicon.
2020-09-11 — First posted.
Hi,
At work, we've done some development on an Apple Vision Pro. On the project, we used object tracking to track an object in 3D and found the default tracking refresh rate (I believe 5Hz)to be too slow so we applied for enterprise APIs so we could change it.
At some point, in the capabilities (as a beginner to Swift and the Apple development environment) I noticed that's where you enable the Object Tracking Parameter Adjustment API and I did so, before hearing back about whether we got access to the enterprise API's and the license file that comes with it. So I setup the re-fresh rate to 30Hz and logged the settings of the ObjectTrackingProvider, showing it was set at 30Hz and felt like it was better than the default when we ran our app. In the Xcode runtime logs, there was no warning or error saying that the license file for the enterprise API was not found (and I don't think we heard back from Apple if they had granted our request or not - even if they did I think the license would be expired by now).
Fast forward to today, I was running the sample code of the Main Camera access for VisionOS linked in the official developer documentation and when I ran the project in Xcode, I noticed in the logs that it wanted an enterprise license and that's why it wasn't running as expected in the immersive space. We've since applied for the Enterprise API for Main Camera Access.
I'm now confused - did I mistakenly believe the object tracking refresh rate was set to 30Hz but it actually wasn't due to the lack of a license file/being granted access to the enterprise APIs? It seemed to be running as expected without a license file. Is Object tracking Parameter Adjustment API handled with different permissions than Main Camera Access API even though they are both enterprise APIs?
This is all for internal development and not planning on distributing an app but I find the behaviour to be confusing between the different enterprise API? Does anyone have more insight as I find the developer notes on the enterprise APIs to be a bit sparse.
Hello, first of all thanks for reading my post.
I am having a trouble about Signing & Capabilities part on Xcode during few days. Hope someone knows how to deal with this.
I created a Apple Development certificate with CSR on my MacOS through KeyChain but the Team ID(VC78G4S77J) on this certificate is different with my real Team ID(FYF9AT8ZA8) logged in. I don't even know where this 'VC78G4S77J' came from.
Also I created the identifier, bundle ID, device and profile but they were all created with 'FYF9AT8ZA8'.
So here is the problem. On Xcode Signing & Capabilities section, I selected Team and put Bundle Identifier connected with 'FYF9AT8ZA8' but Signing Certificate is shown as 'Apple Development: My ID (VC78G4S77J). Therefore when I build iOS simulator on Xcode or VScode, there is error 'No signing certificate "iOS Development" found: No "iOS Development" signing certificate matching team ID "FYF9AT8ZA8" with a private key was found.'
If I try turn off 'Automatically manage signing' and select provisioning profile I created, Xcode said my profile does not include VC78G4S77J certificate, because my profile has FYF9AT8ZA8 certificate. Importing profile file is not helpful also.
I think, first delete the all VC78G4S77J certificate in KeyChain and recreate FYF9AT8ZA8 certificate through KeyChain/CSR, however again VC78G4S77J certicate was created when I created on 'developer.apple.com'. I truly have no idea where did VC78G4S77J come from.
Please let me solve this issue..
Warm regards.
hey, trying to notarize my mac app rn. maybe servers are down. earlier today super fast but now slow and i need to ship.
anyone having similar issue?
App Notarization got stuck, showing In-Progress from last 24 hrs.
This is really frustrating. Can anyone plz update on this?
When submitting my new build to app store connect directly from dreamflow, I get this error:
Failed Step: Flutter build ipa and automatic versioning
Building com.pinpictu for device (ios-release)...
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
No valid code signing certificates were found
You can connect to your Apple Developer account by signing in with your Apple ID
in Xcode and create an iOS Development Certificate as well as a Provisioning
Profile for your project by:
1- Open the Flutter project's Xcode target with
open ios/Runner.xcworkspace
2- Select the 'Runner' project in the navigator then the 'Runner' target
in the project settings
3- Make sure a 'Development Team' is selected under Signing & Capabilities > Team.
You may need to:
- Log in with your Apple ID in Xcode first
- Ensure you have a valid unique Bundle ID
- Register your device with your Apple Developer Account
- Let Xcode automatically provision a profile for your app
4- Build or run your project again
5- Trust your newly created Development Certificate on your iOS device
via Settings > General > Device Management > [your new certificate] > Trust
For more information, please visit:
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/
AppDistributionGuide/MaintainingCertificates/MaintainingCertificates.html
Or run on an iOS simulator without code signing
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
No development certificates available to code sign app for device deployment
Build failed :|
Step 10 script Flutter build ipa and automatic versioning exited with status code 1
Please not I am on a windows pc, not a mac. I'm not sure how to clear this error and I am not an experinced coder, so any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially if it is simple and easy to follow.
I followed the instruction on Preparing your app to be the default browser or email client. I have acquired the permission from Apple. The entitlement is included in the provisioning profile. mailto is specified in URL Schemes.
But I downloaded my app from TestFlight and enter Setting > MyApp, the switch that could enable my app to be the default email app was not there. I have no clue what I did it wrong.
Does anyone know how to configure the app properly?
Hello, I sent this in as a feedback several weeks ago about watchOS 26.2 beta 2 but since the issue is still active now that watchOS 26.2 is in production I'm reposting here for the community. I would also like to submit a DTS about this issue but honestly don't know the best way to go about it and would appreciate advice about that.
There seems to be an issue with VPP distribution for our app on watchOS 26.2. When our watchOS companion app is launched after being installed through VPP to a supervised iPhone, it encounters a dyld error before main() or any application code is even called. The same app launches correctly in every other circumstance we could imagine and test:
– Installed through VPP on supervised devices running watchOS 26.1.
– Installed from the app store (using an apple id) on a supervised iPhone and paired watch running iOS 26.2 / watchOS 26.2.
– Installed through Testflight on a supervised iPhone and paired watch running iOS 26.2 / watchOS 26.2.
– Installed through the app store on unsupervised devices running watchOS 26.1 and 26.2.
This strongly appears to be a VPP signing issue because we even did the following experiment:
Install iPhone and Watch apps through the App Store on a supervised device pair running public iOS 26.2 beta 2 / watchOS 26.2 beta 2.
Verify that both apps launch successfully.
Use an MDM command to install from VPP over the existing installations
Verify that the watch app fails to launch (the iOS app is unaffected)
My feedback included some crash logs which I won't be reposting publicly here. Any feedback or ideas appreciated.
I will post my app xyz.app uses XY swift package
this swift package is a wrapper for XYSDK.xcframework
XYSDK.xcframework written in c++ and app running on arm64 macos and iphones succesfully.
I got this error when i want to distribute it.
Currently i sign .framework for ios with Apple Distribution Certificate
and same certificate for macos framework there is no other signing step for swift package or xcframework
other than that when i want to archive it validates succesfully.
Exporting step shows that app has signed, has provisining profile.
but .framework is only signed has no provisioning profile.
Also one point i see:
i have one target named xyz and its Frameworks, Lİbraries and Embedded Context has only XY package but Embed part has no option like embed and sign etc. Blank.
I need more info about what am i doing wrong in which step ?
I am stuck and can not move any further like weeks
Error Detail:
Invalid Signature. The binary with bundle identifier XYSDK at path “xyz.app/Frameworks/XYSDK.framework” contains an invalid signature. Make sure you have signed your application with a distribution certificate, not an ad hoc certificate or a development certificate. Verify that the code signing settings in Xcode are correct at the target level (which override any values at the project level). Additionally, make sure the bundle you are uploading was built using a Release target in Xcode, not a Simulator target. If you are certain your code signing settings are correct, choose “Clean All” in Xcode, delete the “build” directory in the Finder, and rebuild your release target. For more information, please consult https://developer.apple.com/support/code-signing. (90035)