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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Notarization service issue
This has been going on for at least a couple of hours for us: notarizing doesn't complete. Our last job ran for over 90 minutes before CircleCI timed it out. We're using xcrun notarytool submit with the --wait option; it contined to say "Current status: In Progress" for, as I said, 90 minutes or so. (Normally it takes about 70 seconds.) https://developer.apple.com/system-status/ says everything is normal. This does not seem to be the case for us. 😄
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1.2k
Jan ’25
Xcode 16.2 cannot sign developer app (AppKit) after upgraded to macOS 15.3
After I upgraded to macOS 15.3, all of my current Xcode project have the signing issue, I spent half day and I didn't make any progress, I tried two projects, one is Swift AppKit App calling one C++ dylib, another one is a pure Swift AppKit app, when I build, there will be error: Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Apple Development: Steven Tang (XXXXX)" /Volumes/TwoTSSD/steventang/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ImageEnhancement-ddbilgyraofrdyfeljyuknusunza/Build/Products/Release/ImageEnhancement.app: errSecInternalComponent I tried remove account, add account back in Xcode, none of it worked, also tried ChatGPT's WWDR updating and it won't help.
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1.3k
Feb ’25
GateKeeper rejects application bundles with a file name with an NFC/NFD problem by copying with Finder
I made a macOS application using Swift Package and distributed it in dmg format through Apple Notary service. However, we received a report from a user that it can be launched from a disk image mounted from dmg, but when copied to /Applications, the app is broken and does not start. I looked into why this happened, I noticed that the codesign command returned different results when copying the application bundle and /Applications on the volume mounted dmg with Finder. Mounted dmg: OK ❯ codesign --verify --deep --verbose /Volumes/azoo-key-skkserv/azoo-key-skkserv.app /Volumes/azoo-key-skkserv/azoo-key-skkserv.app: valid on disk /Volumes/azoo-key-skkserv/azoo-key-skkserv.app: satisfies its Designated Requirement Copied by Finder: Bad codesign reports that there are 148 added/missing files. ❯ codesign --verify --deep --verbose /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app: a sealed resource is missing or invalid file added: /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app/Contents/Resources/AzooKeyKanakanjiConverter_KanaKanjiConverterModuleWithDefaultDictionary.bundle/Contents/Resources/Dictionary/louds/グ1.loudstxt3 (skip...) file missing: /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app/Contents/Resources/AzooKeyKanakanjiConverter_KanaKanjiConverterModuleWithDefaultDictionary.bundle/Contents/Resources/Dictionary/louds/グ1.loudstxt3 (skip...) Copied by ditto: OK ❯ ditto /Volumes/azoo-key-skkserv/azoo-key-skkserv.app /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app ❯ codesign --verify --deep --verbose /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app: valid on disk /Applications/azoo-key-skkserv.app: satisfies its Designated Requirement I made a simple macOS application to explain this problem in an easy-to-understand way. You can download dmg in github releases, mount dmg, copy it in the Finder, and check if there is a problem by running the codesign command. https://github.com/mtgto/example-utf8-mac-notarization As a result, I learned the following two things. Occurs only with resources with file names whose values change due to NFC/NFD normalization No problems occur with the resources of the application itself. Generated by the Swift Package resources that the application depends on I think this is a problem with Finder or Gatekeeper.
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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284
Aug ’25
unzip identifier is not unique?
In Swift I'm using unzip by launching a Process to unzip a file. I added a launchRequirement to the process in order to make sure the executable is code signed by Apple and the identifier is com.apple.unzip. After testing out my code on another machines (both physical and virtual), I found out that in some the identifier is actually com.apple.zipinfo, which broke the SigningIdentifier requirement. It's safe to assume that /usr/bin/unzip can be trusted since it's in a System Integrity Protection (SIP) location, but I'm wondering why this executable has different identifiers?
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Aug ’25
Certificate Revocation Impact
Background We are using a Developer ID application certificate to sign our application. We lost the private key and we need to revoke it before we can receive a new one. Per documentation (https://developer.apple.com/support/certificates/), I know that previously installed applications will still be able to run, but new installations will not be able to work. I want to confirm what will happen when we revoke the certificate so we know how to prepare customers for this upcoming change. Questions Will existing installations of the application receive a notice that the certificate has been revoked? Will previously installed applications be able to launch again after they are closed? What will the user see when they try to install the application with the revoked certificate?
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3.2k
Aug ’25
Notarization Issue
Hey there, I'm experiencing an issue with notarization of my macOS application, which is blocking a release. We have signing/notarization hooked up to our CI process, both for prior releases as well as development builds (at the trunk tip). The notarization process has typically taken anywhere from a few minutes to a few tens of minutes, but for our most recent release, it's taking an unreasonably long time. I've compiled the submission info for each build (+ reattempted notarizations) below. What's interesting is that the oldest one was accepted- however, it timed out our CI process, so we never actually released it. Subsequent builds are more or less identical in terms of their content, however, they've been stewing in the notarization process for over 13 hours in some cases. % xcrun notarytool info 67413dae-64f5-4372-972d-e0ac158e18e3 Successfully received submission info createdDate: 2025-04-02T16:28:25.999Z id: 67413dae-64f5-4372-972d-e0ac158e18e3 name: Warp Vault.app.zip status: In Progress % xcrun notarytool info 0c72b243-4a8d-4976-a97b-75689d7e2497 Successfully received submission info createdDate: 2025-04-02T05:49:05.861Z id: 0c72b243-4a8d-4976-a97b-75689d7e2497 name: Warp Vault.app.zip status: In Progress % xcrun notarytool info 8e2edfc2-58bc-4b33-bc8e-078155759a81 Successfully received submission info createdDate: 2025-04-02T05:23:28.870Z id: 8e2edfc2-58bc-4b33-bc8e-078155759a81 name: Warp Vault.app.zip status: In Progress % xcrun notarytool info 8fb17b0c-ace4-4b6f-bef8-68d22696814d Successfully received submission info createdDate: 2025-04-02T05:07:48.187Z id: 8fb17b0c-ace4-4b6f-bef8-68d22696814d name: Warp Vault.app.zip status: Accepted At the time of checking, the UTC date was: % TZ="UTC" date Wed Apr 2 18:42:14 UTC 2025 It's interesting to me that the notarization process is taking this long. We've notarized many development builds (with debugging flags enabled) in the time between our last public release and our attempt to notarize this one. What's more, the original build for this release was notarized within the span of about 15 minutes, but subsequent submissions of the same build have hung for tens of hours. My two questions are: How can I get our pending notarizations "unstuck"?, and To prevent these types of hangs in the future, should I also routinely build/sign/notarize non-debug builds of my application during the development process? Best regards and many thanks, Charlton
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158
Apr ’25
Running iOS app on MacOS error: This app cannot be installed because its integrity could not be verified.
The attached file bellow contains the full error error I clone this repo to my mac, change team id and group, and run it in Xcode: https://github.com/protonpass/ios-pass There's no issue when I ran it with the Debug configuration, but when I go to Product > Scheme > Edit Scheme and change the iOS target build configuration to Release then I got that error above. I have tried Archive and export the ipa, verify that the provisioning profile contains my Mac UDID, but when double clicking the ipa to install, I also got the error This app cannot be installed because its integrity could not be verified.
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263
Jul ’25
Xcode Automatic Signing Fails with App Groups - Provisioning profile "Mac Team Provisioning Profile : com.example.testapp.mobile" doesn't support the App Groups capability.
Xcode automatic signing consistently fails for the macOS target when adding the App Groups capability, even though the Developer Portal is correctly configured. Error: Provisioning profile “Mac Team Provisioning Profile: com.example.testapp.mobile” doesn’t support the App Groups capability. Setup: • Bundle ID: com.example.testapp.mobile • App Group: $(TeamIdentifierPrefix)group.com.example.testapp.mobile Troubleshooting Steps Tried (None Helped): • Changed bundle identifiers and deleted/recreated them in the Developer Portal • Deleted and recreated App Groups • Removed and re-added the developer account in Xcode • Deleted all provisioning profiles from the system • Cleared Derived Data and Xcode caches • Even tried on a clean macOS system This setup used to work previously. The issue seems to have started after the Apple Developer account was renewed.
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161
Aug ’25
Notarisation of my .dmg taking forever. (Been 3 days so far)
Its just stuck in progress. $ xcrun notarytool history --keychain-profile X Successfully received submission history. history -------------------------------------------------- createdDate: 2025-07-21T16:46:13.233Z id: X name: X.dmg status: In Progress -------------------------------------------------- createdDate: 2025-07-20T18:44:35.683Z id: X name: X.dmg status: In Progress -------------------------------------------------- createdDate: 2025-07-20T11:24:20.319Z id: X name: X.dmg status: In Progress Its a go app; not simple but not very complicated. It is my first time notarising but even then should it take this long?? 3 days is ridiculous!
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868
Jul ’25
Disappearing External link account entitlement
I've got a Flutter app that is a “reader” app. The External Link Account Entitlement has already been requested and granted. It is already added as an Additional Capability to the App ID. The com.apple.developer.storekit.external-link.account entitlement is already present in the .entitlements file. Also SKExternalLinkAccount key is added to the Info.plist file with the correct URL. ExternalLinkAccount.open() is invoked via a MethodChannel call handler and things work perfectly in debug mode. The modal appears as expected and opens the link in the external browser. Xcode archive is also sucessful and the entitlement seems to be in place when inspecting the app with: codesign -d --entitlements :- ./path/to/app But when trying to distribute the app via Xcode the entitlement disappears. Other entitlements are not affected by this issue, eg.: com.apple.developer.associated-domains for universal links. This happens with automatically managed singing and a manually selected provisioning profile as well. When inspecting the latter in Xcode the necessary capability and entitlement is included. But when distributing to App Store Connect the entitlement disappears with both recommended and custom settings. I ran flutter clean mulitple times. What am I missing here?
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795
Jan ’25
Some of the apps I have developed are being flagged as malware
I have a free developer account, and I have been creating applications. When I tried to open one of them, it said that this app has been flagged as malware. It is not malware, so I don't know why it has been flagged as this. Not just this app, but suddenly a whole bunch of my apps have been flagged as malware as well! The app I have been developing is basically a windows Taskbar for my macbook air, and it has been working well until the latest update i made where it hides in full screen, suddenly it started taking up significant energy, so i reverted to an older version while i was fixing it. Then, when i try to open it another time, it starts to open, and it says "Malware Blocked and Moved to Bin" “Taskbar.app” was not opened because it contains malware. This action did not harm your Mac”. All versions of the taskbar now contain this message. I try opening some of my other apps, a shared storage client and a shared storage server (where i was testing with app groups), and they couldn't open either, the same malware message appeared. ProPermission couldn't open either (changes permissions on files for me so i don't have to use the terminal or finder). I can run these apps through the Xcode environment (attached process), but when I archieve it into an app bundle, the malware flag appears. Please note that I am certain that these apps do not contain malware, apparently XProtect has incorrectly flagged my apps as malware. Because I do not have the paid developer account, I cannot notarize my apps. I am using MacOS Tahoe 26.1 with Xcode 26.0, and I have tested it with a iMac Intel 2017 with MacOS Ventura.
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194
Nov ’25
Notarization submission times out.
I am currently having issues uploading my app to appstoreconnect.apple.com/notary/ for notarization. It times out after hanging for a while. I get the following error. 13:42:04 "LocalDataTask <D84AED32-B05B-4439-8BDC-40C0F89B89F1>.<1>" 13:42:04 ), NSLocalizedDescription=The request timed out., NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/notary/v2/asp?, NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/notary/v2/asp?, _kCFStreamErrorDomainKey=4})
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282
Nov ’25
Unable to Staple Notarization Ticket – SSL Certificate Mismatch for oscdn.apple.com
Hello Apple Support, While attempting to staple a notarization ticket for our signed installer package, the stapler command fails with Error 65. Upon investigation, we found that connections to oscdn.apple.com present an SSL certificate issued to a248.e.akamai.net, which does not include oscdn.apple.com in its Subject Alternative Name (SAN). This mismatch prevents our macOS environment from validating tickets and completing the stapling process. Steps tried: Verified notarization status (Accepted). DNS flushed, tried different DNS (8.8.8.8, 1.1.1.1). curl to oscdn.apple.com consistently fails with SSL error 60. Please advise on resolving this certificate mismatch. also when I try to run the stapler command with my pkg "xcrun stapler staple/Users/mactest/Desktop/IPMPlus_Macos_Installer.signed.pkg" getting the output like :- Processing: /Users/mactest/Desktop/IPMPlus_Macos_Installer.signed.pkg Could not validate ticket for /Users/mac-test/Desktop/IPMPlus_Macos_Installer.signed.pkg The staple and validate action failed! Error 65. please help Thank you.
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517
Oct ’25
Flutter iOS Widget Extension – CodeSign Failed (ActivityKit entitlement missing, cannot enable in Identifiers)
Hello everyone, I am developing a Flutter iOS application that includes a Widget Extension + Live Activity (ActivityKit). The project runs successfully on the iOS simulator when launched directly from Xcode, but it cannot be signed properly via Flutter and I cannot upload the build to App Store Connect due to the following CodeSign error: Command CodeSign failed with a nonzero exit code Provisioning profile "…" doesn't include the entitlement: com.apple.developer.activitykit.allow-third-party-activity This error never goes away no matter what I try. And the main problem is that my App ID does NOT show any ActivityKit or Live Activity capability in the Apple Developer portal → Identifiers → App ID. So I cannot enable it manually. However: Xcode requires this entitlement Flutter requires this entitlement When I add the entitlement manually in the .entitlements file, Xcode says: “This entitlement must be enabled in your Developer account. It cannot be added manually.” So I am stuck in a loop where: Apple Developer portal does not show ActivityKit capability Xcode demands the ActivityKit entitlement Signing fails App Store upload fails And Live Activity is a critical feature of my app What I have already done ✔ “Automatically manage signing” is enabled ✔ Correct Team is selected for both Runner and the Widget Extension ✔ Bundle IDs are correct: com.yksbuddy.app com.yksbuddy.app.TimerWidgetExtension ✔ Deleted Derived Data completely ✔ Tried removing all ActivityKit-related entitlement keys manually ✔ Deleted Pods, reinstalled, rebuilt ✔ App Group settings match between Runner and Extension ✔ The same Live Activity code works perfectly in a clean Xcode-only project ✔ But fails only inside a Flutter project structure ✔ Xcode builds & runs on simulator, but App Store upload always fails due to missing entitlement Core Problem: In my Apple Developer “Identifiers → App ID” page, the Live Activity / ActivityKit capability does NOT appear at all, so I cannot enable: Live Activities ActivityKit Third-party activity entitlement Without being able to enable this capability, I cannot create a valid provisioning profile that includes: com.apple.developer.activitykit.allow-third-party-activity Flutter + Xcode insists this entitlement must exist, but Apple Developer portal does not give any option to enable it.
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2w
Failed Registering Bundle Identifier of watch app
Hi, after 2 years of not updating my app on appstore i wanted to submit an update for my iOS app which also containts a watch app target. When i try to submit it to upload it i get the following errors: Failed registering bundle identifier The app identifier "(myappBundleID).watchkitapp" cannot be registered to your development team because it is nit available. Change your bundle identifier to a unique string to try again. No Profiles for "(myappBundleID).watchkitapp" were found. Xcode culdn't find any iOS App Store provisining profiles matching "(myappBundleID).watchkitapp" Since i have my app already in store with that bundle identifier i don't know why it can not be registered to my team. Also i don't want to change the bundle identifier because then i can not publish it as update to store.
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1.7k
Oct ’25
Notarization stuck for days
It's been over 24h and it's still in progress. Is there a timeout for a failed notarization? or do we just wait for days.. weeks.. moths? Successfully received submission info createdDate: 2025-06-25T09:52:03.153Z id: 2ae713a5-c2e3-432f-84ee-e5d3d4aed621 name: slideshow-city-1.1.0-arm64.dmg status: In Progress
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213
Jun ’25
Gatekeeper stops directly distributed MacOS app with Network Extension
Is it possible to directly distribute a macOS app with a Developer ID Certificate that belongs to a different team? I am trying to resolve issues that arise when distributing a macOS app with a Network Extension (Packet Tunnel) outside the App Store using a Developer ID Certificate from a different team than the app’s provisioning profiles and entitlements. I started by attempting Direct Distribution in Xcode with automatic signing. However, it fails with the following message: Provisioning profile "Mac Team Direct Provisioning Profile: ” failed qualification checks: Profile doesn't match the entitlements file's value for the com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension entitlement. I suspect the issue is that the provisioning profile allows "packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension", whereas the entitlements generated by Xcode contain "packet-tunnel-provider". When I manually modify the .entitlements file to include the -systemextension suffix, the project fails to build because Xcode does not recognize the modified entitlement. If there is a workaround for this issue, please let me know. Due to these issues, I resorted to manually creating a signed and notarized app. My process is as follows: Export the .app from the Xcode archive. Since the exported .app does not contain the necessary entitlements or provisioning profile for direct distribution, I replace Contents/embedded.provisioningprofile in both the .app and the .appex network extension. Sign the app and its components in the following order: codesign --force --options runtime --timestamp --sign "Developer ID Application: <name>" <app>.app/Contents/Frameworks/<fw>.framework/ codesign --force --options runtime --timestamp --sign "Developer ID Application: <name>"<app>.app/Contents/PlugIns/<netext>.appex/Contents/Frameworks/<fw>.framework/Versions/A/<fw> codesign --force --options runtime --entitlements dist-vpn.entitlements --timestamp --sign "Developer ID Application: <name>" <app>.app/Contents/PlugIns/<netext>.appex/ codesign --force --options runtime --entitlements dist.entitlements --timestamp --sign "Developer ID Application: <name>" <app>.app Verify the code signature: codesign --verify --deep --strict --verbose=4 <app>.app - <app>.app: valid on disk - <app>.app: satisfies its Designated Requirement Create a ZIP archive using: ditto -c -k --sequesterRsrc --keepParent <app>.app <app>.zip Notarize the app with notarytool and staple it. The notarization completes successfully with errors: nil. Package the notarized app into a DMG, notarize, and staple the DMG. The app runs successfully on the development machine. However, when moved to another machine and placed in /Applications, it fails to open. Inspecting Console.app reveals Gatekeeper is blocking the launch:
 taskgated-helper <bundleid>: Unsatisfied entitlements: com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension, com.apple.developer.team-identifier taskgated-helper entitlements: { "com.apple.developer.networking.networkextension" = ("packet-tunnel-provider-systemextension"); "com.apple.developer.team-identifier" = <teamid>; } As mentioned earlier, the Developer ID Certificate used for signing belongs to a different team. We are a third-party developer and do not have access to the Developer ID Certificate of the team assigned as the team-identifier. When I changed the bundle identifier (app ID), team, entitlements, and provisioning profiles to match the team associated with the Developer ID Certificate, the app worked. My question is:
 Is this failure caused by using a Developer ID Certificate from a different team, or should it still work if the provisioning profiles and entitlements are correctly set? Could there be an issue elsewhere in the provisioning profiles or entitlements for the original app ID?
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525
Jun ’25
Can't publish to Testflight with Tap to Pay on iPhone entitlement despite it being granted
Hello, I went through the verification process to get the Tap to Pay on iPhone entitlement, and after a couple of corrections I was finally assured that I was granted the entitlement for production use. However, in App Store Connect, I can only see "Development" for "Provisioning Support" of the entitlement, and I'm not able to publish the app to Testflight because the profile doesn't support the entitlement (I'm using automatic code signing with XCode). Where is this going wrong? The Tap to Pay support assured me they granted the right entitlement and pointed me to the developer support. Thank you, Johannes
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111
Jun ’25
StatusCode 7000 Reappears After Fix — One App Submission Blocks Team
Hi everyone, Has anyone seen notarization behave like this? We have one specific app (let’s call it App A) with a Network Extension system extension. Whenever we submit App A for notarization: • Its submission stays “In Progress” indefinitely • The provisioning profile for its system extension becomes Invalid on its own • All our other apps suddenly fail notarization • And the whole team immediately gets: StatusCode 7000 – “Team is not yet configured for notarization.” Apple Support restored notarization once(Case 102738171569), and we confirmed other apps notarize fine — until we submit App A again, which instantly triggers the same team-wide block. This cycle has repeated twice. We verified: • Hardened runtime • Proper system extension signing • No private API usage • No get-task-allow • No ATS violations What’s confusing is that this doesn’t look like a normal notarization rejection. Normal failures don’t invalidate provisioning profiles or disable notarization for the entire team. It feels more like an automated security heuristic or misclassification. My questions: 1. Can a single app or system extension trigger an automated team-wide notarization disable? 2. Can an entitlement or NE configuration issue cause StatusCode 7000 instead of a standard rejection? 3. If this could be a false positive, is there a specific team at Apple who can manually review/clear it? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
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2w