When distributing my iOS app, I can't choose signing identity or provisioning profile

Richard Cats 1

Hello everyone,

I made a Xamarin.Forms app and now I want upload the iOS version of this app to Apple TestFlight (eventually to the App Store). To achieve this, I followed this tutorial from Microsoft.

I'm doing this from Visual Studio in Windows, but I'm connected to a mac in the cloud. So I created a new archive and then clicked on "Distribute". However, the signing identity is empty and provisioning profile says "No matching profiles found".

I searched about this and I just end up with folks applying this on a physical mac in Xcode or Visual Studio for mac. Is it possible to do publishing to TestFlight / App Store from Windows at all? And if so, am I doing something wrong?

In my app properties, both the signing identity and provisioning profile dropdowns are filled with items and I can select them.

Thanks in advance!

JarvanZhang 23,951 Reputation points

2021-03-11T09:44:20.48+00:00

Hi, RichardCats-7844. Hi, please make sure you have created and installed the App Store profile. And set the signature to the distributed signature (automatic).

Check the document: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/app-store-distribution/publishing-to-the-app-store?tabs=windows#create-and-install-an-app-store-provisioning-profile
Richard Cats 1 Reputation point

2021-03-11T12:39:44.697+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I followed the steps again from the link and I noticed I accidentally used a provisioning profile of type "Development". Now I created a new provisioning profile of type "App Store".

If I try to distribute the app to the App Store now, I can now choose the Signing Identity (previously it was empty). However, Provisioning Profile still says "No matching profiles found".

When I check Tools > Options > Xamarin > Apple Accounts-> "View Details" for the organization -> there's both a certificate (status valid) and an App Store provisioning profile (exp date next year). I think this would mean that the App Store profile is succesfully installed?
JarvanZhang 23,951 Reputation points

2021-03-12T09:49:01.283+00:00

After selecting the Manual Provisioning option, we need to select the App Store provisioning profile in the Provisioning Profile. Could you get the installed profile?
Richard Cats 1 Reputation point

2021-03-12T11:46:13.76+00:00

After selecting the Manual Provisioning option, the App Store provisioning profile doesn't show up. Only the old development profile shows up..

I also tried importing the .p12 certificate from the mac into Visual Studio or running the App_Store_profile.mobileprovision file directly on the mac. And I made sure to click "Download all Profiles." from team details dialog in Visual Studio.
JarvanZhang 23,951 Reputation points

2021-03-15T08:02:02.66+00:00

What's version of VS on your pc? Try to update it to the last stable version and test again.
Richard Cats 1 Reputation point

2021-03-16T09:44:24.25+00:00

I'm on the latest version of Visual Studio for Windows. This is Version 16.9.1.

On step 8 "Create and install an App Store provisioning profile" it says: Use Xamarin's Apple Account Management tools to download the newly-created provisioning profile to your Mac. If you're on a Mac, you can also download the provisioning profile directly from the Apple Developer Portal and double-click on it to install."

I skipped the "if you're on a Mac" part, because it seems optional, but I did follow the steps of downloading the provisioning profile through "Xamarin's Apple Account Management"

Since it's a mac in the cloud, I can't connect a physical iphone to it. Could this bring any limitations? I do have my physical iphone connected to my PC.
JarvanZhang 23,951 Reputation points

2021-03-17T09:47:50.45+00:00

I'm doing this from Visual Studio in Windows, but I'm connected to a mac in the cloud ... Since it's a mac in the cloud, I can't connect a physical iphone to it

It's available to do that. Please connect the physical iphone to the mac, then select and connet the iphone in VS on windows to test the release.

Check the doc: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/get-started/installation/device-provisioning/free-provisioning?tabs=windows
Richard Cats 1 Reputation point

2021-03-30T15:57:02.457+00:00

My apologies for the late response. I have the mac available now and connected the physical iphone to it. It's possible to deploy to the iPhone, however when I try to make an archive now (having my iphone selected in the dropdown list), I immediately get the following error: "No iOS signing identities match the specified provisioning profile" and the archiving process stops.

What I don't understand is that when I view the details in my Apple Account (Visual Studio settings), I do see the correct provisioning profile for Apple App Store and it expires next year. But after selecting the Manual Provisioning option in my project options, I don't see the provisioning profile the Apple App store profile..

Do you have any advice on what I could do?
JarvanZhang 23,951 Reputation points

2021-03-31T07:23:53.827+00:00

Does the bundle identifier of your app match the app id on the portal? And it should match the CFBundleIdentifier in info.plist.

Similar issue case you could refer to:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39297371/no-ios-code-signing-key-matches-specified-provisioning-profile-when-debuggin-o
Richard Cats 1 Reputation point

2021-04-09T08:11:24.63+00:00

Following the tips on Stackoverflow, I threw out all certificates and provisioning profiles and added them from scratch. This has now fixed that both the provisioning profile and signing identity are visible in the dropdown. Thanks!

Unfortunately, this has led to a new problem. As soon as I click on Distribute -> App Store, I get the following error:
Failed to codesign 'iOS.app': Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Apple Distribution"

Since this is a different issue, I'm going to open a new topic for this.