Share via

IsMacEnabled, no IPA is created

Peter Arnesson Gyld 1 Reputation point
2021-09-11T23:51:23.093+00:00

Hi,

Since the update of VS19 to version 16.11.2 no IPA is created. The solution configuration is set to Ad-Hoc and the solution platform is set to iPhone. The project is built successfully but in the end still no IPA is created as before. Connection to the MAC is ok, the provisioning profile for AppStore/Ad-Hoc is ok and certificate for distribution is ok.

I have noticed one strange thing in the console output and it contains a lot of these lines:

Task "bla bla bla" skipped, due to false condition; ('$(IsMacEnabled)' == 'true') was evaluated as ('false' == 'true').

I have been searching for information about "IsMacEnabled" and what it means. I thought it might mean that my PC was connected to the MAC but I'm not really sure since they are connected to each other and still I got the evaluation to false == true.
I guess these lines might cause no IPA to be built.

So what does "IsMacEnabled" means? Is it possible to change the value of it manually somehow?

Has anyone else seen the same problem?

Regards Peter

Xamarin
Xamarin
A Microsoft open-source app platform for building Android and iOS apps with .NET and C#.
5,326 questions
C#
C#
An object-oriented and type-safe programming language that has its roots in the C family of languages and includes support for component-oriented programming.
10,648 questions

2 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 29,381 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2021-09-14T10:02:37.167+00:00

    Hello,
    Welcome to our Microsoft Q&A platform!

    Defining distribution type depends on your profile and solution settings. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the Xamarin.iOS project name and select Properties, select iOS IPA Options and select Release from the Configuration dropdown list.
    I 'm afraid you could clean the build first and check the provisioning profile in your mac. Then you colud right-click the Xamarin.iOS project, select Archive to distribute.
    For more information, you could refer to
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/ad-hoc-distribution?tabs=windows
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/ipa-support?tabs=windows
    https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/profiles/lis

    Best Regards,
    Wenyan Zhang

    If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Peter Arnesson Gyld 1 Reputation point
    2021-10-06T13:56:02.683+00:00

    Hi @Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) ,

    I'm sorry for the delay. I have been struggling with this some time and I have tested you suggestions several times without success. I have removed certificates, profiles etc and then recreated everything to make sure that I haven't missed anything. I also created a new signing request certificate since I read something about a new intermediate certificate Apple has added in September 2020. Still "IsMacEnabled" was set to false.

    Suddenly when I was clicking around in the studio I saw in the iOS Settings (Tools->Options...) that my PC was not paired to my Mac. I thought that was strange since the other dialog (Tools->iOS->Pari to Mac) showed that my PC was connected to the Mac. So I connected my PC to the Mac in Tools-Options... and rebuilt the project with success and IsMacEnabled was finally set to true. (Still no IPA)

    I have hard to believe that it (conneting the other way) was the reason it failed, but now "IsMacEnabled" is set to true every time I build the project. Perhaps a poor wifi connection was the reason? The connection between the PC and Mac may have been lost during the build? But losing the connection every time, it doesn't seem likely? So I don't really know why "IsMacEnabled" was set to false. Your suggestions were good but they didn't really help me to solve the problem.

    Now I have another similar problem. As I have written earlier I have found in the output a lot of things that are skipped. IsMacEnabled is now solved but another variable "IsAppDistribution" is always set to false.

    I don't understand why since I have the configuration set to "Ad-Hoc" and platform (iPhone). Bundle signing i set to Automatic Provisioning (successfully).

    Should I create another question for "IsAppDistribution"? To get the IPA I have to pass all the requirements in the target file. "IsMacEnabled" and "IsAppDistribution" are a few of the requirements.

    Best Regards
    Peter