Xamarin.ios Visual Studio 2022 Archive failing (windows -> Remote)

Question

Xamarin.ios Visual Studio 2022 Archive failing (windows -> Remote)

Kevin Deery 11

Hey,

Extremely frustrating week of going round in circles to no avail.

Certificates
In place on the Macbook for distribution
Added to App Store
Added to Keychain

Identifier
Tried with wildcard and explicit (Values match bundle name)

Profile
In place and linked to correct certificate

Just to point , when i view this on Visual Studio for mac, Keychain status is valid. When i look at these on Windows with active connection to the mac it says its not "Not in Keychain"

Apple Accounts
Tools -> Options -> Xamarin -> Apple accounts
I see the connected account , Role is XCODE_FREE_USER however in most tutorials i see Agent (does this make a difference>)

The create Certificate for Distribution is greyed out therefore i manually have to create the certificate on the mac and upload to the dev portal. (is this a problem?)

Build
Release -> iPhone -> Remote Device

Bundle Signing

I would appreciate any help, im 100% out of ideas at this point

Thanks
Kevin

Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-07T14:00:22.197+00:00
To resolve the issue were the certificate is not in Visual Studio "Not in Key Chain" perform the following steps

Open Keychain Access

Select my Certificates

Export

Save to desktop as .p12 file

Open Visual Studio

Tools - > Options -> Xamarin -> Apple Accounts

Import Certificate Will now be available in the bundle signing for selection

I have this now but Im still unable to archive though
RedShanks 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T08:59:34.367+00:00

Try to create another new distrib cert from Apple Accounts in VS, then download it and install it on the Mac. A similar thread: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60982834/xamarin-ios-16-5-certificate-is-not-in-keychain
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T14:52:25.177+00:00

Could this be the problem?

I have VLC player in my xamarin app, a missing reference keeps appearing in the references. No idea how to deal with this. I can remove, build , deploy to simulator and device without and issue however everytime i close and open visual studio it appears back

Its also reported on archiving saying it cannot sign it
pugthegreat 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T22:39:06.45+00:00

@Kevin Deery if your solution builds without a problem the assembly references should not be the issue.

Its also reported on archiving saying it cannot sign it

In that case verify your Apple account Certificates & Profiles and make sure the selected Distribution certificate/profile in Visual Studio is valid. The app ID on the certificate must be exactly the same as the bundle identifier specified in the Info.plist file in your iOS project. If it is valid and still you can't archive because of signing issues, I'd recommend you to try with a new one.

You can also check the archive process log files:
1-In Visual Studio select Help > Xamarin > Open Logs...
2- The file you should be looking for is the most recently modified and suffixed by .Ide. It contains more detailed information during the archiving process. The other log files may also contain relevant information.
pugthegreat 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T23:39:07.357+00:00

Make sure to target a valid Device before archiving.

For some reason Visual Studio requires targeting a valid Device in order to archive successfully. This is only the case for iOS applications though.
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-09T05:53:58.483+00:00

You said " Role is XCODE_FREE_USER ", may I ask do you have a paid Apple Developer account? Publishing to the App Store and TestFlight are unavailable to developers provisioning their applications freely if the account is free. For more detais, refer to
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/get-started/installation/device-provisioning/free-provisioning?tabs=windows
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/app-store-distribution/?tabs=macos

In addition, you said " Its also reported on archiving saying it cannot sign it ", would you mind sharing the detail error message?
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-09T12:37:17.883+00:00

Hi,

Yes i have an account and its paid. Only within Visual Studio (Windows) it has XCODE_FREE_USER, within Visual Studio (MAC) the Role is agent.

Ive pulled out the VLC player (Code sign error), it has a Native Reference to DynamicVLCLibrary, this appeared to give a broken reference which could not be found. Its very odd as i can remote deploy to my iPad over the networks and the control works fine. Still decided to remove it because im 2 weeks into this issue and ive alot of users awaiting the ios release. Ive replaced with media element at the expense of Casting. Ill have to find another solution to this at a later point.

I will inspect the logs and see if it give me anymore detail to why I'm getting this issue.

Thank you for your help
Kevin
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-09T12:38:35.003+00:00

Target device is "Remote Device" which im assuming is my connected mac book. Anything other than this reports that its an invalid device
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-10T02:10:02.44+00:00

You could try to connect your real device with your mac , then pair to mac on VS (Windows), and select this real device to archive.
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-10T03:03:23.247+00:00

If you have exported a .p12 file and it still doesn't work, try to download this profile to your mac form https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/certificates/list, double click this profile to install, then pair to mac (Windows), select this profile again. Refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/app-store-distribution/?tabs=windows#selecting-a-distribution-profile-in-a-xamarinios-project
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-10T03:19:50.947+00:00

Try to remove this Apple ID and add again, it is still XCODE_FREE_USER?
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-14T14:54:12.687+00:00

Anyone having XCODE_FREE_USER shown on their apple account can resolve this by navigating to

%appdata%/Local/Xamarin/iOS/Provisioning/DeveloperStorage

Open the DeveloperStorage.json and find this section
"roles":["XCODE_FREE_USER","AGENT","TEAM_ADMIN","MAC_PROGRAM_TEAM_ADMIN"],"

Change the order to have agent first
"roles":["AGENT","XCODE_FREE_USER","TEAM_ADMIN","MAC_PROGRAM_TEAM_ADMIN"],"

Appears to be a Xamarin Forms bug
https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios/issues/8464

Still has not resolved the archive issue
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-15T05:48:42.5+00:00

For XCODE_FREE_USER issue, you could continue to follow the progress at github and I will also report this issue by my internal ways. Thanks for your sharing.

For the archive issue, you could refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/app-store-distribution/?tabs=windows#selecting-a-distribution-profile-in-a-xamarinios-project
Since I still couldn't reproduce your issue, I suggest that you might need to open a  support ticket for this. Please contact our paid phone support at MS Support. You will get 1:1 support on that.
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-15T10:03:45.623+00:00

Unfortunately im not a small business, im a community developer so opening a Paid ticket is out of the question. Cant rack up a large bill :(

1 answer

Your answer

Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-07T14:00:22.197+00:00

To resolve the issue were the certificate is not in Visual Studio "Not in Key Chain" perform the following steps

Open Keychain Access

Select my Certificates

Export

Save to desktop as .p12 file

Open Visual Studio

Tools - > Options -> Xamarin -> Apple Accounts

Import Certificate Will now be available in the bundle signing for selection

I have this now but Im still unable to archive though
RedShanks 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T08:59:34.367+00:00

Try to create another new distrib cert from Apple Accounts in VS, then download it and install it on the Mac. A similar thread: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60982834/xamarin-ios-16-5-certificate-is-not-in-keychain
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T14:52:25.177+00:00

Could this be the problem?

I have VLC player in my xamarin app, a missing reference keeps appearing in the references. No idea how to deal with this. I can remove, build , deploy to simulator and device without and issue however everytime i close and open visual studio it appears back

Its also reported on archiving saying it cannot sign it
pugthegreat 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T22:39:06.45+00:00

@Kevin Deery if your solution builds without a problem the assembly references should not be the issue.

Its also reported on archiving saying it cannot sign it

In that case verify your Apple account Certificates & Profiles and make sure the selected Distribution certificate/profile in Visual Studio is valid. The app ID on the certificate must be exactly the same as the bundle identifier specified in the Info.plist file in your iOS project. If it is valid and still you can't archive because of signing issues, I'd recommend you to try with a new one.

You can also check the archive process log files:
1-In Visual Studio select Help > Xamarin > Open Logs...
2- The file you should be looking for is the most recently modified and suffixed by .Ide. It contains more detailed information during the archiving process. The other log files may also contain relevant information.
pugthegreat 11 Reputation points

2022-02-08T23:39:07.357+00:00

Make sure to target a valid Device before archiving.

For some reason Visual Studio requires targeting a valid Device in order to archive successfully. This is only the case for iOS applications though.
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-09T05:53:58.483+00:00

You said " Role is XCODE_FREE_USER ", may I ask do you have a paid Apple Developer account? Publishing to the App Store and TestFlight are unavailable to developers provisioning their applications freely if the account is free. For more detais, refer to
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/get-started/installation/device-provisioning/free-provisioning?tabs=windows
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/app-store-distribution/?tabs=macos

In addition, you said " Its also reported on archiving saying it cannot sign it ", would you mind sharing the detail error message?
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-09T12:37:17.883+00:00

Hi,

Yes i have an account and its paid. Only within Visual Studio (Windows) it has XCODE_FREE_USER, within Visual Studio (MAC) the Role is agent.

Ive pulled out the VLC player (Code sign error), it has a Native Reference to DynamicVLCLibrary, this appeared to give a broken reference which could not be found. Its very odd as i can remote deploy to my iPad over the networks and the control works fine. Still decided to remove it because im 2 weeks into this issue and ive alot of users awaiting the ios release. Ive replaced with media element at the expense of Casting. Ill have to find another solution to this at a later point.

I will inspect the logs and see if it give me anymore detail to why I'm getting this issue.

Thank you for your help
Kevin
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-09T12:38:35.003+00:00

Target device is "Remote Device" which im assuming is my connected mac book. Anything other than this reports that its an invalid device
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-10T02:10:02.44+00:00

You could try to connect your real device with your mac , then pair to mac on VS (Windows), and select this real device to archive.
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-10T03:03:23.247+00:00

If you have exported a .p12 file and it still doesn't work, try to download this profile to your mac form https://developer.apple.com/account/resources/certificates/list, double click this profile to install, then pair to mac (Windows), select this profile again. Refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/app-store-distribution/?tabs=windows#selecting-a-distribution-profile-in-a-xamarinios-project
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-10T03:19:50.947+00:00

Try to remove this Apple ID and add again, it is still XCODE_FREE_USER?
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-14T14:54:12.687+00:00

Anyone having XCODE_FREE_USER shown on their apple account can resolve this by navigating to

%appdata%/Local/Xamarin/iOS/Provisioning/DeveloperStorage

Open the DeveloperStorage.json and find this section
"roles":["XCODE_FREE_USER","AGENT","TEAM_ADMIN","MAC_PROGRAM_TEAM_ADMIN"],"

Change the order to have agent first
"roles":["AGENT","XCODE_FREE_USER","TEAM_ADMIN","MAC_PROGRAM_TEAM_ADMIN"],"

Appears to be a Xamarin Forms bug
https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios/issues/8464

Still has not resolved the archive issue
Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-15T05:48:42.5+00:00

For XCODE_FREE_USER issue, you could continue to follow the progress at github and I will also report this issue by my internal ways. Thanks for your sharing.

For the archive issue, you could refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/ios/deploy-test/app-distribution/app-store-distribution/?tabs=windows#selecting-a-distribution-profile-in-a-xamarinios-project
Since I still couldn't reproduce your issue, I suggest that you might need to open a  support ticket for this. Please contact our paid phone support at MS Support. You will get 1:1 support on that.
Kevin Deery 11 Reputation points

2022-02-15T10:03:45.623+00:00

Unfortunately im not a small business, im a community developer so opening a Paid ticket is out of the question. Cant rack up a large bill :(

Answer 1

Success (What a pain), ive managed to sign this

Delete all certificates from Key Chain
Open xcode (make sure apple account is connected), generate Development and Distribution certificates
Update Profiles to use new certificates (Apple dev portal)
Export from Keychain .p12 file
Open Visual Studio , Tools -> Xamarin -> Apple Accounts (make sure account is connect)
Click View Details
Import Dev and Distribution certificate
Download profiles
Release configuration , Manual , choose profile and Team (not automatic)
Archive in Release mode, iPhone, IOS, Remote device (i have ipad connected)

Do not use your macbook, it will fail if your targeting App Store. Deployment is Generic therefore the Macbook thinks its for itunes too.

Hope this helps someone

@Microsoft really need better instructions for deploying with iOS

Wenyan Zhang (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 36,436 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2022-02-16T01:56:10.657+00:00

Thanks for your sharing.

Share via

Xamarin.ios Visual Studio 2022 Archive failing (windows -> Remote)

1 answer

Your answer