Developing an iOS app on Windows and get error 90161 on upload from Mac

[Umber Funk]

Hello,

I have developed an AIR for iOS app in Flash CC 2014 on Windows. I use MacinCloud managed server for uploading .ipa to store for testing. It is virtual server service with Mac OS. They have Application Loader pre-installed.

I made certificates [cer converted to p12] on Windows and installed provisional profile. I made another certificate on Mac and added it to provisional profile too.

I get error when trying to upload from Application Loader:

ERROR ITMS-90161: "Invalid Provisioning Profile. The provisioning profile included in the bundle com.xxx.yyy [Payload/yyy.app] is invalid. [Missing code-signing certificate.] For more information, visit the iOS Developer Portal."

Stuck here. Tried to add cert made on Mac. Flash doesn't like it and stops compilation.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

[kheftel]

I'm going to state the obvious here, and ask if you generated your CSR and certificate from the iOS Developer Portal.  iOS doesn't like self-signed certificates.

[Umber Funk]

If understand your question correctly - yes. I uploaded .certSigningReq to iOS Developer Portal. It gave me .cer file. I converted it to .pem, then .pem. to .p12.

[kheftel]

ok cool. I just wanted to make sure that when you said tried to "add cert made on Mac" that it wasn't self-signed but came from the developer portal.

[Umber Funk]

The .ipa is created in Flash for Windows.

The .p12 I use in flash to compile .ipa is created in Windows.

is it possible that Apple doesn't like certificate created in Windows? Maybe it needs certificate created in the same Mac where from I upload to store? But I cant make certificate created on Mac to work with Flash for Win. I have no Flash on Mac.

[kheftel]

It shouldn't be a problem - before I got a Mac, I did all my development on Windows and while I didn't submit to the store at that time, the .p12 worked just fine for adhoc builds...

[Umber Funk]

Did it work on TestFlight or just for testing on own iPhone?

[kheftel]

It worked on testflight before it got acquired by Apple. By that point we switched to serving adhoc IPAs from our own server instead of going the Apple route.

[kheftel]

I build with Flash Builder, I've never tried to do it in Flash CC.

What kind of profile does Apple Testflight require?  adhoc distribution or store?

[Umber Funk]

Thank you. I am glad it is possible to upload apps compiled in Win.

Seems like problem is somewhere in other place.

[kheftel]

Have you gotten it to work with adhoc installation, either with iTunes or from your own server?  There is a way to host the .ipa and .plist on your server in such a way that you can just click on a link in a web browser to install your adhoc app.  Cutting out the middleman might help isolate the problem.

[Umber Funk]

No, I am trying to get it to App Store for development testing for first time and without success. Didn't heard if it is possible to get an app to iPhones from own server. The final version should be uploadable to Store, but for testing it would be great.

[kheftel]

Unfortunately I have no experience with Apple Testflight, but I can show you how to host on your own server.

Create a .plist file on your server with the following data in it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>items</key>
  <array>
  <dict>
  <key>assets</key>
  <array>
  <dict>
  <key>kind</key>
  <string>software-package</string>
  <key>url</key>
  <string>http://yourserver.com/path/to/ipa</string>
  </dict>
  </array>
  <key>metadata</key>
  <dict>
  <key>bundle-identifier</key>
  <string>com.yourcompany.yourgame</string>
  <key>bundle-version</key>
  <string>current version of your app</string>
  <key>kind</key>
  <string>software</string>
  <key>title</key>
  <string>name of your app</string>
  </dict>
  </dict>
  </array>
</dict>
</plist>

Then, on your server, make an HTML page with the following code in it:

<a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=http://yourserver.com/path/to/plist">click here to install<a>

Navigate to that page on your device, click the link, and it should work!  (assuming the adhoc provisioning profile you built your app with contains permissions for your device)

[Umber Funk]

@kawikaheftel Thank you very much! This will be very helpful.

[kheftel]

Anytime! Let me know how it goes! I wrote a more in-depth blog post here: Self-hosted adhoc IPA delivery of iOS apps | khef.co

[Umber Funk]

@kawikaheftel Great Post!

@Colin You are right. I was uploading with development certificate. Now I tried to upload with Ad Hoc cert and the error is gone. Now there's another error - store needs icons with a LOTS OF different sizes . Started to resize them and will try to upload it again.

[Colin Holgate · Accepted solution]

Apple's Test Flight needs a distribution IPA, that has a beta-reports-active key in the app descriptor. A development profile won't work.

If you have access to a Mac, and to an HTTPS server, look into getting this app, it makes the posting of builds a lot simpler:

Mac App Store - BetaBuilder for iOS Apps

[Umber Funk]

Added a lot of types of icons and launch images as Apple requires. Compiled IPA with distribution Ad Hoc certificate and with Ad Hoc type of compilation from Flash and the IPA have uploaded without a problem.

Thanks!

[kheftel]

Glad you got it sorted out!

[Umber Funk]

Thanks @kawikaheftel!

The iTunes Connect makes a hell for me. It's too non-intuitive. For every little thing you do, you need to google a lot or ask for answers. Now I am struggling with TestFlight.

I have submitted our game for alpha testing on google play in 4-5 hours on my first try. Struggling already 3 days to test our game with TestFlight.

[kheftel]

I feel your pain! Anything I can try and help out with?

[Umber Funk]

You helped a lot already. The way you told me is the best way to show our game to publishers. I will try it now.

I wanted to make TestFlight to work and learn it. I did it at last. It's good for internal testing, but for external... It needs review from Apple. Strange... Review an app for alpha or beta testing... If developers are testing an app, doesn't it mean that it's not perfect?!

[kheftel]

Yeah, it is kinda weird.

What I came up with is this:

When your app is in alpha, you're still building features. This is a good time to host it on your own server for your own internal testers.

When the app is in beta, all features are complete, you're just testing, bugfixing, and tweaking. This is a good time to put it into testflight, for it to pass beta review, and for ease in distribution (up to 1000 testers and all you need is an email address from each one).  Hopefully they take into account that it's BETA testing, so the app's not perfect, otherwise there's no point!

[Umber Funk]

Yes, you are right.

The main problem with it I think is that after any change in beta (e.g. bugfix, re-spawn interval change) you must wait 2 weeks till it's delivered to testers. Maybe I'm missing something. Somewhere (if I correctly remember) I met some info that there is a checkbox at submit screen which tells that there's minor changes and the build is approved in short period.

[kheftel]

Yes! I've seen something similar - if you don't make major changes, it doesn't need to be re-reviewed.

Check this out from the AIR beta 18 release notes (http://labsdownload.adobe.com/pub/labs/flashruntimes/shared/air18_flashplayer18_releasenotes.pdf😞

This feature will allow developers to update only the build number while keeping the version number same so that their application is available quickly on Testflight for beta testing. Now  tag will be used to populate CFBundleShortVersionString and  for CFBundleVersion. Previously we used only  to populate both the keys in info.plist. CFBundleShortVersionString will be the final release version application version of the application. This is useful in case of TestFlight because if developers do only minor changes in application , then they can only update CFBundleVersion to skip the app review phase by Apple(which is time consuming).