Issue: iOS app built for Apple App Store distribution won't install after signing in the App Management Admin Portal?

Issue

An iOS app that is built for Apple App Store distribution install after signing in the App Management Admin Portal?

Reason

The App Management Admin Portal allows customers to re-sign iOS and Android applications with one click, making the signing and distribution process much more straightforward.

When singing applications, it is important to ensure that the correct certificates and profiles for each individual app are used. A detailed guide to application signing can be found here.

The most common reason an iOS app will fail to install after signing is due to an Entitlements mismatch. Basically, Entitlements are different functions that the application can perform and they are specifically enabled by the developer of the application.

Solution

Luckily, App Management provides the ability to compare the most common Entitlements enabled within the application with the entitlements enabled within the Provisioning Profile you are using to sign it to ensure that there are no mismatches.

With that being said, an application can either be built/signed with a Provisioning Profile for use in the Apple App Store or a Provisioning Profile used for In-House Distribution (via App Management). The In-House option should always be used when distributing applications via the App Management platform but it is very common that a developer will use an Apple App Store Provisioning Profile when building their app which will cause installation problems.

A specific entitlement is enabled within the application when an Apple App Store Provisioning Profile is used and this entitlement cannot be enabled in an In-House Provisioning Profile. App Management does not display this entitlement when comparing Provisioning Profiles, as the platform only works with In-House Provisioning Profiles.

Here is the entitlement:

<key>beta-reports-active</key>
<true/>

The only way to resolve this issue and remove the entitlement is to reach out to the developer of the application and ensure that they are signing it with an In-House Provisioning Profile at build time.

Once the signature has been updated, a standard In-House Provisioning Profile can be used to sign the application without encountering any installation issues.