Create Certificates and Provisioning Profiles for iOS

When you build mobile apps for iOS devices, you need to supply a signing certificate, provisioning profiles, and an App ID.

For more information, see Apple Certificates and Provisioning Profiles.

  • You must have an Apple Developer Account to create these files. To enroll in the Apple Developer Program, go to What You Need to Enroll at the Apple Developer site (developer.apple.com).
  • Your Apple Developer ID must have the role of Agent or Admin to create Apple App IDs and provisioning profiles, and it must not be registered for two-step verification.

To register the App ID and create the provisioning profile, you will need to sign in to the Apple Developer site.

  1. Create a signing certificate for your iOS app. You can use a third party tool such as OpenSSL to generate a .p12 certificate, or you can use the Apple Developer site and the Keychain app on a Mac. For more information, consult the relevant documentation, such as Building an iOS signing key for PhoneGap in Windows or Maintaining Your Signing Identities and Certificates.
  2. Create an App ID, as described in Maintaining Identifiers, Devices, and Profiles.
  3. Create a provisioning profile that uses the certificate:
    1. Log in to developer.apple.com.
    2. In the Provisioning Profile section, click the + button to add a new one.
    3. Select the type of profile, such asApp Store or Ad Hoc, and click Continue.
    4. Select your App ID from the drop down list and click Continue.
    5. Select the certificate you created in step 1.

      Note:  Apple does not provide a name for .p12 certificates, so you must rely on the type and expiration date to identify it.

    6. Select your App ID from the drop down list and click Continue.
    7. If you chose Ad Hoc as the type, select the devices you want to use for testing and click Continue.
    8. Enter a name for the profile, such as <AppName> Ad Hoc.

    For more information, refer to Creating Provisioning Profiles Using Your Developer Account on developer.apple.com.

  4. Download the provisioning profile.

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