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TestFlight internal testing

No cable at any point. No App Store listing, no review, nobody sees it but the people you invite. Builds last 90 days, not the 7 days free provisioning gives.

What it costs

Apple Developer Program, 99 USD a year. Enrolment is at developer.apple.com and can take anywhere from minutes to a couple of days if Apple asks for ID.

Before you pay, know these two things

The app is now called Sovox Notes. Use exactly that as the App Store Connect app name. The Home Screen name is Sovox Notes too, and Siri accepts both "Start Sovox Notes" and the shorter "Start capture", because Info.plist declares Sovox as an alternative app name.

The bundle identifier must be globally unique. The project uses com.rishabh.capturenotes, with com.rishabh.capturenotes.CaptureWidget for the extension. If App Store Connect says it is taken, change both together and keep the widget as the app ID plus exactly one suffix.

Steps

Your team has no registered devices, and Apple will not issue a Development provisioning profile to a team with none. Both a device build and an archive ask for one, which is why Xcode could not register the identifiers and why the bundle ID never appeared in App Store Connect. Distribution profiles have no such requirement, so the whole flow below is manual distribution signing and never touches a device.

1. Register the two App IDs

developer.apple.com/account, Certificates Identifiers and Profiles, Identifiers, the blue +.

  • App IDs, Continue, App, Continue.
  • Description Sovox Notes, Bundle ID Explicit, com.rishabh.capturenotes.
  • Capabilities: leave everything off. This app needs none.
  • Continue, Register.

Repeat for the widget: Description Sovox Notes Widget, Bundle ID Explicit, com.rishabh.capturenotes.CaptureWidget, no capabilities.

The bundle ID appears in App Store Connect the moment this is done.

2. Archive and upload

./upload-testflight.sh

That is the whole of it. The script archives unsigned, then exports with -allowProvisioningUpdates, which makes Xcode create the Apple Distribution certificate and the App Store provisioning profiles on demand and sign with them. None of that needs a registered device, so no manual certificate or profile creation is required.

Do not use Product, Archive from the Xcode GUI on a team with no devices. The GUI archive signs with Apple Development first, which needs a device, and it fails before it gets anywhere near distribution signing.

./set-signing.py manual exists for the case where you would rather pin specific profiles by name, but it is not needed for the flow above.

3. Create the App Store Connect record

appstoreconnect.apple.com, My Apps, +, New App.

  • Platform iOS, Name Sovox Notes, Primary Language English

If App Store Connect says the name is already used, that is only the record name and it is unique across the whole App Store. It is not tied to the bundle ID or to what the phone shows. Pick any free variant, for example Sovox Notes RS, and change nothing in the project. The Home Screen name comes from CFBundleDisplayName and stays Sovox Notes regardless.

  • Bundle ID com.rishabh.capturenotes, now present because of step 1
  • SKU capturenotes-1, User Access Full Access

4. Add yourself as an internal tester

Processing email in five to fifteen minutes. App Store Connect, Sovox Notes, TestFlight tab, Internal Testing, add yourself, attach the build. Then install from the TestFlight app on the phone with the same Apple ID.

App Privacy questionnaire

App Store Connect asks this once, under your app, App Privacy. The honest answer for this app is Data Not Collected across the board. Nothing is transmitted, there is no networking code, and PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy already declares the three required reason API categories the app touches: file timestamp, disk space and user defaults.

Every later build

Bump CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION in the Sovox target, an upload with a build number App Store Connect has already seen is rejected. MARKETING_VERSION only needs to change when you want the version string to change.

What is already done in this project

  • PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy with the three required reason declarations.
  • CFBundleIconName set, which is the ITMS-90713 rejection.
  • ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption false, which skips the export compliance prompt.
  • A 1024 icon with no alpha channel, which is the ITMS-90717 rejection.
  • The widget nested correctly, no test bundle embedded, SKIP_INSTALL set on the extension.
  • An unsigned archive was produced and its merged Info.plist and bundle layout were checked against the above. The only thing not verifiable here is signing, which needs your account.