Proper way to renew distribution certificate for iOS

Question

My distribution certificate is expiring on June 7th  along with all of my provisioning files  How do I properly renew it  Should I revoke it now and request a new one  If I do that than will all my live apps be taken down

User · Answer

As of January 2020 and Xcode 11 3 1 -   Open Xcode Open Xcode Preferences  Xcode- Preferences or Cmd-   Click on Accounts At the left  click on your developer ID At the bottom right  click on Manage Certificates    In the lower left corner  click the arrow to the right of the    plus  Select Apple Distribution from the menu   Xcode will automatically create an Apple Distribution certificate  install it in Keychain Access  and update Xcode s signing information   Note  the single Apple Distribution certificate is now provided instead of the previous iOS Distribution certificate and equivalents

User · Answer

When your certificate expires  it simply disappears from the    Certificates  Identifier  amp  Profiles    section of Member Center  There is no    Renew    button that allows you to renew your certificate  You can revoke a certificate and generate a new one before it expires  Or you can wait for it to expire and disappear  then generate a new certificate  In Apple s App Distribution Guide      Replacing Expired Certificates      When your development or distribution certificate expires  remove it   and request a new certificate in Xcode    When your certificate expires or is revoked  any provisioning profile that made use of the expired revoked certificate will be reflected as    Invalid     You cannot build and sign any app using these invalid provisioning profiles  As you can imagine  I d rather revoke and regenerate a certificate before it expires      Q  If I do that then will all my live apps be taken down    Apps that are already on the App Store continue to function fine  Again  in Apple s App Distribution Guide      Important  Re-creating your development or distribution certificates   doesn   t affect apps that you   ve submitted to the store nor does it   affect your ability to update them    So        Q  How to I properly renew it    As mentioned above  there is no renewing of certificates  Follow the steps below to revoke and regenerate a new certificate  along with the affected provisioning profiles  The instructions have been updated for Xcode 8 3 and Xcode 9   Step 1  Revoke the expiring certificate  Login to Member Center   Certificates  Identifiers  amp  Profiles  select the expiring certificate  Take note of the expiry date of the certificate  and click the    Revoke    button     Step 2   Optional  Remove the revoked certificate from your Keychain  Optionally  if you don t want to have the revoked certificate lying around in your system  you can delete them from your system  Unfortunately  the    Delete Certificate    function in Xcode   Preferences   Accounts    Apple ID    Manage Certificates    seems to be always disabled  so we have to delete them manually using Keychain Access app   Applications Utilities Keychain Access app      Filter by    login    Keychains and    Certificates    Category  Locate the certificate that you ve just revoked in Step 1   Depending on the certificate that you ve just revoked  search for either    Mac    or    iPhone     Mac App Store distribution certificates begin with    3rd Party Mac Developer     and iOS App Store distribution certificates begin with    iPhone Distribution      You can locate the revoked certificate based on the team name  the type of certificate  Mac or iOS  and the expiry date of the certificate you ve noted down in Step 1   Step 3  Request a new certificate using Xcode  Under Xcode   Preferences   Accounts    Apple ID    Manage Certificates     click on the         button on the lower left  and select the same type of certificate that you ve just revoked to let Xcode request a new one for you     Step 4  Update your provisioning profiles to use the new certificate  After which  head back to Member Center   Certificates  Identifiers  amp  Profiles   Provisioning Profiles   All  You ll notice that any provisioning profile that made use of the revoked certificate is now reflected as    Invalid        Click on any profile that are now    Invalid     click    Edit     then choose the newly created certificate  then click on    Generate     Repeat this until all provisioning profiles are regenerated with the new certificate     Step 5  Use Xcode to download the new provisioning profiles  Tip  Before you download the new profiles using Xcode  you may want to clear any existing and possibly invalid provisioning profiles from your Mac  You can do so by removing all the profiles from   Library MobileDevice Provisioning Profiles  Back in Xcode   Preferences   Accounts    Apple ID   click on the    Download All Profiles    button to ask Xcode to download all the provisioning profiles from your developer account

User · Answer

Very simple was to renew your certificate  Go to your developer member centre and go to your Provisioning profile and see what are the certificate Active and InActive and select Inactive certificate and hit Edit button then hit  generate button  Now your certificate successful renewal for another 1 year  Thanks

User · Answer

Your live apps will not be taken down   Nothing will happen to anything that is live in the app store   Once they formally expire  the only thing that will be impacted is your ability to sign code  and thus make new builds and provide updates    Regarding your distribution certificate  once it expires  it simply disappears from the    Certificates  Identifier  amp  Profiles    section of Member Center  If you want to renew it before it expires  revoke the current certificate and you will get a button to request a new one   Regarding the provisioning profile  don t worry about it before expiration  just keep using it   It s easy enough to just renew it once it expires   The peace of mind is that nothing will happen to your live app in the store

User · Answer

This was a really a helpful thread  I followed the same steps as  junjie mentioned but for me something weird happened  the below are the steps I did    Went to developer portal and revoked the certificate which was about to expire  Went to XCode6 4 and in the Account settings  the certificate still showed valid  I went crazy  Then I opened XCode7  there the certificate was shown with  Reset  button instead of create and I hit the reset button and later in the portal I was able to see an extended certificate present  This is what Apple says about Reset button      If Xcode detects an issue with a signing identity  it displays an   appropriate action in Accounts preferences  If Xcode displays a Create   button  the signing identity doesn   t exist in Member Center or on your   Mac  If Xcode displays a Reset button  the signing identity is not   usable on your Mac   for example  it is missing the private key  If you   click the Reset button  Xcode revokes and requests the corresponding   certificate     I tried creating an Appstore ipa with that  just to test and it worked fine so I am saved  but still not sure what has happened  May be I had multiple accounts configured in my Mac  dont know

[iphone] Proper way to renew distribution certificate for iOS

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