[ios] What is a provisioning profile used for when developing iPhone applications?

What is the purpose of a provisioning profile and why is it needed when developing an iPhone application? If I don't have a provisioning profile, what happens?

This question is related to ios iphone xcode code-signing provisioning-profile

The answer is


A Quote from : iPhone Developer Program (~8MB PDF)

A provisioning profile is a collection of digital entities that uniquely ties developers and devices to an authorized iPhone Development Team and enables a device to be used for testing. A Development Provisioning Profile must be installed on each device on which you wish to run your application code. Each Development Provisioning Profile will contain a set of iPhone Development Certificates, Unique Device Identifiers and an App ID. Devices specified within the provisioning profile can be used for testing only by those individuals whose iPhone Development Certificates are included in the profile. A single device can contain multiple provisioning profiles.


Apple cares about security and as you know it is not possible to install any application on a real iOS device. Apple has several legal ways to do it:

  • When you need to test/debug an app on a real device the Development Provisioning Profile allows you to do it
  • When you publish an app you send a Distribution Provisioning Profile[About] and Apple after review reassign it by they own key

Development Provisioning Profile is stored on device and contains:

  • Application ID - application which are going to run
  • List of Development certificates - who can debug the app
  • List of devices - which devices can run this app

Xcode by default take cares about


You need it to install development iPhone applications on development devices.

Here's how to create one, and the reference for this answer:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Provisioning-Profile-for-iPhone

Another link: http://iphone.timefold.com/provisioning.html


Examples related to ios

Adding a UISegmentedControl to UITableView Crop image to specified size and picture location Undefined Symbols error when integrating Apptentive iOS SDK via Cocoapods Keep placeholder text in UITextField on input in IOS Accessing AppDelegate from framework? Autoresize View When SubViews are Added Warp \ bend effect on a UIView? Speech input for visually impaired users without the need to tap the screen make UITableViewCell selectable only while editing Xcode 12, building for iOS Simulator, but linking in object file built for iOS, for architecture arm64

Examples related to iphone

Detect if the device is iPhone X Xcode 8 shows error that provisioning profile doesn't include signing certificate Access files in /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application without jailbreaking iPhone Certificate has either expired or has been revoked Missing Compliance in Status when I add built for internal testing in Test Flight.How to solve? cordova run with ios error .. Error code 65 for command: xcodebuild with args: "Could not find Developer Disk Image" Reason: no suitable image found iPad Multitasking support requires these orientations How to insert new cell into UITableView in Swift

Examples related to xcode

Undefined Symbols error when integrating Apptentive iOS SDK via Cocoapods Xcode 12, building for iOS Simulator, but linking in object file built for iOS, for architecture arm64 iPhone is not available. Please reconnect the device Make a VStack fill the width of the screen in SwiftUI error Failed to build iOS project. We ran "xcodebuild" command but it exited with error code 65 The iOS Simulator deployment targets is set to 7.0, but the range of supported deployment target version for this platform is 8.0 to 12.1 Xcode 10.2.1 Command PhaseScriptExecution failed with a nonzero exit code Git is not working after macOS Update (xcrun: error: invalid active developer path (/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools) Xcode 10: A valid provisioning profile for this executable was not found Xcode 10, Command CodeSign failed with a nonzero exit code

Examples related to code-signing

Xcode error: Code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS 10.0' Code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS 10.0' - StickerPackExtension requires a development team error Xcode 7 error: "Missing iOS Distribution signing identity for ..." The executable gets signed with invalid entitlements in Xcode iOS 7.0 No code signing identities found “Unable to find manifest signing certificate in the certificate store” - even when add new key Code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS5.1' Why is my locally-created script not allowed to run under the RemoteSigned execution policy? The entitlements specified...profile. (0xE8008016). Error iOS 4.2 Xcode 'CodeSign error: code signing is required'

Examples related to provisioning-profile

No signing certificate "iOS Distribution" found Xcode 8 shows error that provisioning profile doesn't include signing certificate Code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS 10.0' - StickerPackExtension requires a development team error Xcode 7.2 no matching provisioning profiles found How to remove provisioning profiles from Xcode An App ID with Identifier '' is not available. Please enter a different string The executable gets signed with invalid entitlements in Xcode Is there a way since (iOS 7's release) to get the UDID without using iTunes on a PC/Mac? Find provisioning profile in Xcode 5 Xcode5 "No matching provisioning profiles found issue" (but good at xcode4)