What preparations are required to obtain an IPA for publication in the Apple AppStore?

In order for us to build a so-called IPA—essentially your app for the Apple App Store—there are a few steps to follow. Unlike an Android APK, more than just the app title and icon are required here.

1. Visit the Apple Developer Portal

To do this, click on the link https://developer.apple.com/. Then click on “Account” on the right and sign in with your Apple ID.

You’ll only see the following steps if you have a fully activated Apple account—meaning you’ve paid the 99 EUR fee and your account has been approved by an Apple employee.

When creating an IPA for the first time, you must follow all the steps. Later on, for example, when building a new IPA, if a certain amount of time (usually one year) has passed since the last time you followed these steps, some of the steps may need to be repeated in a slightly modified form.

2. Create a Developer Certificate

Go to the relevant section via “Certificates, IDs & Profiles.”

Click “Create a certificate.”

Select “iOS Distribution...” and click the blue “Continue” button in the upper right corner.

Use “Choose File” to select the file we sent you (general.csr) and confirm. Then click the blue “Continue” button in the upper-right corner again.

To complete the second step, simply download the generated certificate by clicking "Download."

3. Create an App ID and a Push Certificate

Select the "App IDs" option and click "Continue" on the right.

Enter the names we provided in the “Description” and “Bundle ID” fields.

Before clicking “Continue,” scroll down and select the “Push Notifications” section.

Then click “Continue” on the right and, shortly afterward, click “Register.”

The entry you just created should now appear in the list, so you can click on it again.

If you scroll down now, you’ll see a “Configure” button next to the “Push Notifications” section. Please click it.

Under “Production SSL Certificate,” select “Create Certificate.”

Use “Choose File” to select the general.csr file mentioned above and confirm. Click the button on the right to continue, and then click “Download” in the same location to download the file.

To complete this step, click the small “All Certificates” link on the left this time.

4. Finally, create a provisioning profile

In the final step, you must create a so-called "Provision Profile." To do this, click "Profiles" on the left, then click "Generate a Profile" or the small blue plus sign.

Select the "App Store" option under "Distribution" and click "Continue" on the right.

In the “App ID” dropdown, select the entry you just created with the same name, then click “Continue.”

Under “Select Certificates,” usually select the current and only entry, then continue by clicking on the right.

In the “Provisioning Profile Name” field, enter the provided information and click “Generate” on the right to create a profile.

And finally, confirm by clicking the blue “Download” button.

You can now send us the three files you’ve created as a reply to our email. We’ll then use them to build the desired IPA and make it available to you.

Later on, you can upload this IPA to Apple for review—for example, using the Mac OS X application “Transporter”—and, of course, first create an app entry with a description, screenshots, etc., in the downstream developer portal “App Store Connect.” For more details, please refer to Apple’s own instructions.

If this seems too complicated to you, we can handle these tasks for you as a separate service. Just contact us via live chat.