Demystify code signing and its importance in app development. Get help troubleshooting code signing issues and ensure your app is properly signed for distribution.

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Command CodeSign failed with a nonzero exit code - OpenGL
Hey, So i am trying to setup OpenGL on my mac. Specs : M2 Pro, 15.5 (24F74) Now i have setup the entire project properly as far as i know. GLFW, GLAD and the OpenGL framework. the build libraries are also reference and everything. I have also included the glad.c file in the folder. i have also kept it to run locally in signing tab. its still giving me Command CodeSign failed with a nonzero exit code All the ss are provided
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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Jul ’25
Investigating Third-Party IDE Code-Signing Problems
I regularly see questions from folks who’ve run into code-signing problems with their third-party IDE. There’s a limit to how much I can help you with such problems. This post explains a simple test you can run to determine what side of that limit you’re on. If you have any questions or comments, please put them in a new thread here on DevForums. Put it in Code Signing > General topic area and apply whatever tags make sense for your specific situation. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" Investigating Third-Party IDE Code-Signing Problems DTS doesn’t support third-party tools. If you’re using third-party tooling and encounter a code-signing problem, run this test to determine whether you should seek help from Apple or from your tool’s vendor. IMPORTANT Some third-party tools create Xcode projects that you then build and run in Xcode. While that approach is understandable, it’s not something that DTS supports. So, the steps below make sense even if you’re already using Xcode. To check that code-signing is working in general: Launch Xcode. In Xcode > Settings > Accounts, make sure you’re signed in with your developer account. Create a new project from the app project template for your target platform. For example, if you’re targeting iOS, use the iOS > App project template. When creating the project: Select the appropriate team in the Team popup. Choose a bundle ID that’s not the same as your main app’s bundle ID. Choose whatever language and interface you want. Your language and interface choices are irrelevant to code signing. Choose None for your testing system and storage model. This simplifies your project setup. In the Signing & Capabilities editor, make sure that: "Automatically manage signing” is checked. The Team popup and Bundle Identifier fields match the value you chose in the previous step. Select a simulator as the run destination. Choose Product > Build. This should always work because the simulator doesn’t use code signing [1]. However, doing this step is important because it confirms that your project is working general. Select your target device as the run destination. Choose Product > Build. Then Product > Run. If you continue to have problems, that’s something that Apple folks can help you with. If this works, there’s a second diagnostic test: Repeat steps 1 through 10 above, except this time, in step 4, choose a bundle ID that is the same as your main app’s bundle ID. If this works then your issue is not on the Apple side of the fence, and you should escalate it via the support channel for the third-party tools you’re using. On the other hand, if this fails, that’s something we can help you with. I recommend that you first try to fix the issue yourself. For links to relevant resources, see Code Signing Resources. You should also search the forums, because we’ve helped a lot of folks with a lot of code-signing issues over the years. If you’re unable to resolve the issue yourself, feel free to start a thread here in the forums. Put it in Code Signing > General topic area and apply whatever tags make sense for your specific situation.
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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Aug ’25
App notarization is taking long
Hi, I read that notarization should be fairly quick. I thought that it was stuck, so I ended up sending a few submissions of the same app. I was wondering if you'd able to tell me the status of my latest submission (id: a094f93d-8bb2-47fe-a411-b6e357456ec7). It has been saying "In Progress" for over 3 hours now. If it is held for in-depth review, would you be able to tell me what's the wait period is like? Thanks!
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Notary Tool credentials failing to stay persistently in the keychain
The problem is the following: We create a keychain item called NotaryTool (There are multiple accounts that use Notary tool and we created it for all of them ) This is created in the following way: $ xcrun notarytool store-credentials This process stores your credentials securely in the Keychain. You reference these credentials later using a profile name. Profile name: NotaryTool We recommend using App Store Connect API keys for authentication. If you'd like to authenticate with an Apple ID and app-specific password instead, leave this unspecified. Path to App Store Connect API private key: //AuthKey_ABCDEFGH.p8 App Store Connect API Key ID: <ABCDEFGH> App Store Connect API Issuer ID: ABCDEF-ABCD-1234-1234-1234567 Validating your credentials... Success. Credentials validated. Credentials saved to Keychain. To use them, specify `--keychain-profile "NotaryTool"` The key is downloaded from Apple and some other IDs are provided alongside. These should remain in the keychain for as long as the user process is running (just like any other process) A few runs are successful when we run with the profile that was created. After a few runs we start seeing a failure. Now we are seeing the following issue where the keychain item just vanishes: Error: No Keychain password item found for profile: NotaryTool\n\nRun 'notarytool store-credentials' to create another credential profile.\nError during the not process\nTue Aug 26 06:02:09 2025 Notarization failed with notarytool with exit code 17664: \nTue Aug 26 06:02:09 2025 could not upload for notarization!!!
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Oct ’25
The binary file is getting quarantined (com.apple.quarantine) while downloading onto another system even though it's digitally signed by a developer ID and notarised.
We are using SHC to compile on macOS to convert the .sh script to a binary file. This binary file is then digitally signed by the Apple developer account and then notarised. After that, it will work on the same system where we follow this process. But if we share this file to another system, then it gets quarantined (com.apple.quarantine) while downloading. Is there any way to prevent it by getting quarantine on another system or something I'm missing, any clues?
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Feb ’25
any pyqt user here? can you tech me how to make a perfect app
i was complete my program, and export a mac app already it work ok in my macmini, but if i want send it to app store, that i have no way now i still do not know how to make this app perfect like, when i use pyinstaller to build this app, is there any info or elements need make with? i can sign my app now, even i use codesign -dvvv my.app to check the sign, it is also ok, there no any feedback said it anything wrong. so, any master know fix app sign or any infoplist please tech me... help
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Feb ’25
Universal Links Not Working on iOS 18 Due to App Re-signing
Hello, we are currently encountering a similar issue. We need to inject our capabilities into a third-party app by re-signing it (not a full re-signing process—just requiring the provisioning profile and certificate to match). However, this seems to affect the functionality of universal links. We've found that this issue only occurs on iOS 18. We noticed that when re-signing the app, the entitlements related to associated domains are changed to a wildcard: [Key] com.apple.developer.associated-domains [Value] [Array] [String] * However, this doesn’t cause any issues on iOS 17. Through further testing, we discovered that in order for universal links to work properly, we need to restore the original value of com.apple.developer.associated-domains and use a provisioning profile that matches the app's bundle ID. This means our previous re-signing approach using a certificate and provisioning profile from another bundle will no longer work. We’d like to ask: is this a new restriction introduced in iOS 18? If we manually restore the original com.apple.developer.associated-domains entitlement and use a provisioning profile that matches the app’s bundle ID, will universal links function correctly going forward?
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Apr ’25
Have not been able to notarize for the past 2 days
I haven't been able to notarize my macOS app for the past two days. Now, I believe this is an issue with the notarization process because I've tried notarizing the default app that's provided whenever you open a new Swift application, but that completely failed as well. And I've been waiting for the past two days and it's been stuck on in progress. This is the second time this has happened to me in the past two months and oftentimes I have to wait more than a day or two for the notarization to occur. I just, I don't understand why it's deadlocked like this. I've done nothing. I haven't changed my certificates. I haven't done any different configurations within my Mac. The last time that this happened, the issue went away after two days, but my biggest concern right now is that if this happens whenever we need to urgently push updates, we can't. I have absolutely no idea what to do and I'm just extremely frustrated because this is happening right before our launch day. I've been stuck on notarizing again for the past two days and I've seen no progress, I've seen no responses from support emails and the ones that do aren't even applicable to my current scenario. ⁠
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May ’25
Regarding Qt application Code signing on MACOS
Hi support, Currently we are in a process of migrating our Qt application for MAC OS - ventura -v13.4. There is a specific feature in our application in which client tries to communicate with server (Socket communication) using Qt's QsslSocket Apis . To achieve this we are using self signed Ca certificate (.pem ) generated by using openSSl commands which uses IP address of the server. We are manually installing the certificate inside MAC OS - keychain and trusting it manually as well after installing . This is working fine in XCode environment in debug mode in MAC OS and client -server handshake is happening successfully. How ever after creating .dmg file (installer) the same handshake is not happening and we are getting error -Connection time out. Upon investigating this online, we got to know there has to be codesigning (both app bundle and the dmg file )along with notarization of the .dmg file in order to access keychain of MAC OS at runtime to access the self signed certificate installed. Now we have 2 queries here. Is code signing mandatory if we want to verify our app through keychain with .dmg file ? If yes, whats the best way to achieve this ? We have tried 2 options without any luck. option1 - Trying to build our specific target among 'ALL_BUILD' with signing key settings inside xcode where we are providing developer provisional certificate with apple team ID . After that we are trying to archive to generate dmg file which is code signed. We are failing here as the signed dmg is not getting installed due to other app related dependencies are missing . option 2- Code signing the dmg and the app bundle manually outside the environment of xcode with developer certificate and team ID. We are failing here as notarization needs to be done it seems to access keychain for certificate verification If Code signing is not mandatory then whats the best possible way to achieve this considering manually installation of certificate inside keychain with adding trust option is not working at the moment. Please specify the best solution if possible.
Topic: Code Signing SubTopic: General
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Mar ’25
After Waiting A Month For The Family Controls Entitlement, I'm Now Finding Out I Need One For Each New App ID To Be Signed?
Hey everyone, I was granted access to Family Controls (Distribution) for my main App ID The entitlement is visible and enabled in the App ID configuration. I’ve successfully created and used a provisioning profile that injects com.apple.developer.family-controls for the main app. ✅ However, the issue is with an extension target under the same parent App ID and all others Despite enabling the Family Controls (Development) capability in this extension’s App ID config, every new provisioning profile I generate for the extension fails to include the entitlement. I’ve confirmed this by: • Dumping the .mobileprovision with security cms -D → no sign of com.apple.developer.family-controls • Recreating the profile multiple times (Development and Distribution) • Ensuring the entitlement is toggled on in the portal • Validating the parent app profile does include it ⸻ ❗Question: Is there a known issue where Family Controls doesn’t get injected into extension App IDs even after team approval? Or is there an extra step I need to take to get this entitlement injected properly into provisioning profiles for app extensions?
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Mar ’25
Unable to upload macOS app to AppStore Connect
Hi, We've created a new version of our macOS version of our app, but when I now try to upload the generated .pkg to App Store Connect via Xcode or Transporter we get this error message: ITMS-90286: Invalid code signing entitlements - Your application bundle’s signature contains code signing entitlements that aren’t supported on macOS. Specifically, the “AppIDPrefix.my.bundle.name” value for the com.apple.application-identifier key in “my.bundlename.pkg/Payload/appname.app/Contents/MacOS/appname” isn’t supported. This value should be a string that starts with your Team ID, followed by a dot (“.”), followed by the bundle ID. Setting the code signing to automatic or does not make a difference. Our app has a different App ID Prefix as our Team ID and when I try to upload the app to App Store Connect I get this error message, does anyone know how we can fix this issue? We used to be able to upload the apps without issues.
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May ’25
Missing code-signing certificate
*** Error: ERROR: [ContentDelivery.Uploader] Validation failed (409) Invalid Provisioning Profile. The provisioning profile included in the com.baiyun-shuniu.scss bundle [Payload/HBuilder.app] is invalid. [Missing code-signing certificate]. A distribution provisioning profile should be used when uploading apps to App Store Connect. (ID: e21c7a63-520f-49c5-8298-9afa3aa14dd5) 2025-05-13 09:23:20.382 INFO: [ContentDelivery.Uploader]
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May ’25
Unable to Code Sign: errSecInternalComponent on macOS Sonoma 15.3
Hi Developer Community, I'm encountering persistent code signing failures on macOS Sonoma 15.3 with a valid Developer ID Application certificate. The error occurs consistently across multiple certificate regenerations and various troubleshooting approaches. Environment macOS Version: Sonoma 15.3 Developer Account Type: Developer ID Certificate Type: Developer ID Application Certificate Details: Developer ID Application certificate valid until 2027 Using SHA-256 with RSA Encryption Certificate shows as valid in Keychain Access with associated private key Error Message Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer "Developer ID Application: [my certificate]" [filename]: errSecInternalComponent Steps to Reproduce Install certificate chain in order: Apple Root CA (System keychain) Apple WWDR CA (System keychain) Developer ID CA (System keychain) Developer ID Application certificate (Login keychain) Verify certificate installation: security find-identity -v -p codesigning Result shows valid identity. Attempt code signing with any binary: codesign -s "Developer ID Application: [my certificate]" -f --timestamp --options runtime [filename] Results in errSecInternalComponent error Troubleshooting Already Attempted Regenerated Developer ID Application certificate multiple times from Developer Portal Completely removed and reinstalled entire certificate chain Verified trust settings on all certificates (set to "Always Trust" for code signing) Tried multiple codesign command variations including --no-strict flag Verified keychain integrity Installed latest Apple CA certificates from apple.com/certificateauthority Verified certificate chain is properly recognized by security verify-cert Additional Information All certificates show as valid in Keychain Access Private key is properly associated with Developer ID Application certificate Trust settings are correctly configured for all certificates in the chain Problem persists after clean certificate installations Error occurs with any binary I try to sign Has anyone else encountered this issue on Sonoma 15.3? Any suggestions for resolving this system-level certificate trust chain issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
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500
Feb ’25
FamilyControls App Blocking Not Working for External TestFlight Testers
Hi everyone, I'm following up on this post I made earlier about an issue I'm having with FamilyControls and the DeviceActivityMonitor extension not working for external TestFlight testers. To briefly recap: I have official Apple approval for the com.apple.developer.family-controls entitlement (distribution) The entitlement is added to both my main app and the DeviceActivityMonitor extension The App Group is correctly configured for both targets On internal TestFlight builds, everything works as expected: app blocking works, the extension runs, and selected apps are shielded. On external TestFlight builds, users get the Screen Time permission prompt, can select apps to block, but nothing is blocked. Since that post, I submitted a Code Level Support request, and Apple asked me to file a bug report via Feedback Assistant. I did that almost a month ago. The only reply I’ve received since is that they can’t give a timeframe or guarantee it will be resolved. I'm stuck in limbo with no updates and no fix. This feature is critical to my app and I cannot launch without it. I’ve reached out to other developers who use app blocking, and none of them have run into this issue. My setup seems correct, and Apple has not said otherwise. If anyone has experienced something similar, found a workaround, or knows how to get real movement on a bug report like this, I would really appreciate any help. It’s been weeks, and I just want to launch my app. Thanks so much.
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May ’25
no valid aps-environment entitlement string found for application
Error in application:didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError: no valid aps-environment entitlement string found for application have tried out the below commands % codesign -d --entitlements - /path/to/your.app % security cms -D -i /path/to/your.app/embedded.mobileprovision and it seems both are working fine, Im currently developing react native app with expo and firebase for notifications this works fine when im running it via installing the app from testflight, but the issue occurs when i test in testflight or while the apple team reviewing my app My entitlements file <dict> <key>aps-environment</key> <string>production</string> </dict> </plist>
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Jun ’25
Crash log
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The Care and Feeding of Developer ID
I regularly see folks run into problems with their Developer ID signing identities. Historically I pointed them to my posts on this thread, but I’ve decided to collect these ideas together in one place. If you have questions or comments, start a new thread here on DevForums and tag it with Developer ID so that I see it. IMPORTANT Nothing I write here on DevForums is considered official documentation. It’s just my personal ramblings based on hard-won experience. There is a bunch of official documentation that covers the topics I touch on here, including: Xcode documentation Xcode Help Developer Account Help Developer > Support > Certificates For a lot more information about code signing, see the Code Signing Resources pinned post. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" The Care and Feeding of Developer ID Most Apple signing assets are replaceable. For example, if you accidentally lose access to your Apple Development signing identity, it’s a minor inconvenience. Just use the Developer website to revoke your previous certificate and create a replacement. Or have Xcode do that for you. IMPORTANT If you don’t understand the difference between a certificate and a digital identity, and hence signing identity, read Certificate Signing Requests Explained before reading this post. Some signing assets are precious. Losing access to such assets has significant consequences. Foremost amongst those are Developer ID signing identities. These allow you to sign Mac products that ship independently. Anyone with access to your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you. This has a number of consequences, both for you and for your relationship with Apple. Identify a Developer ID Signing Identity A Developer ID signing identity consists of two parts: the certificate and the private key. There are two different flavours, identifiable by the subject name in the certificate: Developer ID Application — This is named Developer ID Application: TTT, where TTT identifies your team. Use this to sign code and disk images. Developer ID Installer — This is named Developer ID Installer: TTT, where TTT identifies your team. Use this to sign installer packages. Note If you do KEXT development, there’s a third flavour, namely a KEXT-enabled Developer ID Application signing identity. For more details, see KEXT Code Signing Problems. This post focuses on traditional signing identities, where you manage the private key. Xcode Cloud introduced cloud signing, where signing identities are “stored securely in the cloud”. These identities have the Managed suffix in Certificates, Identifiers, and Profiles. For example, Developer ID Application Managed is the cloud signing equivalent of Developer ID Application. To learn more about cloud signing, watch WWDC 2021 Session 10204 Distribute apps in Xcode with cloud signing. To identify these certificates ‘in the wild’, see Identifying a Cloud Managed Signing Certificate. Limit Access to Developer ID Anyone with your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you. Given that, be careful to limit access to these signing identities. This is true both for large organisations and small developers. In a large organisation, ensure that only folks authorised to ship code on behalf of your organisation have access to your Developer ID signing identities. Most organisations have some sort of release process that they use to build, test, and authorise a release. This often involves a continuous integration (CI) system. Restrict CI access to only those folks involved in the release process. Even if you’re a small developer with no formal release process, you can still take steps to restrict access to Developer ID signing identities. See Don’t Leak Your Private Key, below. In all cases, don’t use your Developer ID signing identities for day-to-day development. That’s what Apple Development signing identities are for. Create Developer ID Signing Identities as the Account Holder Because Developer ID signing identities are precious, the Developer website will only let the Account Holder create them. For instructions on how to do this, see Developer Account Help > Create certificates > Create Developer ID certificates. For more information about programme roles, see Developer > Support > Program Roles. IMPORTANT In an Organization team it’s common for the Account Holder to be non-technical. They may need help getting this done. For hints and tips on how to avoid problems while doing this, see Don’t Lose Your Private Key and Don’t Leak Your Private Key, both below. Limit the Number of Developer ID Signing Identities You Create Don’t create Developer ID signing identities unnecessarily. Most folks only need to create one. Well, one Developer ID Application and maybe one Developer ID Installer. A large organisation might need more, perhaps one for each sub-unit, but that’s it. There are two reasons why this is important: The more you have, the more likely it is for one to get into the wrong hands. Remember that anyone with your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you. The Developer website limits you to 5 Developer ID certificates. Note I can never remember where this limit is actually documented, so here’s the exact quote from this page: You can create up to five Developer ID Application certificates and up to five Developer ID Installer certificates using either your developer account or Xcode. Don’t Lose Your Private Key There are two standard processes for creating a Developer ID signing identity: Developer website — See Developer Account Help > Create certificates > Create Developer ID certificates. Xcode — See Xcode Help > Maintaining signing assets > Manage signing certificates. Both processes implicitly create a private key in your login keychain. This makes it easy to lose your private key. For example: If you do this on one Mac and then get a new Mac, you might forget to move the private key to the new Mac. If you’re helping your Organization team’s Account Holder to create a Developer ID signing identity, you might forget to export the private key from their login keychain. It also makes it easy to accidentally leave a copy of the private key on a machine that doesn’t need it; see Don’t Leak Your Private Key, below, for specific advice on that front. Every time you create a Developer ID signing identity, it’s a good idea to make an independent backup of it. For advice on how to do that, see Back Up Your Signing Identities, below. That technique is also useful if you need to copy the signing identity to a continuous integration system. If you think you’ve lost the private key for a Developer ID signing identity, do a proper search for it. Finding it will save you a bunch of grief. You might be able to find it on your old Mac, in a backup, in a backup for your old Mac, and so on. For instructions on how to extract your private key from a general backup, see Recover a Signing Identity from a Mac Backup. If you’re absolutely sure that you previous private key is lost, use the Developer website to create a replacement signing identity. If the Developer website won’t let you create any more because you’ve hit the limit discussed above, talk to Developer Programs Support. Go to Apple > Developer > Contact Us and follow the path Development and Technical > Certificates, Identifiers, and Provisioning Profiles. Don’t Leak Your Private Key Anyone with your Developer ID signing identity can sign code as you. Thus, it’s important to take steps to prevent its private key from leaking. A critical first step is to limit access to your Developer ID signing identities. For advice on that front, see Limit Access to Developer ID, above. In an Organization team, only the Account Holder can create Developer ID signing identities. When they do this, a copy of the identity’s private key will most likely end up in their login keychain. Once you’ve exported the signing identity, and confirmed that everything is working, make sure to delete that copy of the private key. Some organisations have specific rules for managing Developer ID signing identities. For example, an organisation might require that the private key be stored in a hardware token, which prevents it from being exported. Setting that up is a bit tricky, but it offers important security benefits. Even without a hardware token, there are steps you can take to protect your Developer ID signing identity. For example, you might put it in a separate keychain, one with a different password and locking policy than your login keychain. That way signing code for distribution will prompt you to unlock the keychain, which reminds you that this is a significant event and ensures that you don’t do it accidentally. If you believe that your private key has been compromised, follow the instructions in the Compromised Certificates section of Developer > Support > Certificates. IMPORTANT Don’t go down this path if you’ve simply lost your private key. Back Up Your Signing Identities Given that Developer ID signing identities are precious, consider making an independent backup of them. To back up a signing identity to a PKCS#12 (.p12) file: Launch Keychain Access. At the top, select My Certificates. On the left, select the keychain you use for signing identities. For most folks this is the login keychain. Select the identity. Choose File > Export Items. In the file dialog, select Personal Information Exchange (.p12) in the File Format popup. Enter a name, navigate to your preferred location, and click Save. You might be prompted to enter the keychain password. If so, do that and click OK. You will be prompted to enter a password to protect the identity. Use a strong password and save this securely in a password manager, corporate password store, on a piece of paper in a safe, or whatever. You might be prompted to enter the keychain password again. If so, do that and click Allow. The end result is a .p12 file holding your signing identity. Save that file in a secure location, and make sure that you have a way to connect it to the password you saved in step 9. Remember to backup all your Developer ID signing identities, including the Developer ID Installer one if you created it. To restore a signing identity from a backup: Launch Keychain Access. Choose File > Import Items. In the open sheet, click Show Options. Use the Destination Keychain popup to select the target keychain. Navigate to and select the .p12 file, and then click Open. Enter the .p12 file’s password and click OK. If prompted, enter the destination keychain password and click OK. Recover a Signing Identity from a Mac Backup If you didn’t independently backup your Developer ID signing identity, you may still be able to recover it from a general backup of your Mac. To start, work out roughly when you created your Developer ID signing identity: Download your Developer ID certificate from the Developer website. In the Finder, Quick Look it. The Not Valid Before field is the date you’re looking for. Now it’s time to look in your backups. The exact details depend on the backup software you’re using, but the basic process runs something like this: Look for a backup taken shortly after the date you determined above. In that backup, look for the file ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain. Recover that to a convenient location, like your desktop. Don’t put it in ~/Library/Keychains because that’ll just confuse things. Rename it to something unique, like login-YYYY-MM-DD.keychain, where YYYY-MM-DD is the date of the backup. In Keychain Access, choose File > Add Keychain and, in the resulting standard file panel, choose that .keychain file. On the left, select login-YYYY-MM-DD. Chose File > Unlock Keychain “login-YYYY-MM-DD“. In the resulting password dialog, enter your login password at the date of the backup. At the top, select My Certificates. Look through the list of digital identities to find the Developer ID identity you want. If you don’t see the one you’re looking for, see Further Recovery Tips below. Export it using the process described at the start of Back Up Your Signing Identities. Once you’re done, remove the keychain from Keychain Access: On the left, select the login-YYYY-MM-DD keychain. Choose File > Delete Keychain “login-YYYY-MM-DD”. In the confirmation alert, click Remove Reference. The login-YYYY-MM-DD.keychain is now just a file. You can trash it, keep it, whatever, at your discretion. This process creates a .p12 file. To work with that, import it into your keychain using the process described at the end of Back Up Your Signing Identities. IMPORTANT Keep that .p12 file as your own independent backup of your signing identity. Further Recovery Tips If, in the previous section, you can’t find the Developer ID identity you want, there are a few things you might do: Look in a different backup. If your account has more than one keychain, look in your other keychains. If you have more than one login account, look at the keychains for your other accounts. If you have more than one Mac, look at the backups for your other Macs. The login-YYYY-MM-DD keychain might have the private key but not the certificate. Add your Developer ID certificate to that keychain to see if it pairs with a private key. Revision History 2025-03-28 Excised the discussion of Xcode’s import and export feature because that was removed in Xcode 16. 2025-02-20 Added some clarification to the end of Don’t Leak Your Private Key. 2023-10-05 Added the Recover a Signing Identity from a Mac Backup and Further Recovery Tips sections. 2023-06-23 Added a link to Identifying a Cloud Managed Signing Certificate. 2023-06-21 First posted.
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Mar ’25