Error: “File was built for archive which is not the architecture being linked (armv7s)”

Question

I have built my own Static C++ Library, which is built with the settings:

• Architectures: armv7, armv7s
• Build Active Architectures Only: No
• Support Platforms: iOS
• Valid Architectures: armv7, armv7s

The library project builds well and I got the .a file (I have cleaned the build folder and built the project again to be sure my settings were effective).

I have added the library (.a file) to my iOS project, but the project won't build even though I have set the exact same settings on the iOS project:

• Architectures: armv7s, armv7
• Build Active Architectures Only: Yes
• Support Platforms: iOS
• Valid Architectures: armv7, armv7s

I keep getting this error:

ld: warning: ignoring file /Users/hidden/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/HelloWorldCppLib-fomvvtklwijvqicyhahxleiscein/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/libHelloWorldCppLib.a, file was built for archive which is not the architecture being linked (armv7s): /Users/hidden/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/HelloWorldCppLib-fomvvtklwijvqicyhahxleiscein/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/libHelloWorldCppLib.a

What am I missing? It tells me the .a file was not built for armv7s, but that is exactly the settings I built the library with.

Answer 1

When you're building a library you must compile it both for the simulator and the device and then merge the two outputs (.a files) into 1 library and then link it to your iOS project.

Answer 2

I ran into a similar problem myself. @graver's solution is definitely valid.

The issue was that the library was being built for armv7 instead of armv7s. You can verify this yourself by using lipo <path/to/lib.a> -info.

Setting the Build Active Architectures Only option to No fixes the issue.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

one additional notes is:

    Build Active Architectures Only  set to no

is for the lib project.

Answer 4

I have got the exact same error when with cocapods : For me the solution was to have two differents Build Active Architecture for target and pods.

App Target :

Build Active Architectures Only  **Yes**

pods Target

Build Active Architectures Only  **No**

Answer 5

unfortunately all these pieces of advice don't work for me - Xcode 7.3.1 (7D1014), iPhone 5. but as soon as I removed all Xcode temporary files (+ restart Xcode) and rebuild again it became working.

Answer 6

It did happen to me with Facebook SDK (v 4.24.0) used via CocoaPods.

Cleanning or setting Build Active Architectures Only to NO on Pods didn't resolve the problem.

The solution was to empty the build directory (see Build settings/Build locations/CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR) OR $(CONFIGURATION_BUILD_DIR) Xcode variable.

Answer 7

I use XCode 5.1.1 and ran into the described problem. A more convenient way to solve this problem seems to be just to create an Archive (via menu Build/Archive) and distribute it. The distributed lib file will contain all defined architectures.