Why do we need 2 .mobileprovision files 1 with the .ipa and 1 on the device?

0
votes

Why does the .mobileprovision file needs to be on the device before installing an .ipa ad-hoc? What purpose does it serve? Including the mobileprovision embedded on an ipa it means that a device has 2 .mobileprovision files.

  1. The one coming with the .ipa
  2. The one already on the device

Which one does the device use to check whether its UUID is included in the provision file? What purpose does each file serve? I also noticed that once I installed the .ipa once , even after I removed the .mobileprovision from the device afterwards I could still install the .ipa. Looking on stack overflow and I found this question here

Where there was this quote

The mobileprovision file is only needed once for a particular device. It basically just serves to authorize the device, in the absence of XCode. Any future IPA files, even for entirely new projects can be deployed to an "authorized" device until the authorization expires, or you replace the provisioning file in XCode. – Barney Mattox Jul 30 '11 at 8:23

What does this mean?

Furthermore

  • If I have present on my mac more than one valid certificates for a profile, how does xcode decides which one to use?
  • When I assign "Team" in Xcode in the target settings, what do I do exactly? If I am choosing a Team provisioning profile, why do I have to choose a profile again when I archive the application?
  • In organiser when I choose Ad-hoc distribution why do I get a pop-up stating "Choose a profile to sign it with"? How can you sign something with a profile,if the profile has only the public-keys of the developers , a list of device UUIDS and the App ID

Regards

1
iosxcodeipaad-hoc-distribution

1 Answers

1
votes

You have asked multiple big questions. Apple documentation is very rich, give it a chance. You will understand the significance of store provisioning profile which contains your distribution certificate.

The *.mobileprovision file is used to code-sign your application. You can open *.mobileprovision file in a TextEdit. The contents of the file are structured in XML. It contains application identifiers, UUID, bundle ID, development/production and all entitlements, including aps-environment.

So, the changes you make in Member Center aren't automatically reflected in Xcode. Here you need *.mobileprovision file.

You can either refresh Provisioning Profiles in Xcode or you also double-click on it to install it to your Xcode. There are some clever ways as well. Your provisioning profile should be listed in the detail area with the status “Valid profile” in Organizer.

For Team (Target > Settings) Provisioning profile, give this documentation a look.

The team account is used to store the certificates, identifiers, and profiles needed to provision your app. All iOS apps and some Mac apps need to be code signed and provisioned to run on a device and use certain services. Xcode creates these assets for you when needed, but you can avoid warnings and dialogs later if you set the team now.