iOS app updated with iCloud passes validation during distribution, but the distribution profile is invalid in the developer portal

Question

I have a strange issue.

I have a distribution certificate for my app in my developer portal with two App IDs (one wildcard and one explicit) and I've had to adjust the app ID to include the iCloud entitlements because I'm working on an update (iOS 7 only) with iCloud support.

I'm now ready to distribute and so I created a new provisioning profile in the developer portal with that certificate. As soon as it's added to Xcode, it shows up as "invalid" in the Developer Portal.

If I archive and validate my app before the app distribution in Xcode, and use my Apple ID and this provisioning profile, it says "it passed without any errors".

I'm extremely nervous about uploading this to Apple because it doesn't make sense to me.

The other provisioning profiles I have in the developer portal are the iOS Team Provisioning Profile (managed by Xcode).

I've got the entitlements in Xcode and my app works in development with iCloud, but I really want to distribute this.

If I add in more distribution profiles, as soon as it's added to Xcode, it shows up as invalid in the developer portal member centre. That's with using the explicit App ID. If I create one using the wildcard ID, it remains active, but I've read on the Apple documentation that for iCloud, you have to use an explicit App ID.

Answer 1

I have managed to solve this, thankfully.

I contacted the Apple Developer Support team by phone with this (without having to create a new support request and have that take a while) and was sent the following link:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/MaintainingCertificates/MaintainingCertificates.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012582-CH31-SW34

The specific header is "Re-Creating Certificates and Updating Related Provisioning Profiles”,

basically went through and revoked all of my certificates in the portal and removed the certificate and private key in the keychain access. From there, I removed all of my provisioning profiles as well.

Within Xcode on the accounts section, I got a popup asking if the development and distribution certificates should be generated. I said YES and it did it. In the developer portal, I now had two certificates. I created a developer profile and tested my app; it worked. I then created a distribution certificate and added it to Xcode. After refreshing the portal, it still showed active. I archived and validated my app, with no issues and then uploaded. The new distribution profile is still active.

This was great and I'm happy to have this resolved.