@jstedfast I'm still relatively new to iOS development. I click Build -> Archive All and then click Sign and Distribute from the Archives. I saw the mention earlier about disabling iTunes artwork but couldn't figure out where to disable it. Yes, this is for ad hoc distribution. Although I'm not sure I have to disable it give the way I'm building the ipa file?
@jstedfast
All default settings. iOS IPA Options Release and iPhone all else unchecked disabled.
From xamarin studio I click Build -> Archive All and then click Sign and Distribute from the Archives.
Then from Xcode -> Application Loader -> Select Deliver your App -> Click Choose -> Browse to IPA -> get screen with summary info (SKU, etc.) -> click Next and then after awhile I get the error.
@jstedfast Ah, get a non ad hoc provisioning profile. Maybe it's me, but apple makes this extremely difficult. That worked. Although I did get an informational message stating the resulting API analysis file was too large. Why would I get this message and should I do anything about it? Thanks for all your help and patience, Jeffrey.
None of the solutions in this thread worked for me. We're on XS v5.9.6. We're building with xbuild, I have the ipa options to build an ipa and not include itunesmetadata. We also tried including the csproj modification. It still winds up in the ipa and I have to remove it by hand via a script.
If it matters the configuration isn't "Release" it's "AppStore". Not sure if the fix that was made was expecting release or not.
Either way it's not truly fixed as it doesn't work for us.
You can easily remove the offending file in a script as follows (on Mac):
I tried a quick re-test today of xbuild IPA builds for simple Classic API and Unified API template projects, using XS 5.9.7 and Xamarin.iOS 9.0.1.20.
Not too surprisingly, those templates were too simple to show any problems: neither of the .ipa files contained a file named iTunesMetadata.plist.
Next steps
If anyone has a solution that still adds the iTunesMetadata.plist into the .ipa whenever building via xbuild (even when <IpaIncludeArtwork>false</IpaIncludeArtwork> is present under the active build configuration) then the Xamarin developers would be interested in that test case.
One simple option if possible would be to reduce the test case to something small enough that you're comfortable zipping it up and attaching it on a new private bug report.
Another option that might be even easier would be to zip up all of your .csproj files from the solution and add them on a new bug report. There's a good chance that the precise project structure and settings as shown by the .csproj files will be sufficient clues to reproduce the symptom even without any of the original source or resource files.
I am trying to do an iOS adhoc build with an Xamarin Forms PCL project. I believe I am updated to the latest stable release of xamarin studio. About 12 days ago, it quit putting the itunes images in the ipa. I have "include iTunes Artwork images" selected and "build Ad-hoc/Enterprise package" selected in Options, iOS IPA Options for the iOS project, but the artwork is being omitted from the archive. Is there a work around for this?
Just upgraded to Xamarin 4/Xamarin.iOS 9.1 yesterday and started getting this validation error even though I had not in previous versions. Using VS 2015. Running zip -d MyApp.ipa iTunesMetadata.plist works to fix the problem, but it would be preferable to not have to do that and to not have new validation errors for old problems that occur when upgrading.
Just hit into the problem. I'm using FAKE script to prepare builds. Before updating to Xamarin 4 everything worked fine. Now going to try fixes from the post...
Same as the two posters above. Never had this problem with earlier version (started in June 2015) but now (Xamarin 4.0) even if I uncheck the "include artwork in IPA" the setting is not respected. Therefore, my IPA contains iTunesArtWork and the IPA file is rejected when uploading to the App Store.
For further reference about how this error occurs in Xamarin 4.0 and the simplest workarounds for this latest version of the problem, see the new Bug 36238 that I have just filed.
In short, the appearance of this error message in Xamarin 4.0 has a different underlying cause from the original bug that started this forum thread. In fact, the cause of the error in Xamarin 4.0 is approximately that Ad-Hoc IPA builds that use iTunesArtwork (intended for distribution outside the App Store) have now been fixed (where they were broken in the past). Unfortunately that fix exposed some bugs in the IDE project properties panes for the "Include Artwork in IPA" setting. Those bugs mean that currently the only way to turn OFF the iTunesArtwork for App Store IPA builds is to set IpaIncludeArtwork to False by hand in the .csproj file (see workaround "Option 1" on the bug report).
Fixes for the IDE project properties panes bugs will be included in a future Service Release (tentatively available on the Alpha Channel sometime in December).
Just got hit by this as well - is there no Xamarin Studio Update to fix this? I'm on stable / 5.10.1 and have not had this problem for many months - now it's back
The "Fixes for the IDE project properties panes bugs" mentioned in my previous comment are included in the current Alpha channel version of "Cycle 6 – Service Release 1". I have now added a comment on Bug 36238 to record that status.
I just fixed this issue. Here are the steps:
Build->Archive for publishing" followed by Sign and distribute.
This will create an IPA file.
Right click the ipa and open with archive utility. This will unzip the ipa file.
Delete the .plist file.
right click payload folder and choose compress. This will create a payload.zip file.
Rename it payload.ipa.
Now you can use Application Loader to submit the payload.ipa.
To my knowledge there are no unresolved bugs related to this problem in the current Stable versions. Shanti's workaround should not currently be necessary.
I just tested creating an .ipa for App Store upload:
From Xamarin Studio using the "Build -> Archive for Publishing" workflow, followed by either (a) "Sign and Distribute" in Xamarin Studio or (b) "Export", "Validate", or "Upload to App Store" in Xcode's Organizer.
From Xamarin Studio using the "Project Options -> iOS IPA Options -> Build iTunes Package Archive (IPA)" setting.
From Visual Studio using the "Project Properties -> iOS IPA Options -> Build ad-hoc/enterprise package (IPA)" setting.
The most common reason to be hitting the error is if the IpaIncludeArtwork property is set to True during the build. (Note that you will want that setting to be True when building Ad Hoc packages so that iTunesMetadata.plistis included, but False when building App Store packages so that iTunesMetadata.plist is not included.) The IDE settings panes for that property should correctly reflect whether it is True or False (with some possible rare exceptions in situations where the .csproj has been hand-edited or similar).
In Xamarin Studio: "Project Options -> iOS IPA Options -> Include iTunesArtwork images and the iTunesMetadata.plist"
In Visual Studio: "Project Properties -> iOS IPA Options -> Include Artwork in IPA"
Thanks for this, just picked back up on your comments. I have done all of this but still have an issue, so I am doing something wrong, just dont know what
@RichardWilde, ah ha! You'll want to un-check the "Include iTunesArtwork images and the iTunesMetadata.plist" in the project options so that it is set to False
See the "important behavior to keep in mind" section in my previous comment for a few more details.
@BrendanZagaeski said: @RichardWilde, ah ha! You'll want to un-check the "Include iTunesArtwork images and the iTunesMetadata.plist" in the project options so that it is set to False
See the "important behavior to keep in mind" section in my previous comment for a few more details.
@BrendanZagaeski said:
(Note that you will want that setting to be True when building Ad Hoc packages so that iTunesMetadata.plist is included, but False when building App Store packages so that iTunesMetadata.plist is not included.)
@DaveHunt, RichardWilde is building for the App Store, so I'll "bold" the second half of that sentence:
(Note that you will want that setting to be True when building Ad Hoc packages so that iTunesMetadata.plist is included, but False when building App Store packages so that iTunesMetadata.plist is not included.)
@RichardWilde, ah yup yup, interesting. I see now that I skipped right over the details in your other screenshots that show selecting an AdHoc build. My understanding is that now that Test Flight is integrated right into iTunes Connect, you will want to use an App Store build. Note for example the instruction:
I also took a look to make sure the Xamarin guide on Test Flight is up-to-date, and at least from a quick skim it looks OK:
you will need to create an App Store distribution profile
But do be sure to submit feedback via the "I have a problem." button on that document if you notice anything that doesn't match up with how things currently work. Thanks again!
EDIT: Add a quick check of the Xamarin guide on Test Flight. EDIT: Correct "developer center" to "iTunes Connect".
@JeffreyStedfast@BrendanZagaeski I'm getting the following error when trying to publish my app. please some one help me.I don't know how to proceed further.
if using visual studio, I was able to fix this by unchecking the following: go to the properties of the ios project. under ios ipa options, uncheck the "include ItunesArtwork images and the iTunesMetadata.plist"
Posts
@jstedfast Nope, I use Xamarin Studio to publish the ipa. I used the application loader from Xcode to attempt the upload.
@philo: walk me through the steps that you used and give me the settings you used.
@jstedfast Steps used to build or steps using the app loader? Which settings specifically?
@philo I mean walk me through from building to submitting the ipa. I want to know what IPA build settings you used.
Are you creating the IPA from the archive? Or are you creating the IPA as part of the normal build process?
Hint: Don't use the IPA from the normal build process unless you disable "Include iTunesArtwork", that is for Ad-Hoc distribution, not App Store.
@jstedfast I'm still relatively new to iOS development. I click Build -> Archive All and then click Sign and Distribute from the Archives. I saw the mention earlier about disabling iTunes artwork but couldn't figure out where to disable it. Yes, this is for ad hoc distribution. Although I'm not sure I have to disable it give the way I'm building the ipa file?
@jstedfast
All default settings. iOS IPA Options Release and iPhone all else unchecked disabled.
From xamarin studio I click Build -> Archive All and then click Sign and Distribute from the Archives.
Then from Xcode -> Application Loader -> Select Deliver your App -> Click Choose -> Browse to IPA -> get screen with summary info (SKU, etc.) -> click Next and then after awhile I get the error.
The problem is that you are choosing to Sign & Distribute for Ad-Hoc and then submitting that to the App Store.
Ad-Hoc and App Store produce different formatted IPA files.
@jstedfast Ah, get a non ad hoc provisioning profile. Maybe it's me, but apple makes this extremely difficult. That worked. Although I did get an informational message stating the resulting API analysis file was too large. Why would I get this message and should I do anything about it? Thanks for all your help and patience, Jeffrey.
Application Loader submits the ipa to the App Store. You need to submit it to some other place like TestFlight or something.
App Store IPA files are not allowed to have iTunesArtwork or iTunesMetadata.plist files, but Ad-Hoc IPAs require those files.
Thanks
I'm getting this error on Xamarin Studio 5.9.7
None of the solutions in this thread worked for me. We're on XS v5.9.6. We're building with xbuild, I have the ipa options to build an ipa and not include itunesmetadata. We also tried including the csproj modification. It still winds up in the ipa and I have to remove it by hand via a script.
If it matters the configuration isn't "Release" it's "AppStore". Not sure if the fix that was made was expecting release or not.
Either way it's not truly fixed as it doesn't work for us.
You can easily remove the offending file in a script as follows (on Mac):
zip -d YourAppBundle.ipa iTunesMetadata.plist
I tried a quick re-test today of
xbuild
IPA builds for simple Classic API and Unified API template projects, using XS 5.9.7 and Xamarin.iOS 9.0.1.20.Not too surprisingly, those templates were too simple to show any problems: neither of the
.ipa
files contained a file namediTunesMetadata.plist
.Next steps
If anyone has a solution that still adds the
iTunesMetadata.plist
into the.ipa
whenever building viaxbuild
(even when<IpaIncludeArtwork>false</IpaIncludeArtwork>
is present under the active build configuration) then the Xamarin developers would be interested in that test case.One simple option if possible would be to reduce the test case to something small enough that you're comfortable zipping it up and attaching it on a new private bug report.
Another option that might be even easier would be to zip up all of your
.csproj
files from the solution and add them on a new bug report. There's a good chance that the precise project structure and settings as shown by the.csproj
files will be sufficient clues to reproduce the symptom even without any of the original source or resource files.Thanks!
Thanks @Brendan and @Jeffery this fixed my code sign problem
I am trying to do an iOS adhoc build with an Xamarin Forms PCL project. I believe I am updated to the latest stable release of xamarin studio. About 12 days ago, it quit putting the itunes images in the ipa. I have "include iTunes Artwork images" selected and "build Ad-hoc/Enterprise package" selected in Options, iOS IPA Options for the iOS project, but the artwork is being omitted from the archive. Is there a work around for this?
@AnitaSheffield, the most direct way forward with that issue will be to file a quick new bug report.
You can use the appropriate "File a bug" link from the top of the release announcement for the current Stable version:
http://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/52870/stable-release-xamarin-ios-9-0-1-29-service-release-for-9-0/p1. Thanks in advance!
Just upgraded to Xamarin 4/Xamarin.iOS 9.1 yesterday and started getting this validation error even though I had not in previous versions. Using VS 2015. Running
zip -d MyApp.ipa iTunesMetadata.plist
works to fix the problem, but it would be preferable to not have to do that and to not have new validation errors for old problems that occur when upgrading.Just hit into the problem. I'm using FAKE script to prepare builds. Before updating to Xamarin 4 everything worked fine. Now going to try fixes from the post...
Same as the two posters above. Never had this problem with earlier version (started in June 2015) but now (Xamarin 4.0) even if I uncheck the "include artwork in IPA" the setting is not respected. Therefore, my IPA contains iTunesArtWork and the IPA file is rejected when uploading to the App Store.
Ditto, we are seeing the same issue. For some reason Xamarin Studio as of 5.10 is not respecting the setting to not include the artwork in the IPA.
For further reference about how this error occurs in Xamarin 4.0 and the simplest workarounds for this latest version of the problem, see the new Bug 36238 that I have just filed.
In short, the appearance of this error message in Xamarin 4.0 has a different underlying cause from the original bug that started this forum thread. In fact, the cause of the error in Xamarin 4.0 is approximately that Ad-Hoc IPA builds that use iTunesArtwork (intended for distribution outside the App Store) have now been fixed (where they were broken in the past). Unfortunately that fix exposed some bugs in the IDE project properties panes for the "Include Artwork in IPA" setting. Those bugs mean that currently the only way to turn OFF the iTunesArtwork for App Store IPA builds is to set
IpaIncludeArtwork
to False by hand in the.csproj
file (see workaround "Option 1" on the bug report).Fixes for the IDE project properties panes bugs will be included in a future Service Release (tentatively available on the Alpha Channel sometime in December).
Just hit this bug ... Ty for the fix. I hate ghosts coming back. It reminds me of dark times.
Experiencing the same problem.
Just got hit by this as well - is there no Xamarin Studio Update to fix this? I'm on stable / 5.10.1 and have not had this problem for many months - now it's back
The "Fixes for the IDE project properties panes bugs" mentioned in my previous comment are included in the current Alpha channel version of "Cycle 6 – Service Release 1". I have now added a comment on Bug 36238 to record that status.
I just fixed this issue. Here are the steps:
Build->Archive for publishing" followed by Sign and distribute.
This will create an IPA file.
Right click the ipa and open with archive utility. This will unzip the ipa file.
Delete the .plist file.
right click payload folder and choose compress. This will create a payload.zip file.
Rename it payload.ipa.
Now you can use Application Loader to submit the payload.ipa.
Thanks Shanti, this did it for me bit of a PITA to remember this so hopefully it will be solved soon
To my knowledge there are no unresolved bugs related to this problem in the current Stable versions. Shanti's workaround should not currently be necessary.
I just tested creating an
.ipa
for App Store upload:In all cases the
iTunesMetadata.plist
was properly excluded from the.ipa
file. If you see a different behavior in your particular project, please do get in touch with the Xamarin Support team or file a new bug report. Thanks!An important behavior to keep in mind
The most common reason to be hitting the error is if the
IpaIncludeArtwork
property is set to True during the build. (Note that you will want that setting to be True when building Ad Hoc packages so thatiTunesMetadata.plist
is included, but False when building App Store packages so thatiTunesMetadata.plist
is not included.) The IDE settings panes for that property should correctly reflect whether it is True or False (with some possible rare exceptions in situations where the.csproj
has been hand-edited or similar).Thanks for this, just picked back up on your comments. I have done all of this but still have an issue, so I am doing something wrong, just dont know what
@RichardWilde, ah ha! You'll want to un-check the "Include iTunesArtwork images and the iTunesMetadata.plist" in the project options so that it is set to False
See the "important behavior to keep in mind" section in my previous comment for a few more details.
Which is it?
I have tried both on/off
@DaveHunt, RichardWilde is building for the App Store, so I'll "bold" the second half of that sentence:
oh is that my issue. I want to build for test flight first. Was told to do a adhoc profile for my iphone which I did
@BrendanZagaeski
According to the picture he posted (and his post above mine), he's building Ad Hoc.
@RichardWilde, ah yup yup, interesting. I see now that I skipped right over the details in your other screenshots that show selecting an AdHoc build. My understanding is that now that Test Flight is integrated right into iTunes Connect, you will want to use an App Store build. Note for example the instruction:
(from https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/BetaTestingTheApp.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011225-CH35).
I also took a look to make sure the Xamarin guide on Test Flight is up-to-date, and at least from a quick skim it looks OK:
But do be sure to submit feedback via the "I have a problem." button on that document if you notice anything that doesn't match up with how things currently work. Thanks again!
EDIT: Add a quick check of the Xamarin guide on Test Flight.
EDIT: Correct "developer center" to "iTunes Connect".
ok ta, will give that a go as I am running in circles atm
Thanks
Which probably explains why in itunes connect I get Missing Beta Entitlement
@BrendanZagaeski thanks, I managed to upload my first Xamarin iOS App to Apple Store with your help.
@JeffreyStedfast @BrendanZagaeski I'm getting the following error when trying to publish my app. please some one help me.I don't know how to proceed further.

if using visual studio, I was able to fix this by unchecking the following: go to the properties of the ios project. under ios ipa options, uncheck the "include ItunesArtwork images and the iTunesMetadata.plist"