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iosobjective-ciphonexcodeprovisioning-profile

How to generate IPA file without apple developer program and without a connected device in Xcode 7.2?

My employer doesn't have an iPhone for testing, they are also not enrolled into Apple's developer program, but they recruited me as an iOS developer.

I was told to create an app and I did it with the help of simulator.

Now, they want me to generate an IPA file of that application for their client who is in another country to test, in his iPhone. Is that even possible?

Solution

  • You will certainly need a developer account if you want to run your app on a physical device (unless that device is jailbroken, which I wouldn't recommend). If your employer hired you as an iOS developer, you need to inform them that a requirement to doing iOS development is a developer account.

    If you are going to be writing iOS apps to deploy on client device (which you won't have physical access to), you have a couple of options.

    1. You could have your employer pay for the enterprise developer account ($299/year). This allows you to have an In House Distribution profile, which lets you build an IPA that can run on any iOS device without the need to register the UDID for each device in the provisioning profile.
    2. You could use Apple's TestFlight to deploy the app to your clients' devices. This still requires a paid developer account as you are basically creating an app store build and distributing to others as "beta testers". The app goes through a more lax review process, but it still must have been signed with a distribution certificate, which you only can get with a paid account.

    Bottom line, if your company is asking you to develop apps professionally, you need to get them to understand that the $99/year fee is part of the process. IF they can't justify that, they shouldn't be hiring out iOS development jobs.