SwiftUI Catalyst MacOS App cannot be opened by Testers

Question

I have an iOS App that I have converted with Catalyst to a MacOS App. I created an archive, validated it and posted it on App Store Connect. In Organizer I selected Distribute App, then chose Developer ID, then exported the notorized app. I sent the .app file to a user who is in my tester group on app store connect but they are not able to open the app. (I am able to open the same file as expected)

This is the error:

I thought that might be a local issue, so I looked at the file permissions and they do indeed say read,write permission.

And from App Store Connect - this is the access approval for the user in question:

I hope I'm missing something simple here. Any guidance would be appreciated. Xcode 12.4, iOS 14.2, macOS Big Sur 11.2

Answer 1

For others - it seems the way to send a MacOS Catalyst version of an app to testers is to upload the app to App Store Connect and request that Apple notorize the file. After notification that the notorize process is complete, click on Distribute App, choose the "Development" option and follow the prompts to export the app. This export process creates four files - ALL of which need to be provided to your testers. The tester can then open the app.