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You can browse and buy apps in the App Store on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, on your Apple Watch, on your Mac, or on your Apple TV.
Publish App to App Store & ASO. We follow the Apple Store and Play Store guidelines to submit your iOS or Android apps. Our professionals ensure your apps are bug-free, register for a developer account, configure for app distribution, visuals, etc., while publishing your app for review. Browse and download apps to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch from the App Store. The App Store has more than one million apps and games for your iOS device.
To publish an app to the App Store,an app developer must first submit it – along with screenshots, adescription, icons, and other information – to Apple for review. Afterapproving the app, Apple places it on the App Store, where users canpurchase it and install it directly from their iOS devices.
This guide describes the steps to follow to prepare an app for the AppStore and send it to Apple for review. In particular, it describes:
- Following the App Store Review Guidelines
- Setting up an App ID and entitlements
- Providing an App Store icon and app icons
- Setting up an App Store provisioning profile
- Updating the Release build configuration
- Configuring your app in iTunes Connect
- Building your app and submitting it to Apple
Important
Apple has indicated thatstarting in March 2019, all apps and updates submitted to the App Storemust have been built with the iOS 12.1 SDK or later, included in Xcode 10.1 or later.Apps should also support the iPhone XS and 12.9' iPad Pro screen sizes.
App Store guidelines
Before submitting an app for publication in the App Store, make sure thatit meets the standards defined by Apple's App Store ReviewGuidelines.When you submit an app to the App Store, Apple reviews it to make surethat it meets these requirements. If it does not, Apple will reject it –and you will need to address the cited problems and resubmit.Therefore, it is a good idea to become familiar the guidelines as earlyas possible in the development process.
A couple of things to watch out for when submitting an app:
- Make sure the app’s description matches its functionality.
- Test that the app doesn’t crash under normal usage. This includes usage on every iOS device it supports.
Also take a look at App Store-related resourcesthat Apple provides.
Set up an App ID and entitlements
Every iOS app has a unique App ID, which has an associated set ofapplication services called entitlements. Entitlements allow apps to dovarious things such as receive push notification, access iOS featuressuch as HealthKit, and more.
To create an App ID and select any needed entitlements, visit theApple Developer Portal and followthese steps:
- In the Certificates, IDs & Profiles section, select Identifiers > App IDs.
- Click the + button and provide a Name and Bundle ID for the new application.
- Scroll to the bottom of the screen and select any App Services that will be required by your Xamarin.iOS application. App Services are further described in the Working with capabilities in Xamarin.iOS guide.
- Click the Continue button and follow the on-screen instructions to create the new App ID.
In addition to selecting and configuring the required applicationservices when defining your App ID, you must configure the App ID andentitlements in your Xamarin.iOS project by editing the Info.plistand Entitlements.plist files. For more information, take a look atthe Working with Entitlements inXamarin.iOS guide, whichdescribes how to create an Entitlements.plist file and the meaning ofthe various entitlement settings it contains.
Include an App Store icon
When you submit an app to Apple, be sure that it includes an assetcatalog that contains an App Store icon. To learn how to do this, take alook at the App Store icons inXamarin.iOS guide.
Set the apps icons and launch screens
For Apple to make an iOS app available on the App Store, it must have proper icons and launch screens for all of the iOS devices on which it can run. For more information about setting up app icons and launch screens, read the following guides:
Create and install an App Store provisioning profile
iOS uses provisioning profiles to control how a particular application build can be deployed. These are files that contain information about the certificate used to sign an app, the App ID, and where the app can be installed. For development and ad hoc distribution, the provisioning profile also includes the list of allowed devices to which you can deploy the app. Widget for mac desktop. However, for App Store distribution, only certificate and App ID information are included since the only mechanism for public distribution is the App Store.
To create and install an App Store provisioning profile, follow these steps:
- Log in to the Apple Developer Portal.
- In Certificates, IDs & Profiles, select Provisioning Profiles > Distribution.
- Click the + button, select App Store, and click Continue.
- Select your app's App ID from the list and click Continue.
- Select a signing certificate and click Continue.
- Enter a Profile Name and click Continue to generate the profile.
- Use Xamarin's Apple Account Management tools to download the newly-created provisioning profile to your Mac. If you're on a Mac, you can also download the provisioning profile directly from the Apple Developer Portal and double-click on it to install.
For detailed instructions, see the Creating a distribution profile and Selecting a distribution profile in a Xamarin.iOS project.
Update the Release build configuration
New Xamarin.iOS projects automatically set up Debug and Releasebuild configurations. To properly configure the Release build, follow these steps:
- From the Solution Pad, open Info.plist. Select Manual Provisioning. Save and close the file.
- Right-click on the Project Name in the Solution Pad, select Options, and navigate to the iOS Build tab.
- Set Configuration to Release and Platform to iPhone.
- To build with a specific iOS SDK, select it from the SDK version list. Otherwise, leave this value at Default.
- Linking reduces the overall size of your application by stripping out unused code. In most cases, Linker Behavior should be set to the default value of Link Framework SDKs only. Using the Don't Link option can cause Apple to reject the app due to the presence of non-public iOS APIs in Xamarin.iOS that would be linked out with the Link Framework SDKs only option. Link All should be used with care as it will strip code from all assemblies in the project, including 3rd party libraries, and can strip out code that the 3rd party library may only use via reflection that the linker cannot detect, as it does static code analysis to determine what library code is being used. Use Link All with care as you may have to manually preserve some classes and/or methods, etc., to avoid runtime failures due to missing code. For more information, refer to the Linking Xamarin.iOS apps guide.
- Check Optimize PNG images to further decrease your application's size.
- Debugging should not be enabled, as it will make the build unnecessarily large.
- For iOS 11, select one of the device architectures that supports ARM64. For more information on building for 64-bit iOS devices, please see the Enabling 64-Bit Builds of Xamarin.iOS Apps section of the 32/64-bit platform considerations documentation.
- You may wish to use the LLVM compiler to build smaller and faster code. However, this option increases compile times.
- Based on your application's needs, you may also wish to adjust the type of Garbage Collection being used and set up for Internationalization.After setting the options described above, your build settings shouldlook similar to this:Also take a look at ths iOS build mechanics guide, which further describes build settings.
- Navigate to the iOS Bundle Signing tab. If the options here are not editable, make sure that Manual Provisioning is selected in the Info.plist file.
- Make sure that Configuration is set to Release and Platform is set to iPhone.
- Set Signing Identity to Distribution (Automatic).
- For Provisioning Profile, select the App Store provisioning profile created above.Your project's bundle signing options should now look similar to this:
- Click OK to save changes to the project properties.
- Make sure that Visual Studio 2019 has been paired to a Mac build host.
- Right-click on the Project Name in the Solution Explorer, select Properties.
- Navigate to the iOS Build tab and set Configuration to Release and Platform to iPhone.
- To build with a specific iOS SDK, select it from the SDK Version list. Otherwise, leave this value at Default.
- Linking reduces the overall size of your application by stripping out unused code. In most cases, Linker Behavior should be set to the default value of Link Framework SDKs only. Using the Don't Link option can cause Apple to reject the app due to the presence of non-public iOS APIs in Xamarin.iOS that would be linked out with the Link Framework SDKs only option. Link All should be used with care as it will strip code from all assemblies in the project, inlcuding 3rd party libraries, and can strip out code that the 3rd party library may only use via reflection that the linker cannot detect, as it does static code analysis to determine what library code is being used. Use Link All with care as you may have to manually preserve some classes and/or methods, etc., to avoid runtime failures due to missing code. For more information, refer to the Linking Xamarin.iOS apps guide.
- Check Optimize PNG images to further decrease your application's size.
- Debugging should not be enabled, as it will make the build unnecessarily large.
- For iOS 11, select one of the device architectures that supports ARM64. For more information on building for 64-bit iOS devices, please see the Enabling 64-Bit Builds of Xamarin.iOS Apps section of the 32/64-bit platform considerations documentation.
- You may wish to use the LLVM compiler to build smaller and faster code. However, this option increases compile times.
- Based on your application's needs, you may also wish to adjust the type of Garbage Collection being used and set up for Internationalization.After setting the options described above, your build settings shouldlook similar to this:Also take a look at ths iOS build mechanics guide, which further describes build settings.
- Navigate to the iOS Bundle Signing tab. Make sure that Configuration is set to Release, Platform is set to iPhone, and that Manual Provisioning is selected.
- Set Signing Identity to Distribution (Automatic).
- For Provisioning Profile, select the App Store provisioning profile created above.Your project's bundle signing options should now look similar to this:
- Save the build configuration and close it.
- Make sure that Visual Studio 2017 has been paired to a Mac build host.
- Right-click on the Project Name in the Solution Explorer, select Properties.
- Navigate to the iOS Build tab and set Configuration to Release and Platform to iPhone.
- To build with a specific iOS SDK, select it from the SDK Version list. Otherwise, leave this value at Default.
- Linking reduces the overall size of your application by stripping out unused code. In most cases, Linker Behavior should be set to the default value of Link Framework SDKs only. Using the Don't Link option can cause Apple to reject the app due to the presence of non-public iOS APIs in Xamarin.iOS that would be linked out with the Link Framework SDKs only option. Link All should be used with care as it will strip code from all assemblies in the project, inlcuding 3rd party libraries, and can strip out code that the 3rd party library may only use via reflection that the linker cannot detect, as it does static code analysis to determine what library code is being used. Use Link All with care as you may have to manually preserve some classes and/or methods, etc., to avoid runtime failures due to missing code. For more information, refer to the Linking Xamarin.iOS apps guide.
- Check Optimize PNG images to further decrease your application's size.
- Debugging should not be enabled, as it will make the build unnecessarily large.
- For iOS 11, select one of the device architectures that supports ARM64. For more information on building for 64-bit iOS devices, please see the Enabling 64-Bit Builds of Xamarin.iOS Apps section of the 32/64-bit platform considerations documentation.
- You may wish to use the LLVM compiler to build smaller and faster code. However, this option increases compile times.
- Based on your application's needs, you may also wish to adjust the type of Garbage Collection being used and set up for Internationalization.After setting the options described above, your build settings shouldlook similar to this:Also take a look at ths iOS build mechanics guide, which further describes build settings.
- Navigate to the iOS Bundle Signing tab. Make sure that Configuration is set to Release, Platform is set to iPhone, and that Manual Provisioning is selected.
- Set Signing Identity to Distribution (Automatic).
- For Provisioning Profile, select the App Store provisioning profile created above.Your project's bundle signing options should now look similar to this:
- Navigate to the iOS IPA Options tab.
- Make sure that Configuration is set to Release and Platform is set to iPhone.
- Check the Build iTunes Package Archive (IPA) checkbox. This setting will cause each Release build (since that is the selected configuration) to generate an .ipa file. This file can be submitted to Apple for release on the App Store.NoteiTunes Metadata and iTunesArtwork are not necessary for AppStore releases. For more information, take a look atThe iTunesMetadata.plist file in Xamarin.iOS appsand iTunes Artwork.
- To specify an .ipa filename that differs from the Xamarin.iOS project name, enter it in the Package Name field.
- Save the build configuration and close it.
Configure your app in iTunes Connect
iTunes Connect is a suite of web-based tools for managing your iOS applications on the App Store. Your Xamarin.iOS application must be properly configured in iTunes Connect before it can be submitted to Apple for review and released on the App Store.
To learn how to do this, read the Configuring an app in iTunes Connect guide.
Build and submit your app
With your build settings properly configured and iTunes Connect awaiting your submission, you can now build your app and submit it to Apple.
- In Visual Studio for Mac, select the Release build configuration and a device (not a simulator) for which to build.
- From the Build menu, select Archive for Publishing.
- Once the archive has been created, the Archives view will be displayed. Click Sign and Distribute.. to open the publishing wizard.NoteBy default the Archives view only shows archives for the opensolution. To see all solutions that have archives, check the Show allarchives checkbox. It is a good idea to keep old archives so that thedebug information they include can be used to symbolicate crash reportsif necessary.
- Select the App Store distribution channel. Click Next.
- Select Upload as the destination. Click Next.
- In the Provisioning profile window, select your signing identity, app, and provisioning profile. Click Next.
- In the App Store Connect information window, select an Apple ID username from the menu and enter an app-specific password. Click Next.
- Verify the details of your package and click Publish. After selecting a location to save the .ipa file, the wizard will upload your app to App Store Connect.NoteApple may reject apps with the iTunesMetadata.plist included in the.ipa file, resulting in an error such as the following:
ERROR: ERROR ITMS-90047: 'Disallowed paths ( 'iTunesMetadata.plist' ) found at: Payload/iPhoneApp1.app'
For a workaround to this error, take a look at this post in the Xamarin Forums.
Note
Publishing to the App Store is supported in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3 and higher.
- Make sure that Visual Studio 2019 is paired to a Mac build host.
- Select Release from the Solution Configurations dropdown, and iPhone from the Solution Platforms dropdown.
- From the Build menu, select Archive... This will open the Archive Manager and begin creating an archive.
- Once the archive has been created, click Distribute.. to open the publishing wizard.
- Select the App Store distribution channel.
- Select your signing identity and provisioning profile. Click Upload to Store.
- Enter your Apple ID and an app-specific password. Click OK to begin uploading your app to App Store Connect.
Note
Visual Studio 2017 does not support the full publishing workflow found in Visual Studio for Mac and Visual Studio 2019.
The steps below are for Xcode 10.
You can still follow the steps below to build an .IPA file, but to deploy to the App Store using Xcode 11 (which is required for iOS 13 support) you should use Visual Studio for Mac.
- Make sure that Visual Studio 2017 has been paired to a Mac build host.
- Select Release from the Visual Studio 2017 Solution Configurations dropdown, and iPhone from the Solution Platforms dropdown.
- Build the project. This creates an .ipa file.NoteThe Update the Release build configurationsection of this doc configured the app's build settings to create an.ipa file for each Release build.
- To find the .ipa file on the Windows machine, right-click on the Xamarin.iOS project name in the Visual Studio 2019 or Visual Studio 2017 Solution Explorer and choose Open Folder in File Explorer. Then, in the just-opened Windows File Explorer, navigate to the bin/iPhone/Release subdirectory. Unless you have customized the .ipa file output location, it should be in this directory.
- To instead view the .ipa file on the Mac build host, right-click the Xamarin.iOS project name in the Visual Studio 2019 or Visual Studio 2017 Solution Explorer (on Windows) and select Show IPA File on Build Server. This will open a Finder window on the Mac build host with the .ipa file selected.TipThe following steps are only valid if you're using Xcode 10, and building for iOS 12 and earlier.To deploy to the App Store using Xcode 11 (for iOS 13), you should use Visual Studio for Mac to build and upload your app. Application Loader will not be available for Xcode 11.
- On the Mac build host, open Application Loader. In Xcode, select Xcode > Open Developer Tool > Application Loader.NoteFor more information about the tool, take a look at Apple's docs about Application Loader.
- Log in to Application Loader (note that you must create an app-specific password for your Apple ID).
- Select Deliver Your App and click the Choose button:
- Select the .ipa file created above and click OK.
- The Application Loader will validate the file:
- Click the Next button and the application will be validated against the App Store:
- Click the Send button to send the application to Apple for review.
- The Application Loader will inform you when the file has been successfully uploaded.NoteApple may reject apps with the iTunesMetadata.plist included in the.ipa file, resulting in an error such as the following:
ERROR: ERROR ITMS-90047: 'Disallowed paths ( 'iTunesMetadata.plist' ) found at: Payload/iPhoneApp1.app'
For a workaround to this error, take a look at this post in the Xamarin Forums.
iTunes Connect status
To see the status of your app submission, log in to iTunes Connect andselect your app. The initial status should be Waiting For Review,though it may temporarily read Upload Received while it is being processed.
Tips and tricks
Customize the .ipa location
An MSBuild property,
IpaPackageDir
, makes it possible to customize the .ipa file output location. If IpaPackageDir
is set to a custom location, the .ipa file will be placed in that location instead of the default timestamped subdirectory. This can be useful when creating automated builds that rely on a specific directory path to work correctly, such as those used for Continuous Integration (CI) builds.There are several possible ways to use the new property. For example, to output the .ipa file to the old default directory (as in Xamarin.iOS 9.6 and lower), you can set the
IpaPackageDir
property to $(OutputPath)
using one of the following approaches. Both approaches are compatible with all Unified API Xamarin.iOS builds, including IDE builds as well as command-line builds that use msbuild or mdtool:- The first option is to set the
IpaPackageDir
property within a<PropertyGroup>
element in an MSBuild file. For example, you could add the following<PropertyGroup>
to the bottom of the iOS app project .csproj file (just before the closing</Project>
tag): - A better approach is to add a
<IpaPackageDir>
element to the bottom of the existing<PropertyGroup>
that corresponds to the configuration used to build the .ipa file. This is better because it will prepare the project for future compatibility with a planned setting on the iOS IPA Options project properties page. If you currently use theRelease|iPhone
configuration to build the .ipa file, the complete updated property group might look similar to the following:
An alternate technique for msbuild command-line builds is to add a
/p:
command line argument to set the IpaPackageDir
property. In this case note that msbuild does not expand $()
expressions passed in on the command line, so it is not possible to use the $(OutputPath)
syntax. You must instead provide a full path name.Or the following on Mac:
With your distribution build created and archived, you are now ready to submit your application to iTunes Connect.
Summary
This article described how to configure, build, and submit an iOS app forrelease on the App Store.
Related links
You can browse and buy apps in the App Store on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, on your Apple Watch, on your Mac, or on your Apple TV.
Browse and buy
To download and buy apps from the App Store, you need an Apple ID. Your Apple ID is the account that you use to access Apple services. If you use other Apple services like iCloud, sign in to the App Store with the same Apple ID. If you don't have an Apple ID, you can create one.
If you're in the App Store on any of your devices and see the download button near an app, you already bought or downloaded that app. When you tap or click the download button , the app downloads to your device again, but you are not charged again. You can also see a list of apps that you purchased and redownload them.
Learn what payment methods you can use to buy apps and other content. You can also create an Apple ID without a payment method when you download a free app.
How to buy apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
- Tap the App Store app on your Home screen.
- Browse or search for the app that you want to download, then tap the app.
- Tap the price or tap Get. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID.
If you find a game that says Arcade, subscribe to Apple Arcade to play the game.
After your app finishes downloading, you can move it to a different spot on your Home screen. Apps stay up-to-date by default, but you can learn more about updating apps.
You can make additional purchases within some apps. If you set up Family Sharing, you can use Ask to Buy so that kids must get permission before they make in-app purchases. Learn more about in-app purchases.
If an app is sold with an iMessage app or sticker pack, you can open it in Messages.
How to buy apps on your Apple Watch
With watchOS 6, you can download apps directly from the App Store on your Apple Watch. You can also add apps to your Apple Watch from your iPhone.
- Open the App Store app.
- Browse or search for the app that you want to download, then tap the app.
- Tap the price or tap Get. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID.
Apps stay up-to-date by default, but you can learn more about updating apps.
If you set up Family Sharing, you can use Ask to Buy so that kids must get permission before they download an app or make an in-app purchase. Learn more about in-app purchases.
How to buy apps on your Mac
- Open the App Store.
- Browse or search for the app that you want to download. Apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch don't always have a version for Mac.
- Click the app.
- Click the price, then click Buy App. If you don't see a price, click Get, then click Install App. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID. If you find a game that says Arcade, subscribe to Apple Arcade to play the game.
After your app finishes downloading, you can find it and keep it organized in Launchpad. Apps stay up-to-date by default, but you can learn more about updating apps.
You can make additional purchases within some apps. If you set up Family Sharing, you can use Ask to Buy so that kids must get permission before they make in-app purchases. Learn more about in-app purchases.
How to buy apps on your Apple TV
- Open the App Store on your Apple TV.
- Browse or search for the app that you want to download, then select the app.
- Select the price or select Get. You might need to sign in with your Apple ID.
If you find a game that says Arcade, subscribe to Apple Arcade to play the game.
After your app finishes downloading, you can move it around on your Home screen. Your apps will update automatically.
You can make additional purchases within some apps. You can use Restrictions to restrict, block, or allow in-app purchases. Learn more about in-app purchases.
Go To The App Store
The App Store isn’t available on Apple TV (3rd generation or earlier).
Get information about an app
If you want to know specific information about an app, like what languages the app is available in, the app’s file size, or its compatibility with other Apple devices, scroll to the bottom of an app’s page. You might be able to tap some sections to learn more.
You can also contact the app developer for help with an app's functionality.
Google Go To The App Store
Get help with billing
- Learn what to do if you see a charge from an app that you don't recognize.
- Learn how to cancel an in-app subscription.
- If you can’t update your apps because your payment method is declined, update or change your payment method.
- If you have another issue with an app, report a problem or contact Apple Support.
Aap Store Apps
Learn more
Why Can't I Connect To The App Store
- If your App Store is missing or you can't find it on your device, you might have parental controls turned on. Adjust your iTunes & App Store Purchases settings and make sure that you choose 'Allow' for the Installing Apps setting.
- Learn what to do if an app unexpectedly quits, stops responding while installing, or won't open.
- Learn what to do if you can't download apps, or if apps get stuck.
- If you want to download apps that are larger than 200 MB over cellular, go to Settings > [your name] > iTunes & App Store, then tap App Downloads and choose the option that you want.
- If you bought part of an apps bundle, the price of the full apps bundle is reduced by the amount you already spent.