Can I change the Bundle Identifier in my app after it's been approved?

Question

I've got my app approved a while ago and used the * provisioning profile so I created somehting like:

com.mydomain.MyApp

but now I have the necessity of adding push notifications and I can't due I am using the * provisioning profile and it needs to have its own app ID and profile.

How should I proceed in order to achieve an app update without breaking anything

Answer 1

You can't change the CFBundleIdentifier of a released app if you want to release updates for it, the App Store will automatically reject it when you upload. So...

I needed to enable iAds on an app previously developed with a wildcard App ID. Here's what I did:

I have a wildcard App ID of <AlphaNumeric>.* which my app currently uses, and my app has a CFBundleIdentifier of com.companyname.mygame.

Created a new App ID of <AlphaNumeric>.com.companyname.mygame.

Created new development and distribution provisioning profiles that include the new App ID.

Download the new provisioning profiles to Xcode and my devices.

I was then able to compile the App with the new non-wildcard distribution profile, which meant on upload I could enable iAds (or Push for you). The CFBundleIdentifier didn't change so the new compilation appears as an update to the existing app.

I can confirm this process worked without issue.

Answer 2

The bundle identifier for an app must always remain the same between updates, but the AppID can actually be different. So all you need to do is create a new AppID that used the same bundle identifier as the original app instead of a wild card.

Apps that use a wildcard still need a normal bundle identifier. The wildcard AppID lets you use any bundle identifier you like, but it still needs one.

There used to be an Apple article about this: but it is no longer available online However, an archive is available.