Invalid iPhone Application Binary

Question

It's been my experience that Xcode occasionally gets confused about which signing certificate to use. I got into the habit of quitting and restarting Xcode after any change to the code signing settings (and doing a clean build) to work around this problem.

I just wanted to mention that I too had the problem with zip from the command line as well. The problem lies in the way it handles symlinks by default. Using:

zip -y -r myapp.zip myapp.app

Solved that problem.

I had the same issue and solved it this way:

The property certificates were installed on my development machine and mobileprovision.embedded was included in the distribution archive. After an hour or so of Googling and digging I found the source the error. Inside Xcode I had copied the Release configuration and created a new Distribution configuration and then changed the signing identity to my distribution certificate. However, even though it was updated in the GUI the project file was not updated correctly.

If you come across the same error, look in your [ProjectName].xcodeproj directory for the project.pbxproj file and open it in your favorite editor. Look for the Distribution section. My broken one looked like this:

C384C90C0F9939FA00E76E41 /* Distribution */ = {
isa = XCBuildConfiguration;
buildSettings = {
ARCHS = "$(ARCHS_STANDARD_32_BIT)";
CODE_SIGN_ENTITLEMENTS = "";
"CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “iPhone Distribution: Edward McCreary”;
GCC_C_LANGUAGE_STANDARD = c99;
GCC_WARN_ABOUT_RETURN_TYPE = YES;
GCC_WARN_UNUSED_VARIABLE = YES;
PREBINDING = NO;
“PROVISIONING_PROFILE[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “F00D3778-32B2-4550-9FCE-1A4090344400″;
SDKROOT = iphoneos2.2.1;
};
name = Distribution;
};
C384C90D0F9939FA00E76E41 /* Distribution */ = {
isa = XCBuildConfiguration;
buildSettings = {
ALWAYS_SEARCH_USER_PATHS = NO;
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = “iPhone Developer: Edward McCreary”;
“CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “iPhone Developer: Edward McCreary”;
COPY_PHASE_STRIP = YES;
GCC_PRECOMPILE_PREFIX_HEADER = YES;
GCC_PREFIX_HEADER = GenPass_Prefix.pch;
INFOPLIST_FILE = Info.plist;
PRODUCT_NAME = GenPass;
PROVISIONING_PROFILE = “DB12BCA7-FE72-42CA-9C2B-612F76619788″;
“PROVISIONING_PROFILE[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “DB12BCA7-FE72-42CA-9C2B-612F76619788″;
};
name = Distribution;
};

You can see the signing identity and provisioning profile are incorrect in the second section. Edit it to match the first section, rebuild, and you should be good to go. The final one looked like this:

C384C90C0F9939FA00E76E41 /* Distribution */ = {
isa = XCBuildConfiguration;
buildSettings = {
ARCHS = "$(ARCHS_STANDARD_32_BIT)";
CODE_SIGN_ENTITLEMENTS = "";
"CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “iPhone Distribution: Edward McCreary”;
GCC_C_LANGUAGE_STANDARD = c99;
GCC_WARN_ABOUT_RETURN_TYPE = YES;
GCC_WARN_UNUSED_VARIABLE = YES;
PREBINDING = NO;
“PROVISIONING_PROFILE[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “F00D3778-32B2-4550-9FCE-1A4090344400″;
SDKROOT = iphoneos2.2.1;
};
name = Distribution;
};
C384C90D0F9939FA00E76E41 /* Distribution */ = {
isa = XCBuildConfiguration;
buildSettings = {
ALWAYS_SEARCH_USER_PATHS = NO;
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = “iPhone Distribution: Edward McCreary”;
“CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “iPhone Distribution: Edward McCreary”;
COPY_PHASE_STRIP = YES;
GCC_PRECOMPILE_PREFIX_HEADER = YES;
GCC_PREFIX_HEADER = GenPass_Prefix.pch;
INFOPLIST_FILE = Info.plist;
PRODUCT_NAME = GenPass;
PROVISIONING_PROFILE = “F00D3778-32B2-4550-9FCE-1A4090344400″;
“PROVISIONING_PROFILE[sdk=iphoneos*]” = “F00D3778-32B2-4550-9FCE-1A4090344400″;
};
name = Distribution;
};

guids changed to protect the innocent

Same problem, different solution.

In my case, I was compressing the file using zip -r myapp.zip myapp.app Turns out, the zip command screwed the bundle. Compressing it from the finder made it work.

I had the same issue and after trying several things - I removed the .plist entitlements from the Code Signing Entitlements (just left it blank) and it built fine and uploaded FINALLY.

Good luck all :-D

Another data point: for a while, my app went through. Now I've added support for in-app purchases, and suddenly it fails with an "Invalid binary/invalid signature" problem. Upon careful looking, I found out that the value of application-identifier in the entitlements plist file was off.

This, most likely, had to do with the fact that I've replaced the provisioning profile from a wildcarded one to a app-specific one (required for in-app purchases). The wrong app ID qualified under the old profile. It did not match the app ID in the info.plist, but apparently iTunes forgave that.

So, to recap:

info.plist: com.mydomain.foo
dist.plist: com.mydomain.bar
Profile: com.mydomain.*

is OK, while

info.plist: com.mydomain.foo
dist.plist: com.mydomain.bar
Profile: com.mydomain.foo

causes "Invalid binary".