iOS 9 Can't install apps

Question

When I try to install an app on iOS 9.0 by tapping an itms-services:// URL in Safari, nothing happens. This appears in the iOS device console:

itunesstored[586] <Warning>: ExternalDownloadManifest: Skipping download and install of: XXXXXXX

Answer 1

This also happens if your device has an App Store version of your app installed, and you try to install an in-house version with the same Bundle ID.

When you do this, the device will simply ignore you tapping on your "Install" button to kick off the OTA install, and silently log that annoying message.

ExternalDownloadManifest: Skipping download and install of: XXXXXXX

Nothing gets displayed on the device, you're left to work out what's gone wrong for yourself.

So the obvious solution is to uninstall your App Store version of your app before attempting to install your in-house version.

Seriously, every year, I waste countless hours creating and deploying OTA apps with Xcode, and the Xcode/iOS error-reporting is non-existant.

It's really Apple at it's very worst.

Answer 2

Elaborating on Mike Gledhill's answer:

I had this problem upgrading from a production build to a newer Ad Hoc build from HockeyApp with the same Bundle ID. This was a security change added to iOS 8.4 and above to prevent the "Masque" attack.

Manifest Masque Attack leverages the CVE-2015-3722/3725 vulnerability to demolish an existing app on iOS when a victim installs an in-house iOS app wirelessly using enterprise provisioning from a website. The demolished app (the attack target) can be either a regular app downloaded from official App Store or even an important system app, such as Apple Watch, Apple Pay, App Store, Safari, Settings, etc. This vulnerability affects all iOS 7.x and iOS 8.x versions prior to iOS 8.4. We first notified Apple of this vulnerability in August 2014.

Source

Official solution from Apple:

You should use TestFlight to test upgrades to your App Store app rather than enterprise distribution.

rdar://22088607