ITMS-90167: "No .app bundles found in the package" app store upload with xcode 9

Question

yesterday I wanted to deploy some bugfixes for my app with Xcode 8.3, and ran while uploading into the error ITMS-90167: "No .app bundles found in the package". This error is also shown already when trying to validate. I did not change any code signing or mobile prov. files. Everything worked a month before. I tested my code with ios 11 device support copied over from xcode-beta.

I read through all stackoverflow questions like this one, but I am not using Xcode 7 nor the application loader.

So I updated to Xcode 9.0, fixed some stuff due to the changes for swift 3.2, cleaned derived data etc., and tried again but still the same error. Inside the ipa I can see the folder Payload/appname.app with its contents.

I am trying to deploy with fastlane, but also tried with Xcode, same results.

I have double checked code signing and recreated mobile provisioning profiles, revoked expired certificates and deleted duplicate/expired certs and keys in my keychain. Xcode shows the profiles as eligible. I also tried Automatically manage signing. But nothing helped.

What does this strange error message really mean? And how can one debug/resolve this?

Answer 1

For me, the cause was a lack of space on my internal hard drive.

As far as I can gather, you need to have the same amount of space free that the unarchived xCode project takes up in order for the .ipa to be verified and uploaded to iTunes Connect - and that's through either xCode or ApplicationLoader.

After moving as much as possible over to a USB drive, the .ipa uploaded without issue.

Answer 2

I finally resolved the issue (after 2 days hard work),

it seems that it was a problem with a framework which I copied (with all sources) completely into my app-project and within this framework there was a info.plist (of that framework) which seems to confuse the validation step of the itsm transporter. Although the app was built and worked in simulator and on the device correctly.

The error message

ITMS-90167: "No .app bundles found in the package"

is very misleading - because there was an .app directory in the ipa and I first thought about signing issues. On the internet I didn’t find anything helpful with this error.

After I build the framework as separate project and included it correctly as a framework the validation was successful and I was able to upload my app.

If anyone knows more about this itms transporter and where to find some more documentation about possible errors, please leave a comment...