Xcode 4 - "Valid signing identity not found" error on provisioning profiles on a new Macintosh install

iphone xcode certificate keychain provisioning-profile
Oliver picture Oliver · Jul 21, 2011 · Viewed 234.2k times · Source

I had a Macintosh I used to develop iPhone apps with using XCode 4. I now have a new Macintosh with a new install of... everything.

When opening Xcode projects built on the old Mac, I cannot run the app on the iPhone that was configured as a development iPhone.
Xcode 4 organizer tells me "Valid signing identity not found" on my provisioning profiles.

I guess this is something to do with the .certSigningRequest file I had generated before on the old Mac (I have a backup of that file), but what do I have to do with it on the new Mac?

Another strange thing, I don't see my 5 existing provisioning profiles (defined on Apple provisioning portal) in the organizer, even after a refresh and after having entered my provisioning portal login and password :

enter image description here

Answer

Steve Liddle picture Steve Liddle · Dec 14, 2011

With Xcode 4.2 and later versions, including XCode 4.6, there is a better way to migrate your entire developer profile to a new machine. On your existing machine, launch Xcode and do this:

  1. Open the Organizer (Shift-Command-2).
  2. Select the Devices tab.
  3. Choose Developer Profile in the upper-left corner under LIBRARY, which may be under the heading library or under a heading called TEAMS.
  4. Choose Export near the bottom left side of the window. Xcode asks you to choose a file name and password.

Edit for Xcode 4.4:

With Xcode 4.4, at step 3 choose Provisioning Profiles under LIBRARY. Then select your provisioning profiles either with the mouse or Command-A.

Also, Apple is making improvements in the way they manage this aspect of Xcode, and some users have reported that the Refresh button in the lower-right corner does the trick. So try clicking Refresh first, and if that doesn't help, do the export/import sequence.

Picture for XCode 4.6 added by WP

enter image description here

Edit for XCode 5.0 or newer:

  1. Open XCode -> Preferences ('Command' + ',')
  2. Select the Apple ID from the list.
  3. Click on the SETTING icon near the bottom-left corner of window, and choose EXPORT ACCOUNTS... Xcode asks you to choose a file name and password.

On your new machine, launch Xcode and import the profile you exported above. Works like a charm.

Picture for XCode 5.0 added by Ankur

For XCode 5 or newer versions

Related questions

Why does Xcode auto-install a (duplicate and expired) certificate in the keychain?

Possible Duplicate: xCode 4 -reinstalls keychain certs that I delete The question says it all in a nutshell. When building a project in Xcode, I receive the error message from the Check dependencies step: CodeSign error: Certificate identity 'iPhone Developer: xxxxx' …

Read More
How to create P12 certificate for iOS distribution

We have an iOS app whose push notification cert has expired and we're trying to create a new one. I've created new certs in the Provisioning portal (ios_developer.cer, ios_distribution.cer) and downloaded them. I was following instructions …

Read More
How to install a certificate in Xcode (preparing for app store submission)

I wan't to select my distribution profile in Code Signing Identity in the build tab of targets. But all my certificates (developer, ad hoc, ...) are grayed out. So it seems that the new profile XXX.mobileprovision is not installed. The …

Read More