Hello everyone, Ever since installing macOS 15.1 beta 5 on this M1 13’’ MacBook Pro, I have been unable to install or update any application from the Mac App Store. I keep getting the following error: “The file “preflight.pfpkg” doesn’t exist.””. The same machine was fine with 15.0 Sequoia and the problem happens regardless of the region setting of the machine. The machine has at least 148 GB of free disk space on the SSD. The same app I was trying to install from the MAS app I could install from the provider’s website (WhatsApp in this case, but I have tried with other apps too). Has anyone noticed it before? Raised the following Feedback ID if it can help: FB15296904 Kind Regards, Goffredo

My app, which has been on the Mac App Store for many years, has an update being blocked by App review. The only change made is a bug fix (documented in the release notes). First rejection: Said I was using an entitlement I didn't need. My response: I explained the feature that required the entitlement. App goes back in review and gets rejected again for completely different reasons. They don't want me to write files in my App Sandbox container and instead write them in a more traditional user facing location (like in the Documents folder). They keep sending me a link to the "App Sandbox Design Guide" in the Documentation Archive (which appears to redirect to a different page?) and are quoting a section that is nowhere to be found in the link they send me (on the page I'm redirected to). I keep explaining to them that I cannot write outside my sandbox container and that this isn't my choice. And they keep rejecting my app and sending me a broken link to the "App Sandbox design guide." It isn't my fault that I have to write to my sandboxed container by default or have a non-functioning app. In any case, I don't understand why a bug fix update is being held up and I'm getting some vague instructions about possibly having to design some long winded explanation to the user in some ridiculously complicated onboarding process about choosing a folder in a save panel, why you have to choose the folder in the save panel (because I need your permission), OR just quit the app you just bought because it'll otherwise do nothing if you don't choose a folder in the save panel. Users got enough panels to deal with. At the very least App review shouldn't send me broken links from the Documentation Archive. So I'm using my sandbox container by default (because by default I cannot do anything else). I've been doing this for a long time and I don't understand why it is suddenly a problem. What is my sandboxed container for if I can't write to it? If documentation such as the "App Sandbox Design Guide" is still relevant and important why is it being archived anyway ? The link redirects I cannot find the section the reviewer is citing in the provided link. I don't mind being asked to do something to improve the app but I've wasted a lot of time trying to satisfy app review in the past only to misinterpret what they actually are asking me to do causing more wasted time and energy and not getting a whole lot in return. And I don't think it's fair to block a bug fix update.

Apple provides a way for the app developer to migrate app data from previous locations to the Mac App Store app container folder, see Migrating your app’s files to its App Sandbox container. My question is, it seems this feature only allows us to migrate or move the existing app files into the sandbox folder, however, I'd like to "copy" these files instead of "move" them. Instead of using the "Move" key in the plist file, I have already tried "Copy" key and it didn't work.

On my dev machine, I built my app to the 'dist' folder, the app was signed in either a 'Development' provision profile, or a 'Distribution' provision profile. I then published the app to Mac App Store and it is alive. When I tried to install the app, I noticed that Mac App Store may install my app to my 'dist' folder (i.e. the build folder) instead of 'Applications' folder. Is there a way to make sure that the app will always be installed to the 'Applications' folder? Testing on a non-dev machine seems to be working fine.

I have a macOS app that embeds a helper app in its bundle. That helper app is started by the main app, and from then on it runs independently. I noticed that after updating the main app from the Mac App Store, while the helper app is running, it is not auto-restarted, unlike the main app. What is the correct way to handle this? The main app's bundle looks like this: Main.app - Contents - MacOS - Main - Helper.app

I am currently running MacOS 12.7.6 version and this is the last update on my machine, and swift playgrounds is not downloading in it, so I want its older version, I think I need Swift Playgrounds 4.1, so please give me a solution. Thank you so much!

In Xcode -> Product -> Archive "ValidateApp" button tell: Your app successfully passed all validation checks and "Distribute" button tell: App upload complete After 5 working days App Store Connect -> Apps -> MyAppl always show "1.0 Prepare for Submission" What can I do now ?

"Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles" have two "Developer ID Installer" certificates, two "Development" certificates and two "Mac Installer Distribution" certificates. Is it a problem ? How to delete duplicated certificates ? How to fix it ? Can I submit an Mac application to Apple Store with old OS: Big Sure ? Ventura ?

I currently have a paid app in the Mac App Store and am about to release a freemium version - free with three auto-renewing subscriptions. Is there a way to set things up in App Store Connect such that this next release of my app becomes free at the point when it goes live? I need to synchronise the changeover. I've read posts suggesting you just set the price to zero, but that doesn't synchronise the change (as far as I can tell). Thanks in advance. UPDATE: I see you can schedule a price change. Is the answer to not auto-release the app when it's approved, and to then coordinate its release date with the scheduled price change?

I have an XPC service that embeds Python. It executes a python script on behalf of the main app. The app and xpc service are sandboxed. All seems to work just fine in the development environment but the script fails in the released version. I disabled writing pycache by setting the PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE environment variable because pycache tries to write inside my app bundle which fails (I believe I can redirect the pycache directory with PYTHONPYCACHEPREFIX and may experiment with that later). Specifically this line fails in the release version only (not from Xcode): PyObject *pModule = PyImport_Import(moduleNameHere); if (pModuleOwnedRef == NULL) { // this is null in release mode only. } Any ideas what can be going wrong? Thanks in advance.

I'm offering a free trial period for each of four auto-renewable subscriptions. Does anyone know the best way to detect whether a customer is still in the trial period, and to calculate the remaining trial days? I'm using Storekit 2. I've seen vague answers about using the Transaction purchaseDate and expiry date, but the documentation is incredibly vage as to what those values actually represent when it comes to a free trial period. What does purchase Date actually mean when you're in a free trial? Any help greatly appreciated.

Hello, so I have a SwiftUI app that is relatively large, and it has multiple targets, one for each platform. but as I near App Store release I'm feeling very confused as to how to configure it. One app was rejected because the Mac target's name becomes the app which is different from App Store (Texty+ [App Store] vs Texty+ Mac [on target]). So I then just combined all the files into one target with a #if os(Mac... iOS) etc, but is that the proper way for multi platform app. I know there is like a Multiplatform target but that would require I restructure all the files and that always leads to issues in this near release app.

I have an app developed using ElectronJS that requires Accessibility permission to monitor mouse and keyboard events through the iohook package. I want to publish it on the Mac App Store, but it seems that: The Mac App Store mandates Sandboxing, and Sandboxing prohibits Accessibility permission. As a result, it seems that an app on the Mac App Store cannot obtain Accessibility permission. Can someone confirm if this is accurate or if there's a workaround?

Update: Turns out it works for others, apparently, and I also found one of my Macs where it does work, too. So it must be something pertinent to my systems. Oddly, though, the same ones where it now fails used to work because I had TestFlight enabled there before. I have TestFlight set up on App Store Connect, and I have already about 50 testers subscribed. Today, I found that the Public Link does not work any more: Once TestFlight.app is installed, and one clicks the link to add my app to TestFlight, it always shows the error ""Unable to Open Link" in TestFlight.app: I've tried this on several Macs (Ventura and Sonoma), and with different Accounts, both where the app was already added or not. Is something generally broken, i.e. do others see the same issue with their TestFlight links, or is it just me? How do you suggest I get this resolved? Here's an example link I set up for this purpose - it only allows a handful of subscribers, so please do not actually subscribe but just see if you even get allowed to, or if you get the same error if you must try: https://testflight.apple.com/join/oV8NNojg And here's how it's set up:

I have two apps that are exempt from the need to be sandboxed. One has been in the MAS since the first day in 2010, and the other was added only a bit later, when there still was no sandboxing in place. When Apple added requirements for sandboxing, they exempted existing apps like mine under certain conditions. For years, this was no problem, but lately, nearly every other time I submit an update or a TestFlight beta, I get the app rejected for not being sandboxed, even though I explain the situation in the app's Review Notes. It's always a tedious fight convincing the reviewer to let the app pass. And, of course, it delays my releases each time. It's frustrating and exhausting. Sadly, I cannot find any public documents that confirm my claim of this exemption. So, it's always possible that the reviewer may read my note but still not believe me. Are there others here who still have such non-sandboxed in the MAS? How do you deal with this? Or do you know of documents or websites that I can refer the reviewer to?

I'm an indie developer. My latest minor update for my game which has been on the Mac App Store for 13 years and which has spent time at #1 on the download charts just started getting rejected for the following reason: Guideline 2.5.2 - Performance - Software Requirements The app installed or launched executable code. Specifically, the app uses the itms-services URL scheme to install an app. However my app is certainly not installing any apps and to the best of my knowlege it is not using any itms/itunes/etc. type URLs in any way, so I can't figure out what would be triggering this claim. Inquiries as to what app I am supposedly installing or what URL I am supposedly using have yielded 'no further information can be provided'. Has anyone run into something similar? Any ideas on obscure scenarios that could trigger this particular rejection? Or any advice on what one should do in my situation? I feel a bit stuck. Has anyone had luck with the appeal process for this sort of thing (to at least get more information)?

Hi there! I am trying to build a macOS app using Electron. There is a feature on the app that depends on a http server to run locally. This Server was built using Java. Both the compiled server and the Java Runtime Environment were bundled in the build. To start the server I use NodeJS's child_process.spawn, pointing the bundled JRE's executable and the server implementation. The issue I am facing is that the Java Virtual Machine is not starting. It returns the following error message: Error: Port Library failed to initialize: -1 Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine. Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit. Both the JRE and the server are located in Contents directory, in a subdirectory I have created for them. Here are the app's entitlements: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.application-groups</key> <string>REDACTED</string> <key>com.apple.application-identifier</key> <string>REDACTED</string> <key>com.apple.developer.team-identifier</key> <string>REDACTED</string> <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-dyld-environment-variables</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.cs.disable-executable-page-protection</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.network.client</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.network.server</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.device.microphone</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.device.audio-input</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.device.camera</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.print</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.temporary-exception.files.absolute-path.read-write</key> <true/> </dict> </plist> Here the entitlements inherit: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>com.apple.security.app-sandbox</key> <true/> <key>com.apple.security.inherit</key> <true/> </dict> </plist> Is there any missing step to allow the spawning of this process?

Hi everyone, Has this every happened to you? If so, how did you resolve it? Submitting my app for review, I got the following rejection: Guideline 2.4.5(ii) - Performance The package currently available in App Store Connect cannot be installed and may be corrupted. Next Steps Please rebuild your application and upload a new version. If this issue continues, please contact Apple Developer Technical Support for help investigating the issue. DTS referred me back to app review: We are unable to help you resolve this matter. Please circle back with the App Review team for assistance. I'm building the .pkg with productbuild: xcrun productbuild --product WFH\ Phone\ Webcam.app/Contents/Info.plist --component WFH\ Phone\ Webcam.app /Applications --sign "3rd Party Mac Developer Installer: Mansour Moufid (42A2D88R9U)" --timestamp WFH\ Phone\ Webcam.pkg and uploading it with altool: xcrun altool --username "..." --password "..." --validate-app --file WFH\ Phone\ Webcam.pkg --type osx xcrun altool --username "..." --password "..." --upload-app --file WFH\ Phone\ Webcam.pkg --type osx The .pkg signature looks fine: xcrun pkgutil --check-signature WFH\ Phone\ Webcam.pkg Package "WFH Phone Webcam.pkg": Status: signed by a developer certificate issued by Apple (Development) Signed with a trusted timestamp on: 2024-04-29 14:11:27 +0000 Certificate Chain: 1. 3rd Party Mac Developer Installer: Mansour Moufid (42A2D88R9U) Expires: 2025-03-13 20:11:55 +0000 SHA256 Fingerprint: CB 8A 12 1D 4D 16 29 27 08 30 07 1C 6C F6 1C F4 85 6E AE F1 B1 34 68 F7 81 6D C3 3B 1B 8C 5D 32 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority Expires: 2030-02-20 00:00:00 +0000 SHA256 Fingerprint: DC F2 18 78 C7 7F 41 98 E4 B4 61 4F 03 D6 96 D8 9C 66 C6 60 08 D4 24 4E 1B 99 16 1A AC 91 60 1F ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Apple Root CA Expires: 2035-02-09 21:40:36 +0000 SHA256 Fingerprint: B0 B1 73 0E CB C7 FF 45 05 14 2C 49 F1 29 5E 6E DA 6B CA ED 7E 2C 68 C5 BE 91 B5 A1 10 01 F0 24 The app's signature also checks out: codesign --strict --deep --verbose --verify WFH\ Phone\ Webcam.app WFH Phone Webcam.app: valid on disk WFH Phone Webcam.app: satisfies its Designated Requirement I have no idea what "cannot be installed and may be corrupted" means and app review is not responding to my request for more information...

While this isn't an issue directly related with programming, I would like to share my frustration with Apple Care and their knowledge of how App Store and third-party apps work. Perhaps someone at Apple can do something about it. Every now and then a user of one of my apps contacts me asking why they get an error when downloading or updating the app in the App Store ("Unable to Download App. “App” could not be installed. Please try again later."). I tell them that third-party developers have no power over the App Store or its download/update process, and this is an issue they have to solve with Apple Care. But when they contact Apple Care, they are told that since it's an issue with a third-party app, they have to contact the app developer. Sometimes the user is more inclined to believe what Apple Care tells them and they get angry at me. In any case, I feel helpless and frustrated, because I would love to help them, but have no means of doing so. There is something about the concept of App Store that makes some users believe that third-party developers have more power than they actually have: sometimes, for example, users contact me directly, or even leave reviews on the App Store, asking for a refund, which of course only Apple can do. Have you had a similar experience? Can some engineer at Apple instruct Apple Care that third-party developers cannot help with App Store download/update issues, so that App Store users don't get mad at the app developers for not being able to install/update their app?

After upload using transporter I get following message: "Cannot be used with TestFlight because the signature for the bundle at “GSequencer.app” is missing an application identifier but has an application identifier in the provisioning profile for the bundle. Bundles with application identifiers in the provisioning profile are expected to have the same identifier signed into the bundle in order to be eligible for TestFlight." (90886) I am unsure about the cause of this problem, please give some advice howto fix?