iOS apps

Open Publish › iOS. Its Overview has a card for each place an iOS app goes:

Card	What it does	Needs
App Store & TestFlight	Sends builds to your testers with TestFlight, then releases the app on the App Store	An Apple Developer Program membership and App Store Connect
Test on your devices	Builds the app for your registered iPhones and iPads and gives you an install link	The same
iOS Simulator	A Simulator app to try on a Mac	No Apple account

Each card shows its next step while it isn't set up yet, then what's live, with Update to publish a new version. Activity lists the platform's runs, and Settings has the app's signing certificate and settings.

Creator plan

The App Store, TestFlight and an App Store .ipa are part of the Creator plan; the App Store card's Free trial link opens the plans, where you can start a free 7-day trial with 500 bonus credits. On Explorer you can still test on your devices with install links and build the iOS Simulator app. See Plans.

Connect App Store Connect

Studio signs and uploads your iOS apps with an App Store Connect API key. With it, Studio registers the app's bundle ID, creates the signing certificate and provisioning profiles, and uploads builds. You don't use Xcode or Keychain Access.

1. In App Store Connect, open Users and Access › Integrations › App Store Connect API and select Team Keys.
2. Generate a key with Admin access. Studio needs Admin to create certificates and profiles.
3. Download the key (AuthKey_….p8). Apple offers the file only once.
4. Note the key's Key ID and the Issuer ID shown above the list of keys. Your Team ID is in Membership details on developer.apple.com.
5. In Studio, click Connect App Store Connect on the App Store & TestFlight card (or on Test on your devices: connecting either connects both). Choose an account you connected before, or Connect another account…: upload the .p8 and enter the three IDs.

Studio checks the key with Apple before saving it. It tells you if the key isn't a Team key, lacks Admin access, or belongs to another team.

The key is stored encrypted and is only used on Studio's servers. It never reaches a build machine. Connection details on the card shows which account the app uses, with Change connection… and Disconnect from this app. See Signing keys and publishing accounts.

Create the app in App Store Connect

Once connected, the App Store & TestFlight card checks whether App Store Connect has the app. Until it does, the card shows Finish App Store Connect setup with the app's name and bundle ID to copy:

1. Open App Store Connect and go to Apps › + › New App.
2. Choose platform iOS, the name shown, and the bundle ID from the list. Studio registers the bundle ID with your team when it checks, so it's already in the list. Any SKU will do.
3. Back in Studio, click Check setup. The card then shows TestFlight, the App Store and the store listing.

Check the bundle ID before you create the app: it can't be changed later. If Studio couldn't register it (the key needs Admin access), register it yourself in your Apple Developer account under Identifiers.

If App Store Connect already has the app for macOS (it was on the Mac first), the card asks once instead: Add iOS to the app (one purchase for both; Apple can't undo it) or A separate iOS app with its own bundle ID. See Mac App Store and TestFlight.

TestFlight

Publish (or Update) on the card's TestFlight row builds the app for the App Store and uploads it from Studio's servers. Apple then processes the build, which usually takes 5–15 minutes, and Studio makes it available to your testers.

Before the first run, create a TestFlight group in App Store Connect › TestFlight, and add testers. Internal testers are members of your App Store Connect team. External testers are anyone, invited by email or a public link.

Test Information for external testers

Apple's beta review reads TestFlight's Test Information before external testers get an app's first build: a beta app description, a feedback email, and a contact for the reviewer (name, email and phone). Internal testers don't need it.

Add them in the App Store listing (Update listing on the card's Store listing row): the TestFlight section has the beta description and feedback email, and App Review contact the contact. Studio sends them with the build. If you've already filled them in App Store Connect › TestFlight › Test Information, that counts too.

With an external group ticked and something missing, the TestFlight screen says what, with Edit App Store listing, and won't start the run until it's there.

On the screen's Release section:

• Testers: the groups that get the build. Internal groups set to receive every build get it automatically. The first build for an external group goes to Apple's beta review before testers see it. After a change in App Store Connect, click Check again.
• What to test: optional notes testers see in TestFlight.
• Encryption: leave Uses encryption beyond HTTPS off if the app only uses HTTPS and the system's own encryption, which is true of most apps. Turn it on if the app uses other encryption: App Store Connect then asks for export compliance information before testers get the build.

Testers install the build with the TestFlight app. A TestFlight build expires after 90 days.

The TestFlight row shows the build's state from App Store Connect: Processing, Ready to test, In beta review or Expired. If the upload fails, Retry upload sends the same build again without a new build or charge. A build Apple already has is never uploaded twice.

Build numbers

Each build uploaded to App Store Connect needs a higher build number than the ones before it. Studio starts above the highest build number App Store Connect has for the app, including builds you uploaded yourself.

“Missing purpose string in Info.plist”

Apple rejects a build whose code can access the camera, photos, location and similar data unless the app explains why in its Info.plist. It applies even when your app never uses that feature, as long as a library in the app could. If App Store Connect reports ITMS-90683, add the purpose strings in Publish › iOS › Settings: Permissions for camera, photo library, microphone or location, or Info.plist entries for any other key Apple names. Then publish again.

App Store listing

Studio keeps the app's App Store listing in the app's files, in the hidden .store/app-store/ folder, which is never packaged into the app. Edit it with Create listing or Update listing on the Store listing row of the App Store & TestFlight card:

• Texts, per language: app name and subtitle (30 characters each), description (4000), keywords (100, comma-separated), promotional text (170), and the support, marketing and privacy policy URLs. Write with AI asks the agent to write or translate the texts from what the app does.
• Screenshots: 1 to 10 for iPhone (6.9") and for iPad (13"). Flet apps run on iPad too, so Apple asks for both. In the Preview, pick the iPhone 6.9" or iPad 13" device and add the screen to the App Store listing: it's captured at Apple's size (1320 × 2868 and 2064 × 2752). A language without screenshots uses the default language's. The app's icon comes from its build.
• App details: the primary and secondary category, and the copyright line.
• App Review contact: the name, email and phone App Review can reach, and optional notes for the reviewer. Don't put passwords in the notes.

Import from App Store replaces the files with the app's current listing in App Store Connect.

The Store listing row shows where it stands: Not created yet, No update sent, Sent with the date, or Changed, not sent when it was edited since. The listing screen sends it from its footer.

Sending the listing sends it to the app's version that's still being prepared: the one with the app's current version number (Publish › iOS › Settings › Version), which Studio creates if needed. It needs no build and costs no credits. A screenshot set is only uploaded again when it changed. App Store Connect doesn't let you change a version that's waiting for or in review: remove it from review there first, or wait for Apple's decision.

Some of what Apple asks for isn't part of the listing and is set only in App Store Connect: App Privacy (what data the app collects), pricing and availability, and the age rating questionnaire.

App Store

Publish (or Update) on the card's App Store row opens Publish to the App Store. If TestFlight has a build the App Store doesn't, Which build lets you submit that build: what your testers had, with no new build and no credits. Or choose a new build of the app as it is now. Then Studio:

1. finds or creates the App Store version for the version number. A version that's already on the App Store can't change: set a newer version number first.
2. attaches the build and sets Release: automatically once Apple approves the version, or manually, when you release it in App Store Connect.
3. sets What's new. Apple skips it for an app's first version.
4. sends the App Store listing too, if you choose Also send the App Store listing.
5. submits the version for App Review.

The App Store needs the store listing: its row says so until you create it.

If App Store Connect can't submit the version yet, for example because screenshots, App Privacy answers or the age rating are missing, the run lists what Apple asked for. Fix those, then Retry upload: the build isn't uploaded again and there's no new charge.

The App Store row shows the version's state from App Store Connect: Waiting for review, In review, Approved: release it in App Store Connect (for a manual release), Published to the App Store, or Rejected by App Review with a link to Apple's message. Apple usually reviews a version within a day or two, and emails you when its status changes.

An .ipa to upload yourself

Create .ipa for manual upload, at the bottom of the App Store & TestFlight card, builds a signed App Store .ipa to upload to App Store Connect yourself, e.g. with Transporter. It doesn't install on devices: to try a build on a phone, use TestFlight or Test on your devices.

Test on your devices

The Test on your devices card builds the app for the iPhones and iPads registered with your Apple team (an Ad hoc build) and gives you an install link for it. Testers need nothing but the link: no TestFlight, no App Store review.

1. Register the devices: View devices on the card opens Settings › Apple devices.
2. Click Create install link. When the run finishes, the card shows the link with Open, Copy, QR code and Share.
3. Update builds the app again for the devices registered now. The link stays the same: testers who have it install the new build.

Apple only installs these builds on registered devices, which is why the card needs App Store Connect even though nothing goes to the App Store.

Devices

Builds for your devices install only on devices registered with your Apple team. Manage them in Settings › Apple devices, per App Store Connect account:

• Registration link: send it to testers. They open it in Safari on their iPhone or iPad, tap Register this device, then go to Settings › Profile Downloaded › Install. The device is registered with your team, and nothing stays installed on it. A link works for 7 days, and you can revoke it.
• Add device: enter a device's name and UDID by hand. To find a UDID, connect the device to a Mac, select it in Finder, and click the line under its name.
• On/off switch: only enabled devices go into new builds.

Apple never deletes devices. Each kind of device (iPhone, iPad, …) has 100 slots per membership year, and a disabled device still uses its slot until your membership renews. The page shows how many you've used.

A device registered after a build won't install that build. Click Update on the Test on your devices card: the new build's profile includes it, and the card says when devices were registered since the last build.

Install links

The install link is a get.flet.app/i/… link. On a registered iPhone or iPad it opens a page with an Install button; on a computer it shows a QR code to scan with the phone.

A link works for 30 days from the latest build, or until you revoke it, and Studio keeps the build's .ipa for as long as the link works. The card shows how many times the build was installed.

If iOS says it's unable to install the app, the device isn't in that build. Register it, then click Update on the card.

iOS Simulator app

Create Simulator app on the iOS Simulator card builds the app for the iOS Simulator, which comes with Xcode on a Mac. No Apple account is needed. Download the .zip when the run finishes, unzip it, and drag the .app onto a running Simulator window (or run xcrun simctl install booted <App>.app). It doesn't run on an iPhone or iPad.

Signing certificate

You don't have to create or upload a certificate. The first time an iOS build needs one, Studio creates an Apple Distribution certificate for your team and keeps it, encrypted. Later builds and your other apps reuse it.

Publish › iOS › Settings shows it in the Signing card: Managed by Studio, until when it's valid, Download (.p12) (with its password, to use in Xcode), and Use your own certificate…. Action screens show the same card with Manage.

Apple allows only a few distribution certificates per team. If yours is at the limit, either:

• use your own: in Keychain Access on a Mac, export the “Apple Distribution: …” certificate together with its private key as a .p12, then Use your own certificate… on the Signing card. Use Studio's certificate switches back; or
• revoke an unused certificate in Certificates on developer.apple.com.

Deleting a certificate in Studio doesn't revoke it at Apple.

Provisioning profiles are made for you too, named Flet Studio <bundle ID> …. Studio replaces a profile when it expires, when its certificate changes, or (for your devices) when the enabled devices change.

Bundle ID

The app's bundle ID (Publish › iOS › Settings) identifies it at Apple. It's made of letters, digits, - and ., with no _, for example com.example.my-app. Studio registers it with your team when it first checks App Store Connect for the app, or on its first build.