Ever wondered what a provisioning profile is? Whats the difference between development and distribution? This guide will explain what it is step by step and how to set one up.

What you will learn

• What a provisioning profile is
• How to set one up
• The difference between a development, distribution and ad-hoc provisioning profile
• How to set it up in a XCode project

What is a provisioning profile?

A provisioning profile allows you to install apps on a iOS device for testing and distributing your app.

What is the difference between development, distribution and ad-hoc?

Development allows you to run the app on any iOS device you have registered with Apple under your developer account (Up to the limit of 100). It also allows you to use sandbox accounts to test services such as in app purchases and Game Center without spending any money or setting scores permanently.

Distribution is used when you are ready to submit your app to the iOS app store.

Ad-Hoc is used to distribute your app to testers or develop a private app. Note that if you use this to try and get around the Apples terms & services they reserve the right to revoke your developer account for violations of this. One case of this gba4ios. You also do not get access to any debugging features with this profile that are available to development provisioning profiles.

How to setup a provisioning profile

To setup an provisioning profile go over to the Apple Developer Member Center. Select Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles

Next select provisioning profiles under iOS Apps

Now you will see a list of any provisioning profiles you have setup. To add a new one select the plus button.

Next you will be asked what type you want. I will show Development and App Store as the options are different.

iOS App Development

Next you will need to select your App ID to associate the provisioning profile with. Each provisioning profile can only be associated to one App ID.

After this you will need to select your certificates to associate this with.

Now you have to select the devices you have registered that you want to be able to run the app (From your App ID).

Now you need to name your providing profile so you know what it is used for. I highly recommend appending the profile type name to the suffix of the profile name.  So for our development profile we have “Dev” at the end. This makes it much easier to identify once downloaded and later in XCode what sort of profile this is used for.

Now you can generate and download the provisioning profile. To install it once downloaded make sure XCode is closed down double click on it in your downloads folder. It will install silently and once we add it in XCode you are able to tell if the install worked.

App Store

To setup one for the App Store repeat the same steps as above, the only difference is you want have to select what devices it is able to run on, as this is only used for submitting your App to the App Store.

Settings up the provisioning profile in XCode

To setup your provisioning profile in XCode first select the project in the top left. Then select it from under targets and choose the Build Settings tab from the top. You will need to scroll down and until you see the Code Signing. Under providing profile drop this down – if it installed correctly you will see it in this list, the most recently installed ones are up the top. If it is a development profile congratulations! you will now be able to run the app on your chosen iOS devices. To test the app on your iOS device, plug it in to your computer and then select it from the device menu at the top left. Then simply run the App!

If you don’t see it under this list, close down XCode and double click on the provisioning profile that you downloaded to install it again.