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On this site, I found that you can distribute through email:

Ad Hoc Distribution

With Ad Hoc distribution you can share your app with up to 100 other iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch users. Through email or by posting it to a server, users can download and install your app.

I cannot find any instructions on how to do this. Since it says, "through email or by posting it to a server", I am expecting to be able to send an email with the needed file(s) attached without using a server. Is this possible?

I tried emailing myself the .ipa that results from archiving the app in Xcode, but it says:

Mail cannot open this attachment.

How can I distribute an app through email if the Mail app doesn't know what to do with it?

Community
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woz
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  • Hi Woz , I am also facing same issue.Just you check AppleConfigurator.IF you know any thing about this let me check.I dont want to upload iPa in server .I want to isntall iPa through mail only . – Hariprasad.J Jan 05 '15 at 09:41

2 Answers2

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You need to load the IPA file via iTunes.

As long as you have the correct device certificates in place when you created the IPA, you should be able to drag and drop the IPA to a connected device in iTunes.

Pork 'n' Bunny
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  • So when Apple says "by email", they mean you can email the file to someone so that they can install using iTunes? I was hoping you could install the app from your iOS device from email the same way that you can from the web. – woz Aug 06 '12 at 18:23
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    Yes, that's exactly what they mean. The email mechanism via itunes is very old now and is very inferior to the server based methods. Look at something like testflight for a good way to distribute via the web. – JosephH Aug 06 '12 at 18:34
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    The easiest way to manage this is witht the free service TestFlight. They've made the process of collecting device IDs and distribution simple. Users with the TestFlight app installed can actually install the IPA directly without iTunes. – Pork 'n' Bunny Aug 06 '12 at 18:35
  • I tried TestFlight, and so far it's great! Thanks for that. It's exactly what I needed. – woz Aug 07 '12 at 16:19
  • Good to hear. Just make sure you get all devices on your certs as soon as you can. Retrospectively adding devices once a release is made is not possible and super annoying. Any releases made always have to be to your whole test group, otherwise only those selected will have access to the latest build, and those left out will not even be able to access the previous builds that they did have access to prior. – Pork 'n' Bunny Aug 07 '12 at 18:22
  • How does testflight manage this? Are they part of Apple? If not, we should be able to do the same as them. – tallen11 Mar 20 '13 at 00:31
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There is the OTA (over the air) option. Check this tutorial

Andrea
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  • Right, I have done that, but I want to distribute the app without having to upload to a server and use a web page. – woz Aug 06 '12 at 20:55
  • @ClayBridges official Apple doc https://developer.apple.com/library/tvos/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/TestingYouriOSApp/TestingYouriOSApp.html – Andrea Feb 19 '16 at 20:16