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I distributed version 1.0, build 1, of my app via TestFlight, and everything worked perfectly.

Yesterday I archived and sent out build 2, and now upon tapping the update button, every user seems to be getting an error:

Unable to Download App

[App name] could not be installed at this time

I haven't heard from any users who didn't have build 1 installed already, but looking at iTunes Connect, no user has build 2 installed.

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Andrew
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  • Have you checked, your provisioning profile and certificate before archive it, and upload build 2?? – Viral Savaj Apr 23 '15 at 10:53
  • Under Target's code signing identity, under release it's set to iOS Developer. On the project level it's Distribution. I've changed it, and will test that out with my next build, but surely it shouldn't have got through submission to App Store and all those checks if there was a problem like this. How do I know it wouldn't happen upon App Store submission? – Andrew Apr 23 '15 at 11:05
  • Your app will not be submitted to app store due to mismatch of code signing, and you will get notified. – Viral Savaj Apr 23 '15 at 11:09
  • So why would that happen then, but not in this case? – Andrew Apr 23 '15 at 12:25
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    We had this happen once, we upped the build number and resubmitted. The new version worked fine. I think it is just one of the many bugs with testflight. – combinatorial Apr 24 '15 at 01:53
  • Exactly as @combinatorial said, we pushed a new version and it worked just fine. It was the first time it happened to me, although I am not really surprised. – Gabriel Cartier May 21 '15 at 15:41
  • Apple I beg you, save us hours of frustration. Fix this process, it's more broken than apple maps – ReduxDJ Nov 05 '15 at 20:29
  • I tried to install testflight several times and finally it works. – Gon Aug 31 '16 at 03:49
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    I've seen this bug happen as recently as October 2016. We simply pushed another build the next morning and it fixed itself. – JaredH Oct 25 '16 at 15:15

11 Answers11

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Encountered exactly the same problem today, trying to install a new testflight version downloading it through our company WiFi. We noticed that we could still download and install the app from mobile devices through LTE which lead us to the conclusion that for whatever reason testflight must have blocked our office IP (temporarily) for unknown reasons.

UncleIstvan
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    This is apparently a common problem, as the same thing happened to me too. Download works on LTE, not on Wi-Fi. – Legoless Jul 16 '16 at 17:36
  • This was really helpful. I can download the app I updated in TestFlight yesterday only on LTE, the older two apps install fine on both LTE and WiFi. – Sebastian Kirsche Jul 17 '16 at 11:36
  • Same issue, except switching to LTE did not work, nor did upping the build number and resubmitting. Previous builds are installable by all users. Other apps on different accounts we work with are having similar issues. This definitely seems like an Apple issue to me. – Beltalowda Aug 30 '16 at 20:48
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I hope this actually works for someone else. I was seeing the same result over and over again. I restarted my phone. I took my account off the Test Flight list and re-invited myself. Same result. 2 other people were able to install, but I wasn't. I furiously tapped "Install" several times as fast as I could, then tapped "Retry" when the alert box came up. Continued to tap "Install" over and over again, then "Retry". Install, Retry, Install, Retry. Then it finally started installing...

I wish I were making this up.

Zach
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    Sigh. Same thing just happened to me. Uninstalled the app. Uninstalled and reinstalled testflight. Hit retry over and over. And it finally worked, though not confidence-inspiring... – DavidS Aug 31 '16 at 03:35
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Bump the build number and resubmit your app. This is a TestFlight/iTunes Connect-side error that, as far as I can tell, we can do nothing about.

Update 12/7: The bug I filed on this (rdar://23296795) was recently returned to me as "We believe this issue has been addressed through changes on our side." – So if you're still seeing this error, please file another radar and let them know it's still not working.

Update 12/10: According to Remy in the comments below, it is still not fixed.

patr1ck
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    This is what worked for me also today October 2015, and nothing else. Tried other suggestions on stackoverflow before this one though. Like adding testers, and reinstalling TestFlight to no avail. – SirEnder Oct 29 '15 at 18:52
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    It's kind of amazing how bad this service is. It's a joke. Apple should be embarrassed of this whole developing test program and the whole program should just be scuttled. – ReduxDJ Nov 05 '15 at 20:22
  • Tried bumping it to no avail :( – Matt Le Fleur Jan 28 '16 at 09:35
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    We're still having these issues. More than half (internal testers) cannot download (getting 'Cannot download at this time' error). It took me over three hours of retrying. All kind of weird things in the meantime, App disappearing, TestFlight saying it's downloading, previous version comes back. Will try on cellular next time. This is July 2016. Unbelievable. – bauerMusic Jul 24 '16 at 18:26
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    I can confirm this issue occurred yesterday also. It is buggy but it *always* works on cellular after few retries, installation status is not working properly though, sometimes it just installs application without progress 'circle'. I found out that by pressing icon on start screen few times or uninstalling also helps. But trying to explain that to customer wanting to test application is making programmers seem not professional. – Michał W. Jul 26 '16 at 12:27
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    Occurring today and over the weekend. I can't believe this is still an issue. – Beltalowda Aug 30 '16 at 20:49
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For future readers

This could be a Certificate / Provisioning profile issue.

I just had this issue after wiping my mac and reinstalling OS X (i.e. all my certificates and profiles was gone from my keychain), and I did the following to fix it:

Delete / Revoke any existing certificates and Prov. profiles. (In my case Xcode had tried to download the certificates for my old computer, and they somehow became invalid in doing so).

Then, in the following order:

  • Create a new Development AND Distribution Certificate
  • THEN create a Provisioning profile for Development AND Distribution

Xcode signs your app with your Distribution certificate when it builds it for TestFlight, or the app store for that matter. That's why it is important to have a Dist. Cert. when uploading to test flight even thought it's just for internal testing. I don't know if it matters wether you have a valid Dev. certificate and Prov. profile for test flight, but it doesn't harm to have it. You need it to build to your phone anyways

I hope this helps. ]

Chris
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I've got this error many times, but I saw a really strange pattern and I have a pretty weird theory.

Next time, after you submit your app to Apple, don't submit it immediately for beta review. Download the app at least once with TestFlight on your iOS device as an internal tester. Do that before you submit the app for beta review and it should work.

Sounds crazy and I can't really confirm if downloading the app as an internal tester "triggers" anything, but it seems to be working for me that way. Could be a random coincidence though, would be interesting if someone can confirm/deny my theory.

Definitely one of the more annoying bugs of TestFlight right now. :/

tobihagemann
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  • I rarely tested my app on device through the testflight program, before sending the link out, and I did a number of betas. Perhaps you're right in the way that, it's not necessary, but it does trigger something that *ensures* it works. – Andrew Aug 06 '15 at 12:05
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    I only have internal testers. And still it happened to me. I think there is no way around it, except apple fixing it. – SirEnder Oct 29 '15 at 17:29
  • Soo.. it happened to me when I (as internal tester) downloaded the app literally a second after I provided export compliance.... – thisIsTheFoxe Dec 17 '18 at 22:39
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Same error for me. The only thing that worked for me was to uninstall the TestFlight app and then reinstalling.

Lapinou
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I faced the same issue under the follow case: Created a Test users group in iTunes Connect even before the Build was approved (i.e. it was in "Waiting for Review" state). We did receive notifications from TestFlight, but when clicked on "View in TestFlight", received this error. I added the approved build to the Group and Resent the invites. This worked perfect for me.

KPandian
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We had a user who had, for reasons only they know, disabled cellular access for the Testflight app. Later, when he'd also turned off Wifi (again, for reasons...) he was in a situation where Testflight had no connectivity.

The error he saw was "could not load apps". It was driving us crazy as our other users were able to install and run without issue!

Graham Perks
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I had a previous version of this app with the same name. Just deleted it from my device and testflight installation worked.

Denis Kutlubaev
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1

I encountered the same issue. Not only it fails in TestFlight but also it is rejected by Apple Team in the submission process for not launching. I was able to solve this problem by renaming Project and Target names excluding wildcard characters.

The names were like following;

Xcode Project

I spent almost two days to discover the issue. Hope it helps!

T.Y. Kucuk
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I was able to fix this problem by removing the 0s from my build number as described here.

As funny as it sounds, TestFlight currently has a bug that prevents deployment if your buildnumber has a 0 in it.

Buildnumber 102 failed to install on all devices I tested it on, simply changing the buildnumber to 112 (nothing else changed!) and uploading it again fixed it immediately.

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