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I'm preparing an app for the Mac OS app store. The app is a package that consists of a precompiled binary and a bunch of configuration parameters embedded in it's info.plist. The app isn't under development - it's been in use for several years, but I'm planning to smooth the distribution by getting it into the app store.

I created a .pkg for the app using "productbuild", and the package installs fine.

My problem is that feeding the .pkg to the transporter app always fails with "failed to create the .itmsp for .pkg Failed to get the apps bundle id"

the info.plist looks fine to me.

Q: what's wrong, what can I do about it, or is there an alternative path into the app store. enter image description here

Zoe
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ddyer
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  • Did you figure it out eventually? – b005t3r Apr 01 '20 at 13:35
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    nope. I just put the project on hold. – ddyer Apr 02 '20 at 16:25
  • I have exactly the same behaviour :( – Panayotis Apr 17 '20 at 00:44
  • some problem, anyone found a workaround? – Sergio Solorzano May 18 '20 at 15:35
  • The error message is very limited to understand what may be wrong, how can I dig in? Is there a command line to upload directly that may show errors I can track down? – Sergio Solorzano May 18 '20 at 19:34
  • Thanks Apple for always having our back. It's always like that. You get an error, not saying much. You end up googling to find a solution somewhere on the Net. Still, I have the same issue and did not find any solution yet! Anyone? – Nicolas Dion-Bouchard Aug 27 '20 at 18:00
  • Hi ddyer, I found a similar ISSUE https://en.delphipraxis.net/topic/3478-apple-transporter-failing-to-upload-ipa-with-error-failed-to-create-itmsp-for-appname/ suggesting the following solutions: 1. Just relaunch Transporter app, or quit and re-enter it again. 2. Try completely shutting down your device and then turning it back on and trying. 3. Check the matching case of the SKU for new apps: E.g. "com.company.appName" wasn't accepted. If changed to "com.Company.AppName", matching the AppStore entry, it works. Did you try them ? – GuiFalourd Nov 24 '20 at 14:34
  • Someone also said here https://community.adobe.com/t5/air/failed-to-create-the-itmsp-issue-with-deploying-pkg-to-mac-app-store-using-transporter/td-p/10799866?page=1 he had the same problem with delivering IPA file. He just tried it again and it works, therefore he thought there could be some error on Apple side (looks like the first solution on my previous comment). – GuiFalourd Nov 24 '20 at 14:37
  • The final solution (for me) was the answer I marked as correct. Transporter is picky about what it accepts, just add more non-blank fields until it is accepted. Start with a working example and mutate. – ddyer Mar 29 '21 at 03:44

3 Answers3

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This error seems to occur for many different reasons. In my case, my Info.plist had an empty value for the NSHumanReadableCopyright key and it was missing the LSMinimumSystemVersion key entirely. After adding both of those, and resubmitting, the error no longer occurs.

So my best advice for combatting this error message is to compare your Info.plist to a known good one and see if you are missing any keys or if any of the key values are empty or possibly invalid. Unfortunate that this error message is a red herring.

steve hannah
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If you use xcrun altool --validate-app to attempt to upload your app rather than Transport, it will give you the reason why it is failing to upload. In my case, Transporter gave me the same vague error message you were getting. At first, I tried adding LSMinimumSystemVersion, but still failed with same vague error. Then I tried xcrun altool --validate-app, I get:

2021-03-29 00:35:11.876 altool[1291:17262] *** Error: Unable to validate archive 'myApp.pkg'.
2021-03-29 00:35:11.876 altool[1291:17262] *** Error: code -27002 (Unable to validate your application. The Info.plist in the package must contain the CFBundleShortVersionString key.)

After I then added CFBundleShortVersionString, I was moving on.

saxzez
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  • very useful answer! I would ad full command which include credentials: " xcrun altool --validate-app -u yourappleidemail@gmail.com -p password --type osx -f path_to_file.pkg ". Password can be generated at: https://appleid.apple.com/account/manage , section App-Specific Passwords – nojitsi Feb 11 '23 at 07:49
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I assume you already made all steps needed before submitting your Mac App. So then the easiest way to send it to the Apple Store Connect is generating an Archive and using Organizer.

  1. Open Xcode
  2. Go to Product -> Archive
  3. Wait until an Mac App Archive is generated
  4. Go to Window -> Organizer
  5. Select the version of your app that you want to submit and then click on Validate App
  6. If everything is ok, proceed clicking on the button Upload App
  7. Finally go to the Apple Store Connect and just publish it
David Martins
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