iOS: Mac Catalyst, Testing iOS app on Other Macs

Question

I'm building an iOS app, and the client wants to enable the run on Mac feature. I enabled it and all run as expected on my Mac. How can I let them test it on their Macs? since TestFlight only runs on iOS devices.

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 12 '20 at 09:55

5

Here are the steps I followed to create a Mac app of the iOS app for my client to test:

1- Enable Mac from the app target

2- Select My Mac as build device and then Archive:

3- Select your Mac app in the organizer -> Distribute App -> Copy App

answered Apr 12 '20 at 09:55

fullmoon

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But can't open the .app for me after these steps? Getting error with -1. – guhan0 Aug 11 '20 at 04:08
Not sure why, may be in security settings you need to enable running apps from any source. Also in my experience not all apps worked, some had issues with coco pods and libraries. – fullmoon Aug 11 '20 at 08:08

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 08 '20 at 12:18

How can I let them test it on their Macs?

TestFlight is not available for macOS apps. You can simply build a .app bundle for macOS and share it with directly with your client, and they can run it on their Mac.

A distribution service such as TestFlight is not needed for macOS apps, as unlike iOS/iPadOS, one can easily create and distribute apps for macOS.

To learn more about distributing testing build for macOS apps, you can refer to the following Apple Developer documents:

Thanks a lot that was helpful, I never did Mac apps before :) glad for the new open doors — fullmoon, Apr 08 '20 at 12:39

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 04 '21 at 12:38

Distribution to registered computers didn't work for us either.

We need the app to run on

MacOS 10.15 Catalina
MacOS 11.X Big Sur

What worked for us is to distribute via Developer ID distribution.

Then you may notarize it or

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/Your.app

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 24 '21 at 09:12

Mac TestFlight Update from WWDC 2021

From WWDC 2021 , there actually is brand new TestFlight for macOS apple WWDC video . The uppload process of macOS app is basically the same as for iOS. Only limitation is that you can download TestFlight on mac only if you are using Mac running macOS 12.0 or later, so If you want to test on devices with older OS version I recommend using distribution techniques listed in other answers.

iOS: Mac Catalyst, Testing iOS app on Other Macs

4 Answers4