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A quick question:

Do I need to buy an Apple Developer Program membership/certification ($99/yr) for testing via TestFlight?

Mohsen
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1 Answers1

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Yes. The reason is because TestFlight needs a valid ad hoc distribution provisioning profile to be submitted along with the binary. And you can't create the provisioning profile without an iOS Developer Account.

PS: Just being a team member in someone else's iOS Developer Team does not help. To create distribution profiles you need to be a team agent.

Edit: Updating this answer, since Apple has acquired Testflight and the service is part of iTunes. You now definitely need to be in the iOS Developer program to send builds through Testflight :) Another alternative is Crashlytics Beta if Testflight is not your thing.

Sid
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  • Do mean I wouldn't be able to create a valid IPA file? – Mohsen Aug 19 '11 at 01:12
  • You can create the ipa file using build and archive (I think). However when it's time to submit the ipa file to test flight, they need you to submit the ad hoc provisioning profile along with it so that they can enable you to send the build to your testflight team members successfully. – Sid Aug 19 '11 at 01:13
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    Aaaactually let me rephrase cause I just checked. No, you cannot, to the best of my knowledge, create an ipa file without having a distribution profile associated with your dev certificate. – Sid Aug 19 '11 at 01:15
  • I see, I just downloaded a cracked IPA and tried to testflight it but didn't accept it. That's it! Thank you! It seems I have to pay that $99! – Mohsen Aug 19 '11 at 01:15
  • $99 and all the pirated iOS apps you could ask for! So awesome! -_- – Mark Adams Dec 06 '11 at 20:20
  • Actually, that's not possible.... since Testflight uses the provisioning profile for an app, it's limited to the 100 devices that Apple places for a profile. It would be the same as building your app to a maximum of 100 devices :) – Sid Dec 06 '11 at 23:02