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I'm working on a flutter project and I want to build the IPA of my code using windows. I don't want to test the application in my windows I want just to build the IPA. Is it possible to do it. Any help is highly appreciated.

dina robert
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  • I don't think its possible, you need to build that on MAC – Vinamra Jaiswal May 25 '22 at 15:51
  • Technically it is impossible. There is a reason nobody can make Xcode run on Windows (or Linux for that matter.) Even if you could build the IPA, coming from an iOS developer, you would have now way to install it onto a target device/upload to use on the app store. Your best bet (that isn't A: Illegal and B: Usable) is just to buy a Mac. =) – Ars_Codicis May 25 '22 at 22:28

2 Answers2

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The only way to generate an IPA from you windows machine is by using a CI/CD service like Codemagic using the steps described in this article:

  1. link your repository (Github, BitBucket , or Gitlab).
  2. from settings > build for platforms > IOS
  3. change the .app file you received to .zip and extract it.
  4. You will find a file called Runner.app, put in a folder and compress it back.
  5. change the extension from .zip to .ipa.

And here's your first IOS build without a Mac device.

Moritz
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You cannot build a flutter iOS app directly from Windows. What you can do is use external tools to do it. One of these tools is Appollo (https://github.com/Appollo-CLI/Appollo). It's a python CLI tool that let you access remote MacOS build machines.

Here is a demo of how to create the IPA on windows : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX3DAMwlEfM&t=11s

It's pretty easy to use :

First install it

pip install appollo

Then setup your Apple Developer account with Appollo : https://appollo.readthedocs.io/en/master/tutorial/2_configure_app_store_connect.html

Finally you can build the app and retrieve the IPA

appollo build start --build-type ad-hoc
appollo build ipa

And that's it.

JulienP95
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