Xcode 4.3.1 - Packaging operation failed

Question

Packaging operation failed - this message now showing while i try to make .ipa file for Ad Hoc distribution in Organizer

I checked certificates, checked project directories (after reading this)

Xcode dont showing any errors or something similar. Log Navigator show no errors (only old warnings).

So here is question: anyone else encountered a similar problem? And if answer is positive any suggestion to solve problem?

P.S.: in Xcode 4.2.1 all perfectly works

Solved! Apparently from current version Xcode will not make an archive from project were still have pictures beginning from: ._ I removed this kind of files and all works! — Wert1go, Mar 12 '12 at 14:11
I don't have images beginning with ._ and I have this problem. Anyone have any other ideas? — iPadDeveloper2011, Mar 13 '12 at 07:29
do you have a folder structure where the parent is the same as a subfolder? (ex: folder1/folder1/file1) — John, Mar 13 '12 at 19:46
Yes, for the app. Created a folder xyz (name of the app) then created an xcode project in the folder, called xyz, which generated a folder of the same name. This is a pretty standard pattern here. Is that bad? — iPadDeveloper2011, Mar 16 '12 at 00:46
Every new Xcode version invents a new exotic problem when creating archives. I wonder if there is a list that sums all that up? — brainray, Jul 27 '12 at 20:08

Nick · Answer 1 · 2012-08-04T15:41:59.607

21

Occasionally this is caused during automatic resigning during packaging with a different distribution certificate. This can occur when you start a new project and you're building both dev and release builds with your Team Provisioning profile, then you create a distribution (ad hoc or otherwise) certificate for this specific bundle ID and attempt to sign the archive with that new certificate.

The fix is to dig inside your build settings for the code signing identity and set the build release identity to the same distribution certificate that you're attempting to sign your archive with, either your ad hoc or app store certificate. You can leave debug builds as your team cert.

In the below example, the problem has been fixed. Use the build settings search box to look for the code signing identity. "Release" is probably set to "iOS Team Provisioning Profile" when it should be set to "iPhone Developer: Your Name" which is the same certificate you're trying to sign your archive with.

code signing

edited Aug 04 '12 at 15:41

answered Jul 19 '12 at 18:12

Nick

9,792
7
50
60

Thanks! Solved it for me... :) – Alex Zak Jul 29 '12 at 22:53
Isn't this a bug in Xcode? Should the release identity and the ad hoc identity be handled independantely? – brainray Jul 30 '12 at 08:56
@brainray The default scheme doesn't treat them differently and I don't think it should. After all, you're sending ad hoc builds to users to test release functionality. – Nick Jul 30 '12 at 14:56
This sounds like it might be right, but the fix description leaves much to be desired. Can you pleas clarify where is "build release identity". As far as I can tell everything is fine with my provisioning profiles, certs, keychain, build settings for Entitlements and who is signing, etc. Where is this voodoo setting? (and what a horrible bug / issue this is). Thank you – Lana Miller Aug 04 '12 at 06:54
@LanaMiller I added more description but if you're not seeing an issue with your build settings then possibly another fix on this page will help you. – Nick Aug 04 '12 at 15:43

Harin · Answer 2 · 2012-08-20T03:56:59.343

I had same problem in my project (in xcode 4.3.2) And as per all ans I checked for any png file starting with "._*" and also checked folder and its subfolder are different name.

Also checked code signing identity as per requirement. But Not Succeeded to solve this problem.

After hole days effort finally I got reason for "Packaging operation failed" error in my project.

In my case,I have classed "About_us.h" and "About_us.m" and by mistake I import header file like #import "About Us.h" (white space in middle). So when I loaded app on Device it will successfully loaded but when I try to create ipa using archive its give me error and return me Estimated App Store Size just 143 kb.

Finally while I change header like #import "About_Us.h" and try to make ipa I got real size in proper MB.

Hope this will help someone.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 04 '12 at 09:50

3

I had this issue after copying my project on a flash drive with FAT filesystem. Suddenly there appeared a lot of "._" files. One of such files was in Settings.bundle. I removed these files running

find . -name "._*" -exec rm -rf {} \;

answered May 04 '12 at 09:50

Taras Kalapun

1,761
15
19

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 23 '12 at 14:33

I get the same problem.

PNG files starting by ._ are not visible, even if you display hidden files in Finder (defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1 in Terminal) But if I browse my SVN folder using Versions app, I can see there are PNG files starting by ._

For each of these files, I opened it with Preview app, duplicated and re-saved with the same name, then I removed all the ._ files because they are no longer needed.

Now I can create an archive and distribute it through an IPA file.

I hope this will help you!

Yeah i forgot to say, that i using muCommander for file browsing — Wert1go, Mar 23 '12 at 18:16

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 04 '12 at 23:15

1

Issue for me was that release Product Name was set twice under Build Settings:

ProductName
ProductName

instead of just ProductName. Interestingly, the newline caused issues for packaging, but nothing else.

answered May 04 '12 at 23:15

Phil Loden

1,394
1
15
15

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited May 19 '12 at 21:47

1

In case some file has space in file name which will stop the rm process. use this command instead.

find . -name \._*.* | xargs -I{} rm -v {}

edited May 19 '12 at 21:47

Marijn

10,367
5
59
80

answered May 19 '12 at 03:57

frank

11
1

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 16 '12 at 12:57

I've managed to fix my issue. Here's how I did it. I went to terminal, typed in defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Then I checked all the folders with images in them. I found that some of my images had ? infront of the name even though it looks ok in the finder, it showed in the terminal.

So I just renamed it and was able to submit the app.

Note: Check the estimated size of the app in the organizer. If it's way off, it's messed up.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 21 '12 at 07:12

0

I had a file that contained ^ in the terminal that was the problem.

When looked at in Finder there was no visual clue that it was not labeled correctly. However when I tried to rename it, it failed.

answered Jun 21 '12 at 07:12

sviftrup

11
3

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 09 '12 at 16:04

I had the same issue in conjunction with a custom directory-icon. Those are stored as a hidden file (named Icon?) inside the affected folder.

It's probably safe to assume that there is a bunch of desktop/fs-features and conventions which can lead to packaging problems.

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 09 '12 at 19:30

I had an issue with my icons or atleast that's what I think. I had to delete the icons and delete the references in my info.plist file. Then after that magically, a option while selecting to distribute the app in the Xcode Organizer came up saying Don't Re-Sign, and after I did that BOOM! It worked! Good Luck for Future Visitors!

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 26 '12 at 17:40

I had the same problem in a cordova project, but I could not find any png files starting with '._'. With some luck I found out that the problem for me was that there was some font folder with an icon in the www (blue) folder (www folder is the folder containing the webapp and will be bundled when building). After removing (moved the fonts a level higher) the message 'packaging operation failed' was gone and exporting the archive for Ad Hoc distribution worked again.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 31 '12 at 15:12

In my case I had two issues: 1. the bundle ID was slightly different between the one in the Info.plist and the one used in the iTunesConnect 2. the distribution certificate used for archive creation was not the same that I used to resign the app before validation/submission.

In all cases XCode was opaque. But using Application Loader (you can run it from "XCode menu --> Developer tools") and providing it with the ipa file, the messages were clear enough to help me debugging the issue. So I'm going to radar this to apple: give the user clear messages in XCode exactly as you do with Application Loader! in the meantime, I recommend to use Application Loader when the "package" issue is not clear enough.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered May 27 '13 at 22:01

0

I solve it just copying the project folder into the desktop, which (i think) shortened the project file path.

answered May 27 '13 at 22:01

iDaniel89

65
6

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jun 04 '13 at 18:47

0

my problem was that I entered a Product Name containing the tilde character: "~xxx~" it was a temporary build I thought I would highlight it but in the end you cannot use any character in the product name. Hope this helps.

answered Jun 04 '13 at 18:47

Zsolt

3,648
3
32
47

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

0

I installed Xcode 4.3.1 to compile an app for iOS4.2 but I couldn't solve the "Packaging operation failed" problem (I've tried some of the solutions mention above). Later I installed XCode4.4.1 and I was able to compiled for iOS 4.2 without (almost any) problems

edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

Community

1
1

answered Jul 10 '13 at 04:32

Cordeiro

21
3

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 29 '12 at 21:25

0

Same issues for me. No folder within a folder, no ._ files, no warnings or errors etc. Archives fine, but when I try to package with the organizer to adhoc it fails and says it is 9kb.

answered Mar 29 '12 at 21:25

malaki1974

1,605
3
16
32

I started deleting files until it built and got lucky - my settings bundle (custom) was causing problems. I deleted it and good to go. – malaki1974 Mar 29 '12 at 22:25

Xcode 4.3.1 - Packaging operation failed

16 Answers16

Linked