Entitlements are not valid

Question

Recently, I have upgraded my iPhone SDK OS from version 2.2.1 to 3.0 version. After that, while building my application, I get an error that the provisioning profile has expired. So I created a new provisioning profile.

Then I made the distribution of my application with the provisioning profile. But I get an error in iTunes while synchronising my application into an iPhone device. The error message is "The application 'iGVA' was not installed on the iPhone because the entitlements are not valid."

I checked the code signing Entitlements contains the correct entitlement plist file.

How can this be solved?

Answer 1

Code signing entitlements are no longer necessary for Ad Hoc builds in Xcode 4 - see details notes in Apple Technical Note TN2250

Answer 2

make shure to select the Signing Identity in the TARGETS ;)

Answer 3

I had this same problem, using Xcode 4. It turned out to be caused by a wrong selection for Identity in the "Share..." dialog in the (Archives section of the) Organizer. The correct selection (for me) is: "Don't Re-sign".

Answer 4

For record's sake, as all these wonderful answers didn't help me, I thought I'd share my Entitlements glitch.

So yes, I added UDIDs, got the provisioning, verified on the phone, in build settings, etc.

My glitch (thanks http://www.musicalgeometry.com/?p=1237) was that the Ad Hoc scheme was set as Ad Hoc configuration only for the Run settings.

For archive settings it was still pointing to the old Release configuration.

(These settings are the left side tabs in the edit scheme window.)

If I save someone my frustration - I've done my bit.

Answer 5

This happened to me as well, and the other answers did not solve it for me.

After spending half a day building, installing, cleaning, clicking to no avail - I finally erased Entitlements.plist from the box under Code Signing Entitlements, saved, and typed it in again - voila! It worked again! I never touched the actual Entitlements file, just the setting.

Answer 6

I experienced a problem whenever I added a new device in the device list, and then made the new profiles by selecting the new devices and drag them to Xcode and prepare the build.

The moment I use that build for device installation I get the error

ENTITLEMENTS ARE NOT VALID

I tried to resolve it by all the ways I could think of but nothing positive came out. Anyhow, I have to make the new App-ID or have to repeat the whole process of creating profiles. Then I can install the build on the device.

Answer 7

I just found another circumstance that causes this problem. You have to make sure you include the correct provisioning profile. I have an application that has both an iPhone and an iPod version, and an iPad version built from the same project. I apparently sent out the iPad ad hoc profile with the iPad version of the application, and it doesn't work. Worse, I installed the correct profile locally with Xcode, so everything works correctly on my machine.

Answer 8

I was getting crazy over this. Finally, I guess I got it. In project settings, I was setting entitlements and code signing stuff properly in the correct Adhoc configuration. However, although all seemed OK there, when I checked "Project -> Edit Active Target" my code signing entity was still stuck at "iPhone Developer".

After switching that to the correct "iPhone Distribution" and recompiled, Xcode asked me to allow code signing for the first time. And it all compiled and is transferred to my phone now!

I hope that helps. I seriously believe this problem is a bug or defect on Apple's side. I lost several hours for a simple thing, thanks to their undocumented IDE...

Answer 9

I got bit by this as well and found the answer in Ad-Hoc Apps and Entitlements.

You may need to make sure the path to your Entitlements.plist file is entered in your project settings under "Code Signing Entitlements".

Answer 10

I had this in XCode 4. I tried cleaning, deleting and recreating the entitlements file but still no joy. Then I changed the Value for "Can be debugged" from YES to NO .. and it worked. Anyway it seems to work fine now, I hope this helps!

Answer 11

From the docs:

Building an app for Ad Hoc distribution is similar to building an app for App Store distribution, with an exception of two additional steps. First, you need to create an Ad Hoc Distribution Provisioning profile and add the UDIDs of the iOS devices that you want to distribute to using the iPhone Developer Program Provisioning Portal. Second, you need to create a code-signing Entitlements file. For information about how to create an Entitlements file read the Managing Application Entitlements section of the iOS Development Guide.

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Managing Application Entitlements

iOS provides access to special resources and capabilities—such as whether your application can be debugged—through properties called entitlements. To specify entitlement information in your application, you add an entitlement property-list file containing entitlement definitions (key/value pairs) to your project. When you build your application, Xcode copies the file to the generated application bundle.

To add an entitlements property-list file to your project:

In the Groups & Files list, select the Resources group. Choose File > New File. Choose the iOS > Code Signing > Entitlements template. Name the file Entitlements.plist. (You can use any name; just ensure it matches the value of the Code Signing Entitlements build setting, as explained later in this section.) Set the type of the property-list file to iPhone Entitlements. With the file selected in the text editor, choose View > Property List Type > iPhone Entitlements plist.

Add your entitlement entries to the file. For each entitlement property you need to define:

Click the Add Child or Add Sibling buttons to the right of the selected row. The Add Child button has three lines depicting a hierarchy, the Add Sibling button has a plus (+) sign on it. Choose the entitlement property from the pop-up menu that appears. If the entitlement you need to add doesn’t appear in the menu, choose View > Property List Type > Default for File Type. Then enter the entitlement-key name and type.

Enter the value for the property. Set the Code Signing Entitlements build setting for the target to the name of the newly added entitlements property-list file.

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Once you have created your Entitlements file and added it to your Code Signing Entitlements build setting, open the Entitlements file and add or edit the get-task-allow key and set it to false.

In addition to compressing your .app bundle to distribute your Ad Hoc build to testers, etc. it is recommended that you also compress the provisioning profile before distributing because certain email clients and servers may corrupt the provisioning profile.

For information about Ad Hoc distribution please read the Publishing Applications for Testing section in the iOS Development Guide.

Answer 12

This problem might not have anything to do with the Entitlements plist per se. I have two iPod Touches I use to test with. When I went to sync the apps with them, one worked perfectly, but for the other I got the 'entitlements are not valid' error. As it turns out, one device (the one that worked) had the mobile provision file on it, while the other one did not. This was an obvious oversight on my part. However, what threw me was I never explicitly added the provision file to the first device either. Not sure how it got onto that device (I'm still new at this - lol) - in the past I always just dragged it into the Organizer with the device attached, but I didn't do that this time.

So the provisioning profile and xcode were all set up perfectly with the correct IDs, etc. but the app still failed to sync. Obviously if the device isn't properly provisioned, you will get the error. Would be nice if the error was more helpful in this case.

Answer 13

An Entitlements.plist file is required for testers to install ad-hoc builds. The default iOS templates don't include one. In XCode 3.2.4 you create one like this:

1. From the menu, choose "File > New File…"
2. Under iOS Templates, there's a Code Signing section. Choose the certificate icon named Entitlements. Name the file "Entitlements.plist"
3. Select Entitlements.plist in your source tree.
4. Choose "View > Property List Type > iPhone Entitlements Plist"
5. Add a new key to the property list (select the top line, press return)
6. The item will probably be named "Can be debugged". If not, choose that from the available options. This is equivalent to "get-task-allow".

If you don't yet have one, create an 'ad-hoc' build profile:

1. Select your target in the source tree.
2. From the menu, choose "File > Get Info"
3. In the inspector. select the "Build" tab.
4. Under 'Configuration', choose "Edit Configurations…'
5. Select your 'Release' configuration, click 'Duplicate' at the bottom of the screen.
6. Rename the new configuration "Ad-Hoc Distribution"

Now you've created an Entitlements.plist, you need to add it to your build settings.

1. Select your target in the source tree.
2. From the menu, choose "File > Get Info"
3. In the inspector. select the "Build" tab.
4. Make sure the configuration selector is set to "Ad-Hoc Distribution"
5. In the "Code Signing" group, change the value of "Code Signing Entitlements" to "Entitlements.plist" - XCode may have put in a relative path for you. If so, change it.

Note - you'll have errors installing the app on your own device if you build & run with "Code Signing Entitlements" set for other build configurations.

Finally, check that the Entitlements.plist has been added to your target.

1. Select Entitlements.plist in the source tree.
2. From the menu, choose "File > Get Info".
3. Select the "Targets" tab.
4. Make sure the checkbox next to your target is checked.

You should now be able to distribute your ad-hoc builds without this error.

Most of this was gleaned from Apple's Managing Application Entitlements Guide, the rest by trial & error.

Answer 14

Be sure that when you 'Build and Archive' that you are building for 'Device' and your configuration is not 'Debug'. It will seem to create the archive correctly, but will fail upon installing the .ipa the device if you are set to a Debug profile when you do the 'Build and Archive'.

Answer 15

Michael's answer above is spot on (or the link he points to is). Here are the steps I had to take to get it to work:

• Have an ad-hoc certificate for which the device UDID is checked. Install that cert by dragging it onto the XCode icon.
• On the project, create a distribution configuration and set your build params to the appropriate device | distribution. Right now, we build for Device 3.0 | Distribution.
• My project did not include an Entitlements.plist file - I had to add it by selecting from the menu File | Add File | IPhone OS | Entitlements, and call the new file Entitlements.plist
• The new plist file has only one row - set the value of that row to unchecked.
• In the project build configuration, in the line for Code Signing Entitlements, enter the Entitlements.plist filename as the value.
• In the Code Signing Identity, select the ad-hoc certificate identity (though I have found that you can also use your distribution certificate identity)
• NOW BUILD :)
• Deliver the resulting app file plus the ad-hoc cert to the person who gave you their UDID. Should work :).

Answer 16

You also need to make sure that you have an unexpired provisioning profile, which foiled me on this one for a while (Ad Hoc provisioning profiles seem to expire after a year). Error message is the same, but it has nothing to do with not having a valid Entitlements.plist file.

Answer 17

I had this issue as well. As it turned out, sure I had edited a configuration to support ad hoc, and sure I was building using the distribution configuration. BUT. I hadn't edited the distribution configuration's properties, but the release's instead (I thought I was editing the distribution).

This might not be it. But even though you're certain, double check you're using the correct configuration, and that this configuration is adjusted properly.