CODEWITHSUNDEEP
iosapp-store
Rob Wilkerson
Rob Wilkerson

Reputation: 41256

Missing Private Key for iOS Dist Cert

I've found a lot of information about this, but nothing that quite helps me with my situation. I lost my hard drive a few weeks ago. I've since bought and configured a new system, but now I have to drop a new version of an app in the app store. I've re-downloaded 3 certificates, including the distribution cert, and the distribution profile, but XCode reports that my distribution profile is invalid (specifically, "Valid signing identity not found").

After a lot of searching and reading, it seems that the issue is a missing private key, but I have no idea how to rectify that. I do have a recent (SuperDuper) backup of the old machine, but opening the old Keychain Access app only shows me what's on my current machine (or so it appears -- I don't see anything different). That would be my only window for retrieving the old key. Ditto opening the old copy of XCode and looking at its Organizer.

If I try to revoke my existing distribution cert, I get warned that all of my existing apps (all of which are signed with that cert) will cease to function. I definitely don't want that.

Do I have any options here? Apple's system of certs and profiles admittedly baffles me so I'm hoping that there's some kind of recourse for re-establishing contact with my distribution key or creating a new cert without completely hosing up everything that already exists.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 731

Answers (1)

Craig Siemens
Craig Siemens

Reputation: 13296

Opening the old Keychain Access app didn't work because it loads all the data from the compute it's running on. What you'll need to do is get the old .keychain file and open it with Keychain Access.

In your backup, find /Users/USER_NAME/Library/Keychains/login.keychain and make a copy of it. Next, you'll want to rename it to something else like oldlogin.keychain to prevent it from conflicting with your new login keychain. Then just double click on oldlogin.keychain to open it Keychain Access. It may ask you for a password to access the keychain, it should be your login password from before you lost your hard drive. Once its unlocked, you can drag anything you want from oldlogin to login including the private key.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions