Hi All, Like many others I'm a little confused with gaining access to the family controls capability. Our app is ready to push to testflight, and we sent the request to apple last week. However only learning today that we need to request for the shield extension as well. I wanted to ask what the expected timeline is for being approved? I've seen posts here saying less than a week, and some people having to wait longer than 6 weeks. Any advise or guidance on getting approved smoothly & swiftly would be highly appreciated

Hi, I submitted a Family Controls (Distribution) entitlement request for my app Faith Lock (com.faithlock.ios) - a prayer-focused iOS app that uses the Screen Time API to help users block distracting apps. I received an approval email, but the portal still shows the request as "Submitted" and the Distribution option does not appear under Additional Capabilities for my identifier. This is blocking me from submitting to App Store Connect. Details: Bundle ID: com.faithlock.ios Team ID: F86P575UNP Request IDs: 3PWTDR8KL3 / 885ZK276KK Status in portal: Submitted (unchanged since approval email) Has anyone experienced this? Is there a way to get the portal manually updated to reflect the approval? Any help or escalation from a DTS engineer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I have an existing app in App Store Connect. I added the SharedWithYou functionality to the app code and tested it on several devices. Everything is working as expected. One of the first steps was to add the com.apple.developer.shared-with-you entitlement to the Entitlements.plist file. This required a round of updates for app identifiers and provisioning profiles. When I upload the production build for testing in TestFlight I receive the following error: 90919: Invalid entitlement. The “” bundle has the com.apple.developer.shared-with-you entitlement, but it doesn’t use the Shared with You framework. Please remove the entitlement and upload a new build. I'm using SWHighlight, SWHighlightCenter, and SWAttributionView in several places throughout my app... I filed an issue in the Feedback Assistant but so far, have not received any response.

Sharing a solution for a problem that took me a while to figure out. Problem: During development of a macOS 26 app that uses ScreenCaptureKit, the screen capture permissions were being reset after every build. Each time I compiled and ran the app from Xcode, I had to re-authorize screen capture in System Settings. CGPreflightScreenCaptureAccess() would return false even though I'd just granted permission minutes ago. Root cause: I was using ad-hoc code signing during development. macOS ties screen capture permissions to the app's code signing identity. With ad-hoc signing, the identity changes on every build, so the system treats each build as a "new" app. Solution: Switch to an Apple Development certificate for debug builds. In Xcode: Build Settings → Code Signing Identity → Debug → set to "Apple Development" Make sure your development team is selected After this change, the signing identity remains stable across builds, and screen capture permissions persist. This might be related to the broader issue discussed in this forum about ScreenCapture permissions disappearing — if other developers are seeing permissions vanish, it's worth checking whether the code signing identity is changing between sessions.

Hi, I do have a strange behavior in my development environment on a Mac mini (M4) running 26.2 and Xcode 26.3. Everything was working as expected. My project had a stable state and I wanted to enable iCloud support. As result I could not run the app any more because code signing failed with the message that my profile does not include the above entitlement. On my notebook (M2) with XCode 26.3 everything is working. Im am using GIT and both computers have identical code. The code compiling and running on my notebook will not run any more on my Max mini. Any help to find what might have broken the code signing and how it could be fixed? Thanks in advance.

Hi, I currently have multiple notarization submissions that have been stuck in "In Progress" status for many hours without any updates. Here are several examples from my recent submissions: Submission IDs: 01f7a80e-a9cc-49b3-bb93-94b126cf3124 (a.dmg) 7af2b25f-e131-40a4-bcd3-0f7583ebbdc2 (a.dmg) 2b35ec79-d851-41d6-a900-788d4201a273 (b.dmg) 8194b1af-a270-4de9-92f1-ce2a8d4782f2 (c.dmg) 2608dcfc-7652-4efa-97e3-1749e7130dcb (d.zip) These submissions were created between March 11 and March 12, and all of them remain stuck in the "In Progress" state indefinitely. When checking using: xcrun notarytool history all recent submissions appear as: status: In Progress Additionally: No logs are available for these submissions. notarytool --wait eventually times out after 30 minutes with exit code 124. The app bundles are signed with a valid Developer ID Application certificate. All embedded frameworks and dylibs are individually signed using: --options runtime --timestamp Earlier submissions on the same day (for example df41010c-a3c6-4e2d-a455-b657693e8541) were successfully notarized and returned Accepted, so the signing configuration appears to be correct. Because many submissions across different files (DMG and ZIP) are stuck in the same state, it seems possible that the notarization service queue may be stalled. Could you please help confirm: Whether these notarization submissions are stuck on the Apple notarization service side If there is currently a service issue affecting notarization processing Whether I should cancel and resubmit these uploads Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I am seeking clarification on whether the various driverkit entitlement families (com.apple.developer.driverkit.family.*) are available for development on my local Mac without requesting entitlements from Apple. My experience is inconsistent with public statements made by Apple, and I am wondering if there have been changes to development entitlements as of 2026. I am hoping there is something obvious that I have missed. At WWDC2022 Apple stated that "In MacOS... In fact, all DriverKit family entitlements are now available to use for development." On these very forums, Eskimo himself also suggested this was the case in 2024. However, my own experience has been that in my provisioning profile on my paid developer account, I am not able to obtain com.apple.developer.driverkit.family.networking for the purpose of developing a driver for unsupported hardware. As you can see, I do not have the networking entitlement: { .. "Entitlements" => { ... "com.apple.developer.driverkit" => true "com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb" => [ 0 => { "idVendor" => "*" } ] And there appears to be no mechanism to add these entitlement:

I'm working on an app that needs access to device activity. When I add device activity entitlement, I'm getting Provisioning profile "..." doesn't include the com.apple.developer.deviceactivity entitlement. This is failing for both, the main app and the extension, and both have entitlements added. It is not clear how to add it to the profile, the provisioning profile is created/managed by XCode. When I remove the entitlement, I can build my app but it won't be able to use device activity data I reached out to Developer Support, and they sent me here. What is the right way to add device activity entitlement? I'm also seeing another issue with XCode Cloud builds. When I remove device activity entitlement. I can build my app w/o any issue, and I can also install it directly on my iPhone. However, XCode Cloud builds fail wit Run command: 'xcodebuild -exportArchive -archivePath /Volumes/workspace/tmp/d41fc2f1-4f39-4906-8941-112488e75f6c.xcarchive -exportPath /Volumes/workspace/adhocexport -exportOptionsPlist /Volumes/workspace/ci/ad-hoc-exportoptions.plist '-DVTPortalRequest.Endpoint=http://172.16.68.193:8089' -DVTProvisioningIsManaged=YES -IDEDistributionLogDirectory=/Volumes/workspace/tmp/ad-hoc-export-archive-logs -DVTSkipCertificateValidityCheck=YES -DVTServicesLogLevel=3' I suspect that it could be related to my app having DeviceActivityExtension but no device activity entitlement is present. Thanks, Peter.

Hi Team, i'm running into same issue with notarization time. I create new, small app for a customer but however the notarization is running since this morning, so almost a few hours. This isn't normal or ? Is there anything what i can do ? Best regard, Lars

I'm submitting my first macOS app (a native SwiftUI menu bar app, signed with Developer ID Application certificate, Hardened Runtime enabled) for notarization using xcrun notarytool submit with keychain profile authentication. All 9 of my submissions have been stuck at "In Progress" for up to 16 hours. None have transitioned to "Accepted" or "Invalid." Logs are unavailable for all of them (notarytool log returns "Submission log is not yet available"). Environment macOS: 26.2 (25C56) Xcode: 26.1.1 (17B100) notarytool: 1.1.0 (39) App: Native SwiftUI, universal binary (x86_64 + arm64), ~2.2 MB DMG Bundle ID: com.gro.ask Team ID: 4KT56S2BX6 What I've verified Code signing is valid: $ codesign --verify --deep --strict GroAsk.app passes with no errors $ codesign -dvvv GroAsk.app Authority=Developer ID Application: Jack Wu (4KT56S2BX6) Authority=Developer ID Certification Authority Authority=Apple Root CA CodeDirectory flags=0x10000(runtime) # Hardened Runtime enabled Runtime Version=26.1.0 Format=app bundle with Mach-O universal (x86_64 arm64) Entitlements are minimal: com.apple.security.app-sandbox com.apple.security.network.client Uploads succeed — each submission receives a valid submission ID and the file uploads to Apple's servers without error. Submission history Created (UTC): 04:40 ID: eeb12389-... File: GroAsk-1.6.0.dmg Status: Invalid (Hardened Runtime missing — since fixed) ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 04:42 ID: 6e537a32-... File: GroAsk-1.6.0.dmg Status: In Progress (16+ hrs) ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 07:52 ID: 5ee41736-... File: GroAsk-1.6.0.dmg Status: In Progress ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 08:19 ID: f5c6b9a5-... File: GroAsk-1.6.0.dmg Status: In Progress ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 08:27 ID: 0f1c8333-... File: GroAsk-1.6.0.dmg Status: In Progress ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 08:29 ID: 77fd9cd4-... File: GroAsk-1.6.0.dmg Status: In Progress ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 08:51 ID: db9da93e-... File: GroAsk-1.6.1.dmg Status: In Progress ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 09:05 ID: 3c43c09f-... File: GroAsk.zip Status: In Progress ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 12:01 ID: b2267a74-... File: GroAsk-1.6.3.dmg Status: In Progress ──────────────────────────────────────── Created (UTC): 12:15 ID: ae41e45c-... File: GroAsk.zip Status: In Progress The very first submission (eeb12389) came back as Invalid within minutes because Hardened Runtime wasn't enabled on the binary. I fixed the build configuration and confirmed flags=0x10000(runtime) is present on all subsequent builds. However, every submission after that fix has been stuck at "In Progress" with no state transition. What I've tried Submitting both .dmg and .zip formats — same result Verified notarytool log — returns "Submission log is not yet available" for all stuck submissions Apple Developer System Status page shows the Notary Service as "Available" I've also emailed Apple Developer Support but have not received a response yet Questions Is this the expected behavior for a first-time notarization account? I've seen other threads mentioning that new accounts may be held for "in-depth analysis," but 16+ hours with zero feedback seems excessive. 2. Is there any manual configuration Apple needs to do on their end to unblock my team for notarization? 3. Should I stop submitting and wait, or is there something else I can try? Any guidance from DTS would be greatly appreciated. This is blocking the release of my app.

Hi, I read that notarization should be fairly quick. I thought that it was stuck, so I ended up sending a few submissions of the same app. I was wondering if you'd able to tell me the status of my latest submission (id: a094f93d-8bb2-47fe-a411-b6e357456ec7). It has been saying "In Progress" for over 3 hours now. If it is held for in-depth review, would you be able to tell me what's the wait period is like? Thanks!

Hello everyone, I’m trying to notarize my macOS app (DockIt.zip) using the new notarytool CLI, but every submission remains in In Progress status forever, it never moves to Accepted or Rejected. I’ve tried multiple rebuilds, credential resets, and even the Xcode GUI method, but the result is the same. Environment • macOS 14.x • Xcode 15.x / Command-Line Tools 15.x • Apple ID: afonsocruz.dev@icloud.com (Team ID: 264Z9XKCT6) • Keychain profile: DockItCreds Steps taken 1. zip -r DockIt.zip DockIt.app 2. xcrun notarytool store-credentials DockItCreds --apple-id ... --team-id 264Z9XKCT6 3. xcrun notarytool submit DockIt.zip --keychain-profile DockItCreds --wait 4. xcrun notarytool history --keychain-profile DockItCreds History snapshot 167a9600-5c7c-4bc4-b984-dd967d30e161 (2025-05-19T11:37:59Z) – In Progress 7167f7c8-d448-4b35-9817-055009f2730a (2025-05-19T04:59:34Z) – In Progress 6ef0610a-595f-4c57-b0f2-f5fe783e8679 (2025-05-18T22:04:10Z) – In Progress bddde388-a34a-42c4-afb8-f06f2b0fe8fa (2025-05-17T10:24:07Z) – In Progress Questions Is it normal to stay “In Progress” for so long? Any recent service changes or outages? How can I get more detailed logs? Also, I'm still learning about macOS development and these steps! If there's something obvious and I was not able to see, please, take into consideration! Thanks!

I'm trying to notarize an application for the first time & it's stuck for more than 24 hours now. I ended up submitting the same app more than 5 times, but all are stuck in waiting state. There is no visibility into what's happening & whenever i check the status it just shows as "In Progress". How can i expedite this process ?

I am submitting .dmg notarization requests from Sequoia 15.7.3 using xcrun submit. My developer certificate was created in the last two weeks and is valid. I have had some successful notarizations already so I know that my configuration is correct. However, for the last 48 hours all of my submissions are stuck at 'in progress'. Is there an issue with the notarization service on Apple's side?

I've submitted my app four times, each time waiting a few hours for something to happen, then reducing the file size of my *.dmg and trying again. The first two seemed to have completed after 36 hours, but I no longer have that specific signed binary (and its a much smaller binary now anyway). The latest two are still "In Progress" and its almost been 48 hours. I know my process isn't wrong, and my app isn't somehow incorrectly built or being denied because two were accepted. The outage page shows green for the notary tool (https://developer.apple.com/system-status/) so I'm not sure what the hold up is.

Error in application:didFailToRegisterForRemoteNotificationsWithError: no valid aps-environment entitlement string found for application have tried out the below commands % codesign -d --entitlements - /path/to/your.app % security cms -D -i /path/to/your.app/embedded.mobileprovision and it seems both are working fine, Im currently developing react native app with expo and firebase for notifications this works fine when im running it via installing the app from testflight, but the issue occurs when i test in testflight or while the apple team reviewing my app My entitlements file <dict> <key>aps-environment</key> <string>production</string> </dict> </plist>

I am trying to sign my Mac app to use Network Extensions capability. But every time I create a profile it displays that to me: on the other hand on the website it displays this to me:

This issue keeps cropping up on the forums and so I decided to write up a single post with all the details. If you have questions or comments: If you were referred here from an existing thread, reply on that thread. If not, feel free to start a new thread. Use whatever topic and subtopic is appropriate for your question, but also add the Entitlements tag so that I see it. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" Determining if an entitlement is real In recent months there’s been a spate of forums threads involving ‘hallucinated’ entitlements. This typically pans out as follows: The developer, or an agent working on behalf of the developer, changes their .entitlements file to claim an entitlement that’s not real. That is, the entitlement key is a value that is not, and never has been, supported in any way. Xcode’s code signing machinery tries to find or create a provisioning profile to authorise this claim. That’s impossible, because the entitlement isn’t a real entitlement. Xcode reports this as a code signing error. The developer misinterprets that error [1] in one of two ways: As a generic Xcode code signing failure, and so they start a forums thread asking about how to fix that problem. As an indication that the entitlement is managed — that is, requires authorisation from Apple to use — and so they start a forums thread asking how to request such authorisation. The fundamental problem is step 1. Once you start claiming entitlements that aren’t real, you’re on a path to confusion. Note If you’re curious about how provisioning profiles authorise entitlement claims, read TN3125 Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles. There are a couple of ways to check whether an entitlement is real. My preferred option is to create a new test project and use Xcode’s Signing & Capabilities editor to add the corresponding capability to it. Then look at what Xcode did. You might find that Xcode claimed a different entitlement, or added an Info.plist key, or did nothing at all. IMPORTANT If you can’t find the correct capability in the Signing & Capabilities editor, it’s likely that this feature is available to all apps, that is, it’s not gated by an entitlement or anything else. Another thing you can do is search the documentation. The vast majority of real entitlements are documented in Bundle Resources > Entitlements. IMPORTANT When you search for documentation, focus on the Apple documentation. If, for example, you search the Apple Developer Forums, you might be mislead by other folks who are similarly confused. If you find that you’re mistakenly trying to claim a hallucinated entitlement, the fix is trivial: Remove it from your .entitlements file so that your app starts to build again. Then add the capability using Xcode’s Signing & Capabilities editor. This will do the right thing. If you continue to have problems, feel free to ask for help here on the forums. See the top of this post for advice on how to do that. [1] Xcode 26.2, currently being seeded as Release Candidate, is much better about this (r. 155327166). Give it a whirl! Commonly Hallucinated Entitlements This section lists some of the more commonly hallucinated entitlements: com.apple.developer.push-notifications — The correct entitlement is aps-environment (com.apple.developer.aps-environment on macOS), documented here. There’s also the remote-notification value in the UIBackgroundModes property. com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase — There’s no entitlement for in-app purchase. Rather, in-app purchase is available to all apps with an explicit App ID (as opposed to a wildcard App ID). com.apple.InAppPurchase — Likewise. com.apple.developer.storekit — Likewise. com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase.non-consumable — Likewise. com.apple.developer.in-app-purchase.subscription — Likewise. com.apple.developer.app-groups — The correct entitlement is com.apple.security.application-groups, documented here. And if you’re working on the Mac, see App Groups: macOS vs iOS: Working Towards Harmony. com.apple.developer.background-modes — Background modes are controlled by the UIBackgroundModes key in your Info.plist, documented here. UIBackgroundModes — See the previous point. com.apple.developer.voip-push-notification — There’s no entitlement for this. VoIP is gated by the voip value in the UIBackgroundModes property. com.apple.developer.family-controls.user-authorization — The correct entitlement is com.apple.developer.family-controls, documented here. IMPORTANT As explained in the docs, this entitlement is available to all developers during development but you must request authorisation for distribution. com.apple.developer.device-activity — The DeviceActivity framework has the same restrictions as Family Controls. com.apple.developer.managed-settings — If you’re trying to use the ManagedSettings framework, that has the same restrictions as Family Controls. If you’re trying to use the ManagedApp framework, that’s not gated by an entitlement. com.apple.developer.callkit.call-directory — There’s no entitlement for the Call Directory app extension feature. com.apple.developer.nearby-interaction — There’s no entitlement for the Nearby interaction framework. com.apple.developer.secure-enclave — On iOS and its child platforms, there’s no entitlement required to use the Secure Enclave. For macOS specifically, any program that has access to the data protection keychain also has access to the Secure Enclave [1]. See TN3137 On Mac keychain APIs and implementations for more about the data protection keychain. com.apple.developer.networking.configuration — If you’re trying to configure the Wi-Fi network on iOS, the correct entitlement is com.apple.developer.networking.HotspotConfiguration, documented here. com.apple.developer.musickit — There is no MusicKit capability. Rather, enable MusicKit via the App Services column in the App ID editor, accessible from Developer > Certificates, Identifiers, and Profiles > Identifiers. com.apple.mail.extension — Creating an app extension based on the MailKit framework does not require any specific entitlement. com.apple.security.accessibility — There’s no entitlement that gates access to the Accessibility APIs on macOS. Rather, this is controlled by the user in System Settings > Privacy & Security. Note that sandboxed apps can’t use these APIs. See the Review functionality that is incompatible with App Sandbox section of Protecting user data with App Sandbox. com.apple.developer.adservices — Using the AdServices framework does not require any specific entitlement. [1] While technically these are different features, they are closely associated and it turns out that, if you have access to the data protection keychain, you also have access to the SE. Revision History 2025-12-09 Updated the Xcode footnote to mention the improvements in Xcode 26.2rc. 2025-11-03 Added com.apple.developer.adservices to the common hallucinations list. 2025-10-30 Added com.apple.security.accessibility to the common hallucinations list. 2025-10-22 Added com.apple.mail.extension to the common hallucinations list. Also added two new in-app purchase hallucinations. 2025-09-26 Added com.apple.developer.musickit to the common hallucinations list. 2025-09-22 Added com.apple.developer.storekit to the common hallucinations list. 2025-09-05 Added com.apple.developer.device-activity to the common hallucinations list. 2025-09-02 First posted.

When submitting my new build to app store connect directly from dreamflow, I get this error: Failed Step: Flutter build ipa and automatic versioning Building com.pinpictu for device (ios-release)... ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ No valid code signing certificates were found You can connect to your Apple Developer account by signing in with your Apple ID in Xcode and create an iOS Development Certificate as well as a Provisioning Profile for your project by: 1- Open the Flutter project's Xcode target with open ios/Runner.xcworkspace 2- Select the 'Runner' project in the navigator then the 'Runner' target in the project settings 3- Make sure a 'Development Team' is selected under Signing & Capabilities > Team. You may need to: - Log in with your Apple ID in Xcode first - Ensure you have a valid unique Bundle ID - Register your device with your Apple Developer Account - Let Xcode automatically provision a profile for your app 4- Build or run your project again 5- Trust your newly created Development Certificate on your iOS device via Settings > General > Device Management > [your new certificate] > Trust For more information, please visit: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/ AppDistributionGuide/MaintainingCertificates/MaintainingCertificates.html Or run on an iOS simulator without code signing ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ No development certificates available to code sign app for device deployment Build failed :| Step 10 script Flutter build ipa and automatic versioning exited with status code 1 Please not I am on a windows pc, not a mac. I'm not sure how to clear this error and I am not an experinced coder, so any advice would be greatly appreciated, especially if it is simple and easy to follow.

Hi All, I am building my own MDM server. It seems that in order for the MDM commands to function an MDM Push Certificate for the APNS framework. And in order to get the MDM Push Certificate from the Apple Push Certificates Portal (https://identity.apple.com/pushcert/) you need to upload your CSR usually provided and sign by the MDM Vendor of your choosing. I am familiar with this process. But now that I am the MDM Vendor, I am not sure where to get this MDM Vendor CSR Signing Certificate. I've already submitted a formal request via the "contact us" form. Apple's response pointed me to the documentation on Setting Up Push Notifications and the MDM Vendor CSR Signing Certificate help page (which I had already reviewed): https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/setting-up-push-notifications-for-your-mdm-customers https://developer.apple.com/help/account/certificates/mdm-vendor-csr-signing-certificate/ The issue is that these documents describe using the signing certificate, but not the process for obtaining it as a new, independent vendor. So does anyone know of a portal or method of generating this “MDM Vendor Certificate”? or maybe I'm going about this all wrong and there is a simpler way… the again, its apple, so I’m probably on the right path just beed a little direction please. (I am not sure where to get this MDM Vendor CSR Signing Certificate.)