iTunes Connect - Prerelease - Beta testing with Internal testers says 31 days left, what does this mean?
Will the app uninstall itself after 30 days? Will it become inactive or unusable? What happens?
From some months' experience, I find that my original answer(guess) is not right. If an application has expired on iTunes Connect Beta Testing. It will very soon(in one or two days after the expiration) stop working from the device that has it installed.
Original answer:
Short answer: when the testing period end, testers will no longer be able to accept invites and install builds. Testers that already have builds installed will not be affected.
In this document,
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/BetaTestingTheApp.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011225-CH35-SW2
Apple says:
“After the 30 day testing period has ended, the build status changes to Expired"
"To continue testing after the 30-day period expires, upload another build. Internal testers will automatically receive an update notification when the new build is available. To distribute the new build to external testers, you must submit it to Beta App Review. Once it is approved, you can send the external testers an update email by clicking Send Invites from the External Testers column on Builds, as shown above."
Apple doesn't describe clearly the behaviors on the tester side when a build expired.
But when I try to turn off the "TestFlight Beta Testing" on an app,
the prompt says:
"Are you sure you want to stop testing?
Testers will no longer be able to accept invites and install builds. Testers that already have builds installed will not be affected."
So I guess the behaviors on the tester side when a build expired are going to be the same
as that when the testing is shut down by turning off the "TestFlight Beta Testing" option.
In my experience with Internal testing, after 30 days, the build changes to Expired, and will no longer launch on devices where it has already been installed. Trying to launch the app will show the splash screen, and then it immediately quits and you're back on the home screen.
I've also found that uploading a new build does NOT automatically send out the update to existing internal testers. Although iTunes Connect will say the build is available, you have to manually toggle TestFlight testing off and then on again to get it to recognize the new build and send out the update emails to existing internal testers.
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we've got an app that's not on the market yet and we are struggling with the testing version that testers download. We're trying to set the v1.0.1 but Google Play redirects them to v1.0.0 which is not up to date. We even tried to deactivate that branch but the issue still insists.
I do a lot of test deployments for multiple test groups.
Google supports 3 separate types of test groups: Open, Closed, Internal.
Open Testing is literally open to anyone who wants to opt in and they can join via a link you can copy from the developer console. Open testing requires the app go thru review before being rolled out.
Closed Testing is similar to Open but you explicitly define who has access with a list of email addresses. Closed testing must also pass through a basic Google review before being rolled out.
Internal Testing is similar to Closed testing but it never goes through a review process. Again, this is controlled via a list of email addresses.
I routinely publish different versions where Internal has the latest bleeding edge.
You don't state which channel you are using (Open, Closed, Internal), but I would carefully review each channel and the email addresses associated. Then I would click on the Publishing Overview button on the console to see if there's something you haven't finished.
I published an app to the App Store using Titanium Studio in 2013. I have recently found a bug in the code that I want to fix and publish.
I logged into Appcelerator's website to download the latest studio since it's been three years, only to find out that it's a paid platform now.
I just want to make a quick bug fix and publish. I don't need any of the services that come with the platform.
I realize there is a free SDK that you can compile yourself, etc, etc.
I don't mind paying for a $36 for one month only if it enables me to just publish a new version of my app.
My question is, if I publish the app after paying the $36 and then cancel my subscription, will the cancellation affect my app? Does the IDE inject some sort of "call home" time bomb?
I tried asking the support at appcelerator but they answered like a politician and dodged it.
Thanks for any help.
A published/compiled app has no direct connection with appcelerator. So if you cancel the subscription nothing happens.
However, if you use paid services... things might go wrong.
Statistics for example is a paid service. If you cancel subscription I assume the app keeps working but will make calls to their backend that most likely will fail (not sure about this). App should keep working.
If you use any cloud service (push notifications, arrow storage etc) your app will stop working of course.
If you don't use any of the services, you can just cancel and be done with it.
That said, if you just want to make 1 change to an app you could just dive in and compile without the Appcelerator Platform and just use the Open Source code.
We have about 100 testers in our iTunes Connect in total, without about 20-30 of them on each of our apps. When we push a new build (sometimes just with bug-fixes for specific people), we'd like to be able to give access to all our testers, but either send no emails at all, or just emails to the specific people that are affected by that update.
Case in point, unfortunately one of our old keys expired yesterday, and someone was trying to get the app today. So we sorted our key issue, up the version, re-sign the ipa and re-upload to iTunes Connect. We don't want to prevent access to any of our previous testers, and we don't want to email all our users, because it's not a new build, just a re-signed old build.
Currently, and extremely frustratingly, we can't see any way to currently do that, despite that being exactly how it worked when TestFlight was TestFlight.
I've created an iOS7 project in Xcode 5. It's a very simple app. I zipped it and sent it to another developer. When they open it, they get these messages:
No matching code signing identity found
No code signing identities (i.e.certificate and private key pairs)
matching "iPhone Developer" were found. Xcode can resolve this issue
by downloading a new provisioning profile from the Member Center.
How do they get around this? The app isn't going to be submitted to the app store.
Is this happening because they have not linked Xcode to their online developer account? Isn't an online developer account free?
The other developer can ignore that message if the intention is to run the app on the Simulator. But you must use code signing in order to run an app from Xcode on a device, even for testing purposes, even if the app is never going to be submitted to the App Store. And that costs $99/year. End of story.
You could turn your account into a Company account and put this developer on your company; that way the developer is covered under your $99.
Or, if you just want to send the app to someone for testing and you don't need them to run the app directly from Xcode on a device, you can create an Ad Hoc build targeted to their device.
And of course the developer can look at your code, test on the simulator, and run your previously built Ad Hoc build on the device - but not run from Xcode on the device, i.e. the developer can not build for a device without someone paying that $99/year fee.
I have a small app I've made that I intend to make available on both iTunes and on Android Market (AM).
I have purchased the developer certifications for both, built my app with the Android SDK and the iOS Xcode SDK. So I think I'm most of the way along.
I'm a little fuzzy on the steps after this, though. When I launch my app, I'd like it to be available on each market on more or less the same time. I'd also like to do a little testing to try and download each app to different people's devices for a beta phase. Also, my understanding is that iTunes requires some sort of approval before it goes live (does Android require the same?).
So, what I'd like to do is be able to put my app on both AM and iTunes, but have it not be publicly available. A sort of private phase, where I can test it, have selected testers download it, make sure it is working fine, and maybe even get Apple (and Android) approval.
Then, when I'm ready to go live, then mark my apps as public.
Is there anything like that on either market? If I upload my app to either market, is it from that moment publicly available?
If there isn't any such "private" phase, what is the usual process for testing the app on different devices before making it available for sale?
The android developer site confirms that you can upload your app without publishing to allow for final testing. See more information here: Publishing on Android Market (under "Configuring options and uploading assets" header). When you actually publish the app it should be up within minutes. See this answer as well Just uploaded Android App: How long before app shows in Android Market search?
Apple has a different approval which can take hours or weeks depending on how lucky you are :) I personally have not submitted an app for approval though so I don't know if there's a way to get approval and then delay the release. I don't have a dev account with Apple so I can't log in to see their app approval guidelines apparently, but maybe this has some useful info: iOS App Store Approval Guidelines