Code Signing Diagnostics

Systematic troubleshooting for code signing failures: missing certificates, provisioning profile mismatches, Keychain issues in CI, entitlement conflicts, and App Store upload rejections.

Overview

Core Principle: When code signing fails, the problem is usually:

1. Certificate issues (expired, missing, wrong type, revoked) — 30%
2. Provisioning profile issues (expired, missing cert, wrong App ID, missing capability) — 25%
3. Entitlement mismatches (capability in Xcode but not in profile, or vice versa) — 15%
4. Keychain issues (locked in CI, errSecInternalComponent, partition list) — 15%
5. Archive/export issues (wrong export method, wrong cert type for distribution) — 10%
6. Ambiguous identity (multiple matching certificates, Xcode picks wrong one) — 5%

Always verify certificate + profile + entitlements BEFORE rewriting build settings or regenerating everything.

Red Flags

Symptoms that indicate code signing–specific issues: