iPhone app could not be installed at this time

Question

I was trying to install my iphone application from testflight.

It installs perfectly on few devices but in some after installing about 80 percent it gives an error Unable to download application, <my app> could not be installed at this time

I am able to find out the reason for, why is it so?

Here's a screenshot:

could not be installed at this time

Did you make sure that the device you are installing the app on is in the provisioning profile. Also make sure that you internet connection isn't dropping. — rckoenes, Jan 17 '13 at 09:12
the device is already there in the provisioning profile and i am installing the application over wifi — mohitum, Jan 17 '13 at 10:29
To know the exact CAUSE OF PROBLEM connect the device with iMac then open ORGANIZER then choose DEVICES then choose your CONNECTED DEVICE from SIDEBAR then choose CONSOLE inside the CHOSEN DEVICE. Now INSTALL THE APP it will show the EXACT CAUSE OF PROBLEM. — Durai Amuthan.H, Feb 03 '14 at 10:59
For my case, the VERSION COMPATIBILITY was the cause of problem.My app's DEPLOYMENT TARGET was iOs 6.1 and I was experiencing the problem on iOs 6.0 running devices so I changed the DEPLOYMENT TARGET to iOs 6.0 in DEPLOYMENT tab in BUILDSETTINGS in XCODE and the problem was solved. — Durai Amuthan.H, Feb 03 '14 at 11:12

Oleg · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-17T10:53:14.090

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clear your cache and cookies in Safari, make sure your device is in provisioning profile and provisioning profile is installed on the device.

If everything mentioned above didn't help, try to create a new build with higher build number and try to distribute your app again

edited Jan 17 '13 at 10:53

answered Jan 17 '13 at 09:43

Oleg

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yes, change either version or build on Summary tab for your app target in XCode – Oleg Jan 17 '13 at 10:52
Also fixable by deleting the App from Testflight and all devices and setting it up again. Obviously only an option in certain cases. – Rog May 10 '13 at 16:15
After trying various tricks, finally changing the build number worked for me. – Kushal Ashok Jul 06 '16 at 10:42

capikaw · Answer 2 · 2013-03-07T15:40:05.827

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Most common issues that cause this are (from testflight's website):

Device storage is full
The provisioning profile is a developer provisioning profile
The ad hoc distribution provisioning profile is corrupted and the device is having an issue with it.
The device was restored from a backup and is causing a conflict for over-the-air distribution
There was a network timeout
Architecture settings of the build and the device are incompatible ( can sometimes happen -when "Build Active Architecture Only" is on when building).
Not Using Mobile Safari.

for me it turned out that my client's ipad was running iOS 4.2.2 and my project supports 5.0+.

edited Mar 07 '13 at 15:40

answered Mar 06 '13 at 22:17

capikaw

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The screenshot on TestFlight's website says "... could not be downloaded at this time" whereas the questions refers to the error "... could not be installed at this time". – vahidg Apr 17 '13 at 08:15
Provisioning profile. I thought testflight uses Debug's provisioning, but turns out they might be using Release's provisioning. I still get the unable to download message once after I fixed my provisioning though. – Enrico Susatyo May 03 '13 at 16:01
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I've found that Testflight's system (if all is truly set up correctly) does throw a legitimate "unable to download" message about 5-10% of the time which resumes fine when you tap 'retry'. – capikaw May 07 '13 at 21:22

score 13 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 17 '13 at 10:44

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Recently default Xcode project settings set ONLY_ACTIVE_ARCH (Build Active Architecture Only) to yes for Debug configuration.
So your build can not be installed on different hardware than the one you use for development.
Change this setting and installation should go fine.
enter image description here

answered Jan 17 '13 at 10:44

gsempe

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For all your configurations ? – gsempe Jan 17 '13 at 10:56
its already no for all configurations in both project and target] – mohitum Jan 17 '13 at 10:58
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Thanks! We had a problem where the app was 'iPhone only', but we wanted to install on iPad to test as well with another device. Testflight would try and install, but stop 3/4 of the way and report an error. Testflight website would say the app installed on iPad, but never does. This solution allowed us to install an iPhone only app on iPad via Testflight. – andrewleung Aug 13 '14 at 15:46

score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 09 '15 at 05:43

As for Xcode 5.1, the problem was in arm64 architecture in VALID_ARCHS. Building the release configuration for 5.0 device locally gives the following error:

Xcode cannot install or launch applications supporting the 64-bit architecture on devices running iOS versions prior to 6.0. This configuration is supported for distribution through the iOS App Store, but cannot be used during development with Xcode. To continue, edit the Run scheme action and select a build configuration that does not include the 64-bit architecture.

Removing arm64 from VALID_ARCHS solves the issue. In my case I had to create a separate branch for testing on iOS 5 devices.

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 16 '13 at 07:06

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You can try to publish the application by changing the version of the build. I was also having the same problem and tried the same by just changing tIt may help you too.

answered Feb 16 '13 at 07:06

user2077846

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score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 19 '13 at 15:31

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For me Setting Build Active Architecture to NO... works and installed successfully

answered Jun 19 '13 at 15:31

Rupesh

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score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 05 '13 at 12:56

Watch the console through the Xcode Organiser for the device that is failing to install.

You'll get a helpful message from the system telling you what is wrong. There are lots of potential failure reasons, so unless you check the message, you're just guessing...

Maxime · Answer 8 · 2015-07-15T12:15:33.577

Here is what worked for me:

Clear the Cache and Cookies (Settings > Safari).
Remove existing profile (if any) linked to "Test Flight App" (Settings > General > Profiles).
Open Safari and go to https://testflightapp.com/. Login and follow the steps to start over.

P.S. I used to have a Test Flight App, but it looks like it crashed and the icon turned to be all white. Restarting my iPhone made it reappear correctly.

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 18 '13 at 12:41

I was also having this problem, with an Ad-Hoc iPad application, when trying to install it on a iOS 6 device.

What fixed it for me was to click on the project in XCode, and change the "iOS Deployment Target" setting from 5.1 to 6.0.

And there was silly me thinking that iOS 5.1 apps would run on a iOS 6.0 device.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 16 '13 at 14:22

I just saw this as a result of a network error / time-out on a flaky network. I could see the progress bar increasing after I got the bright idea of just retrying. Also saw HTTP Range requests on the download server with ever increasing offsets of a few megabytes (the entire app was about 44MB).

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 19 '13 at 16:59

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I had this problem but I fixed this by making sure my Code Signing Identity is the SAME as the one I used in test flight.

After that, everything works fine

answered Oct 19 '13 at 16:59

Philip K. Adetiloye

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 16 '13 at 07:10

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This can also happen if you disable cellular data for "App Store" (for example, while on vacation) and forget to turn it back on. The solution here is to simply re-enable it in Settings -> Cellular.

answered Nov 16 '13 at 07:10

patr1ck

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Feb 01 '14 at 20:18

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in my case app want to use iCloud services, but in distr. provision profile wasn't set iCloud enabled. turn it on and refresh profile.

answered Feb 01 '14 at 20:18

Evgeniy S

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score 1 · Answer 14 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

I have had the same issue after fiddling around with certificates (argh).

The problem became apparent as I followed the comment of @Duraiamuthan.H, I installed on a device. The device reported 0xe8008016 (Entitlements) see SO here

The initial reason was, that the testflight target used the App store distribution certificate, not the Team certificate. I fixed that and the application was installing on the device over Xcode and then it also worked with testflight.

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Oct 29 '14 at 10:35

I had similar issue. However, I was able to fix it when I updated my iPad timings to that of current. I just checked the device log and found that the time in the log was shown 2 years before.

Hope updating the device timing to the current time will fix the issue.

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 09 '15 at 10:19

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Missing icon could be a problem. My manifest file points to a non-existing image and it fails the installation process. Placing an icon at the corresponding path solved the issue for me.

answered Mar 09 '15 at 10:19

beryllium

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Jul 16 '15 at 00:30

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I ended up creating new Provisioning profiles, not sure if it was because of:

"The ad hoc distribution provisioning profile is corrupted and the device is having an issue with it."

answered Jul 16 '15 at 00:30

David van Dugteren

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score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Oct 18 '16 at 16:27

I had the same problem as @mohitum007. In my case the developer of this App included an expiry date in it.

As workaround I set the date backwards to a past date (e.g. last month). Then I could install it and use it.

Also when I set the date back to normal, the already installed App didn't start up anymore. I contacted the company of this App to send me an updated version.

Sidenote: I found out that users from other Apps had the same problem but reversed: it won't install or start before a certain date.

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Mar 28 '17 at 05:24

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For me, just uninstall the Testflight and restart my iphone. After that, install TestFlight, it works fine !

answered Mar 28 '17 at 05:24

Mr Fox

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score -2 · Answer 20 · answered Apr 24 '14 at 19:57

Check if the deployment target in the General section of the project settings, is greater than that of your device's iOS version.

If yes then you need to update the version of your device to at least the deployment target version. in order for you to be able to install the application on your device.

iPhone app could not be installed at this time

20 Answers20

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