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I have an iOS "In-House" application with an Enterprice Distribution Provisioning Profile. Before iOS 8 if it was close to expiration date i could email the renewed provisioning profile, and the user was able to install it from his mail client without having to re install the application.

However, since iOS 8 this is not an option. Therefore i am searching for alternatives to deliver the renewed profile to the users without the need to reinstall the app.

If i managed to download the provisioning profile in the app's sandbox , is there a way to install it programmatically?

Loukas
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I think provisioning profiles are supposed to be transparent to the user with iOS 8. I think your best bet will be to provide an app for the user to install that has been built with the new provisioning profile. This will install the new provisioning profile on the device.

wottle
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  • I am asking for alternatives without having to re install the application – Loukas Nov 24 '14 at 07:46
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    OK. Unfortunately, I think you're out of luck. Is installing an enterprise app that much more difficult than installing a .mobileprovision? – wottle Nov 24 '14 at 12:44
  • The first one requires user action. The second one does not – Loukas Nov 24 '14 at 16:14
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    They still need to open the email, open the moible provision file, and choose to install it, do they not? I'm not trying to argue, I've never emailed out provisioning profiles for users, so I'm not familiar with that install process. For us, installing an app is as easy as tapping a link, then tapping the install button. I thought a mobileprovision file would be the same. In any case, it seems my suggestion doesn't suit your needs, but I was putting it out there in case it might help someone else. Good luck. – wottle Nov 24 '14 at 16:56
  • In order to install an app with a new prositioning profile you must rebuild the app, therefore you must have the sources, which means that an extra effort is needed to maintain source code in multiple versions – Loukas Nov 26 '14 at 14:18
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    Not entirely true. You can res-sign the app if you have the ipa. We do it with our internal apps when the provisioning profile or certificates expire. http://stackoverflow.com/a/6921689/3708242 – wottle Nov 26 '14 at 15:01
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As noted by yourself and wottle, iOS 8 does not allow users to manually install provisioning profiles and you can not (and should not) be installing them programmatically from within the app.

If you are an enterprise company with mobile device management (MDM), you can continue to push the provisioning profiles through your MDM server to your users as the changes in iOS 8 only affect the users' ability to install and remove the profiles manually. Alternatively, your app needs to be updated and user will have to update the app (either through you pushing it through MDM or them going to download the update from your site.

Apple is really pushing that if you have an "in-house" enterprise app that you're distributing and you're wanting things to work without user intervention (automatic updates, provisioning profile updates, etc.), you need to have them enroll into MDM with you.

Nobosi
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I was trying something similar, but it seems it is not possible.

All you could do is host the profile on some server and tell Safari to open it. A simple WebView can't display it.

Kevin Griesbach
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