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Every iOS Enterprise Provisioning Profiles expires after 1 year, correct? After they expire and you renew them, do you need to re-install the new Provisioning Profile to all the devices, or do the devices get renewed automatically from Apple's certificate server?

So, in other words, after you distribute an Enterprise app, do you need to update all the devices every year or can you simply renew the certificate on the Developer Portal or via Xcode?

Machavity
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user1207592
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    Related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9216485/how-to-manage-enterprise-distribution-certificate-expiration (unless the improvement ticket mentioned there has been fixed now, it does look like a major hassle) – Thilo Feb 14 '12 at 02:49
  • @user1207592Can you please suggest me for the best way that how to deploy an app using Enterprise program (299$) without adding device's UDID? I have searched alot but haven't got any good answer..thanks. – Anand Gautam Feb 26 '14 at 17:36
  • Now the enterprise account is not good to apply, many people do not have this kind of account, you can look at this website, we are looking forward to buy iOS enterprise account ,https://www.iosenterpriseaccount.com/, the enterprise program in principle can let a lot of people(no limit) inside the company to use, while the iOS developer program can be published to the public. – user1329261 Apr 22 '23 at 04:33

3 Answers3

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BigDave's answer and my answer here(as Thilo posted) actually cover all grounds in your question. I would just add two new things if you consider re-signing and distributing all your apps again, a big hassle.

  1. You don't need the code of your app to re-sign with new certificate. You can do it through the terminal(and probably create a shell script if you have large number of apps). Check this thread.

  2. If you have large number of apps distributed in your enterprise, consider deploying a MDM server. That way you can re-sign/Update your apps and push them wirelessly on registered devices with minimal user interaction.

EDIT: In regards to expiring provisioning profiles, the documentation states:

If the expired provisioning profile is installed on your device, remove it, as described in Verifying and Removing Provisioning Profiles on Devices. If the provisioning profile is an ad hoc provisioning profile, re-sign and distribute your app using the regenerated provisioning profile, as described in Exporting Your App for Testing (iOS, tvOS, watchOS).

Community
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Vin
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  • Hi @Vin. Any chance you'd know what happens to Enterprise apps once the certificate expires? Is it like App Store-purchased apps, where they keep working even if the cert expired, or is it like in-house apps, where they expire after 1 year? I really need to keep an app working "forever" without any maintenance or user interaction, for an art piece. – Andre Nov 27 '13 at 15:13
  • @Andre unlike the app store apps, the enterprise apps would stop working after the certificate expires. However the expiry of the enterprise certificate has now been extended to 3 years. – Vin Nov 28 '13 at 02:52
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    This is more related to the certificate expiring , what about the profile expiring and not the certificate as asked originally? the certificate expiration is now 3 years, but the provisioning profile is still 1 – yeahdixon Mar 28 '16 at 19:16
  • @yeahdixon Thanks for reminding. Please see the update. – Vin Mar 29 '16 at 03:06
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From the apple site:

An app won’t run if its distribution certificate has expired. Currently, distribution certificates are valid for one year, and you can have two certificates active at the same time. The second certificate is intended to provide an overlapping period during which you can update your apps before the first certificate expires.

So updating an app once a year is actually the best case. If the app is signed with a distribution certificate with only 6 months left then it will need to be updated after 6 months.

oenpelli
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    Cert now expires after 3 years. But the question specifically asks about the provisioning profile expiring, no the distro cert. – yeahdixon Mar 28 '16 at 19:17
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Just send your users the renewed .mobiprovision profile, no need to update existing apps.

mskw
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