How to Submit an iOS App to the App Store

With growing application development needs, the demand for quality assurance is also increasing. Now a days we can say iPhones are very popular and the importance of iPhone apps development is very high. We are team of highly qualified and experienced iOS app developers. Mobile App submission is often an afterthought. But ensuring you want to submit your app to the app store properly is an important first step to ensure exposure and attract user to download.

Essentials

1. Need valid Apple developer program account
2. MAC device with OSX compatibility
3. Current command line tools and Xcode.

Steps Overview

Find the Some  steps required for submitting an app to apple app store.

Step 1. Creation of a Distribution Certificate

In order to upload applications on the app store, you must create an iOS distribution certificate

1. Visit the official website of Apple Developer (http://developer.apple.com/)
 
2. To Log in the Developer account, click member center button in menu bar.

3. Go to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles
 
4. Under the title, you will find a option named “Certificates”, click on “All”

5. Select + icon on the top right side of the box to add new certificate. Make sure the drop down in the upper left says iOS,tvOS, watchOS.

6. Under the production tab, click on app store & Ad Hoc button and then click on continue.

7. Further, generate certificate signing request (CSR) by using Keychain Access. Moreover, next step will guide you through the process.

8. Followed by the guidelines, in your mac device, click on the button Keychain Access then click on Certificate Assistant then click on “Request a certificate from a    certificate Authority”.

 9. To further proceed, you need to enter the e-mail address which you used for Apple’s developer account. Along with it, add name and leave the field “CA Email” blank. Click on “Saved on disk” and “Continue”.

10. The forthcoming screen will ask the location where you want to save a file. Resuming after step 5, click on continue button and upload that file which you recently created. Click on Generate

11. Please keep XCode open and download the certificate when the next screen pops in as mentioned .To open it in XCode, double click on the certificate.

Step 2. Create Apple ID

Apple ID is created so that your app is uniquely identified in the App Store. It is mostly written in reverse domain. For example: If in case the name of your app is My XYZ and the URL of your company is real.com, then the bundle identifier will be com.real.my-xyz-app1.

 1. From figure 9, you can find your bundle identifier, which can also be found in XCode.

Open the project and click the name of the project in the navigator area.The project settings will be displayed on the right side. Click on the app name displaying beneath the tab “Targets”
Make sure that “General” tab is opened in the dialogue box. Beneath it, you will find the Identify pane and bundle Identifier below it.

2. Further, create apple ID in the developer center. Sign in to ios app developement console and reach to "Certificates, Identifiers and Profiles". Under the tab "Identifiers", select App IDs to list all of your ID’s on right panel.
 
3. To add Apple ID, click on the + button on the right hand side of the dialogue box. On clicking on the icon, the name and bundle identifier needs to be filled in. Type your app name and bundle ID from the step 1. It should be the name as before. Please adhere to the extra spaces etc. Go to continue for the next step.

 4. To add Apple ID, verify the information thoroughly and click on Submit button.

Step 3. Create Provisioning Profile

Create Provisioning Profile To distribute your app on App Store, you have to create Provisioning profiles. What you need is your Apple ID and distribution certificate.

1. Sign in to developers center and go to “Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles”. Towards the left hand side of the dialogue box, under the section of “Provisioning Profiles”, select the option “All”. On the right hand side of the box, you can see all your profiles.

 2. To create new profile, again click on the icon + in the right hand side of the box. Under the heading Distribution, select “App Store” option and click on continue.

3. After clicking on the continue option, it will further ask to choose the Apple ID for your app. After choosing, click continue.


4. Further, select the certificate which was you created before and click on continue option.

5. Enter the name of provisioning profile ( add the name of your app so that you can easily find in XCode later) and click on Generate.

6. Download, install the certificate and double click on it to load it to XCode( Open XCode prior if you open the file)

7. Further, Load the project in Xcode and click the root of the project in the Navigator area. Select the app under “Targets” and then select “General” tab. In the dialogue box, select the “Team” Drop-down. Each developer account has a default team with the same name like Account developer name. You must able to view the name in the dropdown.

 8. If in case, there is no team listed, you have to add that in your developer account in Xcode. You can do it by selecting Xcode window and then choosing Xcode from menu bar and then select Preferences. It will open in a dialogue box.

Click on the “Accounts” button on the left hand side, see if your Apple ID is listed in the panel. If the id is not listed, click on the + icon on the bottom left corner of the box and then chose “Add Apple ID” and restart the code if necessary. Now, your team will be shown in the team drop-down.

 9. Another step is to connect an app to the profile which was created before. In “ Build Settings” app, enter the provisioning profile and you will be able to see a drop down wherein you need to select the profile you created before.

 10. Caution: Only go for bit code optimization if you are well versed with it. If you want to disable, you need to go to the Build Settings and then search for bit code. Alter the enable bit code file to No. C. Create new App in iTunes Connect Prior to submitting an app, you should create App entry in iTunes Connect.

• Using your credentials for developer account, sign in to iTunes Connect Account. Choose My Apps to list all your apps.

•  To add new app, click on the + icon at the top left corner of the box and choose New App from the drop-down list.

• Fill in the details in the dialogue box and click on “Create” a) The field “Name” should be unique and one can use a descriptive name with selection of some keywords. b) Choose the Bundle ID you created earlier. c) SKU is a unique identifier for your app which is invisible on App Store. d) Before clicking on create button, fill in all the mandatory details and click on save button at the top right hand corner of the box. e) Then fill the “Pricing and Availability” on the left hand side of the box and fill all the mandatory fields. f) Alongside, check the “Bit code Auto-Recompilation” option. Hit save if you don’t have it. g) Select “Prepare for submission” option on the left side. You need to upload description, keywords, app screenshot, app binary etc.

Fill in all the details and click on save button. The application will only be submitted if you fill all the mandatory details. For uploading a binary to this app, different instructions will be given which will be discussed separately. Additionally, read the Apple guidelines on App Icon, App screenshots and App metadata.

One can also upload app video. Upload Build to iTunes The step is completed via Application Loader ( a part of Xcode tools) or Xcode. In this section, only XCode method will be discussed. Make sure that your app should have correct App Icons before you initiate this step. Following ready before you even get started.

• Your app’s name.
  

• Your app’s description.
  

• Your app’s icon, sized 1024 by 1024 pixels.
  

• 3.5 inch retina: Sized: 640 x 920 (no status); 640 x 960 (full screen); or, for landscape, 960 x 600 (no status bar); or 960 x 640 (full screen).
  

• 4 inch retina: Sized: 640 x 1096 (no status); 640 x 1136 (full screen); or, for landscape, 1136 x 600 (no status); 1136 x 640 (full screen).
  

• 4.7 inch retina: Sized: 750 x 1334 (portrait); 1334 x 750 (landscape).
  

• 5.5 inch retina: Sized: 1242 x 2208 (portrait); 2208 x 1242 (landscape).
  

• iPad: These should be sized 1024 x 748 (landscape, no status); 1024 x 768 (landscape, full screen); 2048 x 1496 (landscape hi-res, no status); 2048 x 1536 (landscape hi-res, full screen); 768 x 1004 (portrait, no status bar); 768 x 1024 (portrait, full screen); 1536 x 2008 (hi-res portrait, no status bar); 1536 x 2048 (hi-res portrait, full screen).
  

• iPad Pro: Sized 2048 x 2732 (portrait); 2732 x 2048 (landscape).

1. Open your app in Xcode and connect compatible device and chose the device in Scheme Menu in Xcode.

2. Select the Product and then Clean. Select Product and then Build. Then go to Product and then Archive. After the completion of the archive command, the organizer window will be opened that will showcase an archived app on the left hand side. Click on the upload option to App Store on the right hand column.

3. The dialogue box will ask to select the account. After verifying all the certificates and iTune Apple ID, you can see a dialogue box with “Upload” Option. You can uncheck the enable bitcode option if in case you are not using the BitCode optimization. Further, click on the upload button to start the upload. It might take 15 mins to 1 hour depending on the size of the application.

4. After completion of the uploading process, one can view your binary under the Activity Tab.

5. You have to wait for the processing and after that you will be able to add a build in App store. Further, you will see a + icon which will list all the models uploaded via XCode. Select the build and then click on Done to add to the builds.

 6. Moreover, select the Submit button and answer the information and click on Submit at the top right corner.

Step 4: Submit Version for Review

Every app that is submitted to the app store has to be reviewed by the apple team before release. The app should observe with app guidelines.

You can request manual or Automatic release of the approved app. We recommend manual release option.

Mobile App review usually takes 2-3 days (you can check current expected review time here). If your app was not approved, review the notes in the Resolution Center and make any necessary changes to the app or version information then resubmit.

Step 5. Release

• Enjoy the final, most satisfying step.

• If you selected Manual release, click Release your app when ready

• Wait for the green “Ready for Sale” version status (This might take from 1 hour to 1 day  after release) Search for your app on the App Store