Testflight testers getting “unable to download app could not be installed at this time”

Question

I distributed version 1.0, build 1, of my app via TestFlight, and everything worked perfectly.

Yesterday I archived and sent out build 2, and now upon tapping the update button, every user seems to be getting an error:

Unable to Download App

[App name] could not be installed at this time

I haven't heard from any users who didn't have build 1 installed already, but looking at iTunes Connect, no user has build 2 installed.

Answer 1

Encountered exactly the same problem today, trying to install a new testflight version downloading it through our company WiFi. We noticed that we could still download and install the app from mobile devices through LTE which lead us to the conclusion that for whatever reason testflight must have blocked our office IP (temporarily) for unknown reasons.

Answer 2

Bump the build number and resubmit your app. This is a TestFlight/iTunes Connect-side error that, as far as I can tell, we can do nothing about.

Update 12/7: The bug I filed on this (rdar://23296795) was recently returned to me as "We believe this issue has been addressed through changes on our side." – So if you're still seeing this error, please file another radar and let them know it's still not working.

Update 12/10: According to Remy in the comments below, it is still not fixed.

Answer 3

For future readers

This could be a Certificate / Provisioning profile issue.

I just had this issue after wiping my mac and reinstalling OS X (ie all my certificates and profiles was gone from my keychain), and I did the following to fix it:

Delete / Revoke any existing certificates and Prov. profiles. (In my case Xcode had tried to download the certificates for my old computer, and they somehow became invalid in doing so).

Then, in the following order:

• Create a new Development AND Distribution Certificate
• THEN create a Provisioning profile for Development AND Distribution

Xcode signs your app with your Distribution certificate when it builds it for TestFlight, or the app store for that matter. That's why it is important to have a Dist. Cert. when uploading to test flight even thought it's just for internal testing. I don't know if it matters wether you have a valid Dev. certificate and Prov. profile for test flight, but it doesn't harm to have it. You need it to build to your phone anyways

I hope this helps. ]

Answer 4

I hope this actually works for someone else. I was seeing the same result over and over again. I restarted my phone. I took my account off the Test Flight list and re-invited myself. Same result. 2 other people were able to install, but I wasn't. I furiously tapped "Install" several times as fast as I could, then tapped "Retry" when the alert box came up. Continued to tap "Install" over and over again, then "Retry". Install, Retry, Install, Retry. Then it finally started installing...

I wish I were making this up.

Answer 5

I've got this error many times, but I saw a really strange pattern and I have a pretty weird theory.

Next time, after you submit your app to Apple, don't submit it immediately for beta review. Download the app at least once with TestFlight on your iOS device as an internal tester. Do that before you submit the app for beta review and it should work.

Sounds crazy and I can't really confirm if downloading the app as an internal tester "triggers" anything, but it seems to be working for me that way. Could be a random coincidence though, would be interesting if someone can confirm/deny my theory.

Definitely one of the more annoying bugs of TestFlight right now. :/

Answer 6

Same error for me. The only thing that worked for me was to uninstall the TestFlight app and then reinstalling.

Answer 7

I had a previous version of this app with the same name. Just deleted it from my device and testflight installation worked.

Answer 8

I was able to fix this problem by removing the 0s from my build number as described here.

As funny as it sounds, TestFlight currently has a bug that prevents deployment if your buildnumber has a 0 in it.

Buildnumber 102 failed to install on all devices I tested it on, simply changing the buildnumber to 112 (nothing else changed!) and uploading it again fixed it immediately.

Answer 9

We had a user who had, for reasons only they know, disabled cellular access for the Testflight app . Later, when he'd also turned off Wifi (again, for reasons...) he was in a situation where Testflight had no connectivity.

The error he saw was "could not load apps". It was driving us crazy as our other users were able to install and run without issue!

Answer 10

I faced the same issue under the follow case: Created a Test users group in iTunes Connect even before the Build was approved (ie it was in "Waiting for Review" state). We did receive notifications from TestFlight, but when clicked on "View in TestFlight", received this error. I added the approved build to the Group and Resent the invites. This worked perfect for me.

Answer 11

I encountered the same issue. Not only it fails in TestFlight but also it is rejected by Apple Team in the submission process for not launching. I was able to solve this problem by renaming Project and Target names excluding wildcard characters.

The names were like following;

I spent almost two days to discover the issue. Hope it helps!