xcodebuild ios export archive fail on success build

Question

I am trying to build a complicated xcworkspace that contains 8 xcodeproj.

• Main project (target app, framework, app extension)
• Pods
• 6 cpp projects with one static library target each (these have dependencies with each other and added to the final project)

I can build the project via xcodebuild command. I am also able to Archive it, but I cannot export the IPA file, it always gets the following error:

2020-03-18 19:04:49.801 xcodebuild[28749:691158] [MT] IDEDistribution: -[IDEDistributionLogging _createLoggingBundleAtPath:]: Created bundle at path '/var/folders/vr/1fb5zcxd0gg92359ynn0r2gm0000gn/T/xxxxx_2020-03-18_19-04-49.800.xcdistributionlogs'.
2020-03-18 19:04:49.834 xcodebuild[28749:691158] [MT] IDEDistributionMethodManager: -[IDEDistributionMethodManager orderedDistributionMethodsForTask:archive:]: Error = Error Domain=IDEDistributionMethodManagerErrorDomain Code=2 "Unknown Distribution Error" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Unknown Distribution Error}
error: exportArchive: exportOptionsPlist error for key 'method': expected one of {}, but no value was provided

Error Domain=IDEFoundationErrorDomain Code=1 "exportOptionsPlist error for key 'method': expected one of {}, but no value was provided" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=exportOptionsPlist error for key 'method': expected one of {}, but no value was provided}

I also tried to use the XCode 10.3 (10G8) UI in order to perform the same actions. This results to the Organizer screen where I see the xcarchive erroneous located in a group "Other Items" and not "iOS Apps" as it should. Additionally, the option

• "Validate Content" is disabled.
• "Distribute Content" does not provide anything for iOS packing.

I have verified that my build commands are correct as the project was able to build with these in its previous state. I've tried changing static project libraries dependencies but when adding all dependencies to all items it ends with a build error of multiple symbols.

I suspect that something in the build settings, or library/header references is faulty, but I cannot really troubleshoot it.

Is there any way to get additional information for the problem?

Answer 1

I had the same issue. I had to reset my developer certificate on our build server to resolve this.

I hope this helps others.