Never know which profile(s) combination to sign with

Question

I never know which profiles I am supposed to be signing a build and signing a release for ad-hoc distribution with.

I've tried signing the build with the ad-hoc distribution profile and then the package with the push profile but that didn't work, so just tried many combinations until I hit one that worked.

Yesterday after months of hassle-free operation regarding signing I had to re-install XCode after it kept crashing and then I could no longer sign for development on my own phone nor for ad-hoc distribution onto other's phones.

I tried dozens of combinations of different profiles until eventually I got an ad-hoc release that I could install on somebody else's phone, but then XCode crashed again and I've lost what that combination was, making me want to cry, and I don't want to go through that process of trying all possible combinations again.

Within XCode in the Code Signing Identity section I have the following choices: a) Apple Push Profile b) iOS Team Provisioning Profile c) NNN Development Profile, where NNN is the name of the project/product being developed d) iPhone Distribution Company Name which is described as an identity without provisioning profiles. e) ad hoc distribtion

Which of these 5 above should I be using to sign a build to run on my own device using XCode? Do I need to change it to ad-hoc distribtion when building to send a package to others to install via itunes?

Secondly, once I've built an archive and want to create an ad-hoc deployment to send it to testers for them to install via iTunes, there is the additional step of signing the built package, for this I am offered the following choices: 1) Apple Push Profile 2) NNN Development Profile 3) iOS Team provisioning Profile

Which of these 3 should be used to sign the ad-hoc deployment.

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

I have 4 provisioning profiles for my apps.

One is the iOS Team provisioning profile supplied by Xcode

The other 3 I've generated via the Apple iOS Provisioning Portal.

• 1 development profile that is general for my company:BlahBlah.com.myCompany.*
• 1 adhoc distribution profile that is also general for my company:differentBlaBlah.com.myCompany.*
• 1 Distirubution profile that is product-specific: BlahBlah.com.myCompany.NNN

When I test on my machine, I use the Xcode-generated one. When I run it on my devices, I use the dev. profile. When I build for distribution to testers, I use the adhoc. When I upload to iTunes, the 3rd.

No entitlements anywhere.

HTH!

Janene