How to Publish an iOS App Without a Mac

[@RigorMortisTortoise]

I'm honestly not sure if I would've been able to launch my game to iOS without this video, thank you so much!!

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I'm glad it was helpful!

[@ddkigaming6730]

Did you pay for the unity cloud services?

[@PolderKoning]

Thanks. Finally it worked. I googled for a few hours until I bumped into your video. Great!

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Awesome!

[@TheAbortionWhoLived]

Came back to tell you that thanks to your guide I was able to successfully push through a release of my language learning game/helper to help out over 20 of my students that use iOS only and many more to come when I decide to start advertising for the general public.
I owe you my gratitude for the time amd effort you've invested into this!

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Awesome!!! Thanks for sharing!

[@tonicatfelidae126]

thanks for letting me know his method worked!

[@traviswoolston8108]

@@tonicatfelidae126 Yes would love to hear more success stories to build my confidence to give it a shot myself lol

[@dustintaub]

You have so many videos that I watch thinking this doesn't apply yet but it will. Good stuff.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Thanks!

[@Mughzi]

Hey! I just wanted to comment and say thank you so much. I wouldn't have been able to do this myself with all of these little details here and there. Thank you for taking your time to explain everything in detail. This is a gem of a tutorial my good sir!

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad it was helpful.

[@justinkingdev]

Very helpful! Especially as a non mac user like myself

[@54egg]

Wow, thanks for video. Amazing how complex this process is. Would be nice if more of this process could be automated.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Indeed.

[@asdrasika]

Really really helpful. Thanks a lot.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Glad it was helpful!

[@roomi2222]

WoW. Will definately give it a try for the project I am currently working on as I am someone who can't afford expensive Mac machine which will become useless in less than 2 years because Apple keep updating XCode version required and Mac OS version to have that Xcode version and Mac machine version to have that Mac OS version ... hahaha.... vicious cycle and you my friend here has just unleashed a way out of this vicious cycle :) Many thanks.

[@notrafaelk]

Would you pay for me to build it on my mac?

[@traviswoolston8108]

I'm hesitant to try this but I applaud you for making this tutorial. It's baffling how obscure things become when you're trying to find resources on this. A real buzzkill if you don't realize this when you're about ready to show off your first mobile game. As a software engineer you'd think I'd jump into it but would love to hear from more people who've had success with it before I dive in..

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Yeah, definitely not a lot available for doing this without a Mac.

[@notrafaelk]

@@midniteoilsoftware would you pay for a service that promises to build on mac for you, if that existed?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

@@notrafaelk Only if this solution stopped working for me.

[@notrafaelk]

@@midniteoilsoftware just out of curiosity, what price point would you consider fair?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

@@notrafaelk Well, Unity's cloud build is pretty cheap. Building under macOS Ventura with a standard hardware configuration of 4 vCPU, 16GB memory and 400 GB disk is $0.07/build minutes. A premium configuration consisting of 6 vCPU, 30 GB memory and 1 TB disk is $0.25 / build min.

[@codetastisch]

Boy have you helped me right now. Wow! Thanks.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for the feedback.

[@codetastisch]

@@midniteoilsoftwareYou‘re welcome! I noticed that I keep getting build errors and it keeps failing to build even though building it locally works and runs fine. Is there any way to contact you to elaborate on the details maybe?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

@@codetastisch Sure, join my discord server (there is a link in the description) and you can post detailed questions there.

[@captainnoyaux]

Thanks a lot for the video ! The process is long and tedious I'll keep this video for the next time I have to do it

[@midniteoilsoftware]

You’re very welcome!

[@machapuis]

Great tutorial and great voice! You should do voice acting for animation!

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Thanks! I've not heard that before :)

[@daarond3313]

EXCELLENT VIDEO! I rarely comment, but this is really great stuff. My only issue was windows formatting on the bash file-- you may want to add a comment there to remind people to format as unix.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Hmmm, I never had an issue. Are you talking about line-endings?

[@captainnoyaux]

(I reposted my comment I got it on the wrong account)
If I'm correct for another game you just need to create the mobile provisioning profile and the unity cloud build configuration @ 8:39
Yep it worked ! Don't forget like me to add the post-build script in the unity cloud build (had it in my project only) so I had to rebuild but it worked perfectly, thanks a lot !

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Thanks!

[@dreamisover9813]

That's super useful!

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Glad to hear it!

[@recOndbz]

If someone is experiencing a problem with the "Unable to upload archive" log, one of the reasons could be the "Executable name" field that you configure in the target in Unity Cloud. The field name must be "build" or whatever you define in the path within the bash script.

[@orcslayer900]

do you know why i might be getting this issue? it doesnt seem to be able to even run the post-build.bash file at all
"/BUILD_PATH/illuminantinc.my-project.default-ios/./Assets/post-build.bash" "/BUILD_PATH/illuminantinc.my-project.default-ios/./temp20231229-4482-kmaqve" "/BUILD_PATH/illuminantinc.my-project.default-ios/.build/last/default-ios" ios
sh: /BUILD_PATH/illuminantinc.my-project.default-ios/./Assets/post-build.bash: /bin/bash^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

[@dmytrokrepkikh4644]

Faced with this issue. Can you explain what do you mean by "build".

[@recOndbz]

@@dmytrokrepkikh4644 In your .bash script, I noticed that in the video at 12:44, on the fourth line it ends with "/build.ipa". This "build" is the name of the file that you put in your target in Unity Cloud, more specifically in the "Executable name" field

[@dmytrokrepkikh4644]

​@@recOndbz, so for example, if my target name is MyGame I need to write in script MyGame.ipa?

[@machapuis]

I have this issue and the Executable name is "build" ... :(

[@programophy7390]

Man! You earned a subscriber. Get back to you after deployement

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Glad to hear it!

[@programophy7390]

@@midniteoilsoftware `block in exec_fastlane': Build Failure (RuntimeError)
I'm getting this error It's related to fastlane do you know any fix?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

@@programophy7390 sounds like a credentials/signing/authentication error

[@programophy7390]

​@@midniteoilsoftware I set the credentials properly also my environmental variables is also working. For information this is my second app, first one went successful with the same method

[@programophy7390]

@@midniteoilsoftware Here is the Update: Still getting the same errors but I see the build is uploaded on testfligh so that's not gonna matter I guess

[@paulligatto8476]

Thank you so much for that disambiguation. I'd been trying to accomplish this in various ways for weeks, and was just running into so many complications. Unity should have you do their official documentation (as opposed to the crazed psychopath sitting chained in a basement wearing clown makeup they have now).

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Thanks! Glad it was helpful.

[@dreamtoaster7037]

If you are struggling with the post-build script's authentication (an error you'll see in the build log), this is what fixed it for me... You need to use an app-specific password generated in apple's backend.

[@Parrexion]

Thank you. I was also stuck on that :)

[@machapuis]

So instead of the apple store connect password you put the app-specific password?

[@ddkigaming6730]

Hey, Can you help me out with this? I have added app-specific password for my apple id but still facing this issue. It will be a great help!

[@martalog74]

awesome tutorial!
Is using the cloud build and the git necessary to publish a game to the appstore without a mac?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Not necessarily. You need some kind of devops solution to build and sign the app. There is a 3rd party tool that will publish it to the App Store from Windows but the Unity Cloud build solution is much easier (and free)

[@GoodAUB]

Thank you very much for this video. this is amazing. although I am stuck at the uploading stage. where can I get a help with that?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Join my discord and post more detail about the issue you’re having and someone should be able to help you.

[@doublehitgames531]

amazing video. Do you have some for Google Play? to automaticaly build and upload too?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I do not I'm afraid. I've just been building and deploying to Google manually. Honestly, the only reason I automated the iOS build was because it was the only way I could do it without a Mac.

[@mythunary7888]

Very useful info. about the Unity portal... You don't NEED a Mac to deploy to Mac, but is it still a good idea to test on a Mac?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

If this was a Mac version you would be correct. The video is specifically about building iOS (e.g. iPhone/iPad) apps.

[@christianbalsero251]

Grateful about this tutorial, I can't afford a cloud Mac all the times. I just have a question. What if I've launched an app on ios but I want to create an update? Which step do I need to follow? Thanks.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Increase the build number in your Unity Build Settings, commit your changes to source control and kick off a build.

[@martalog74]

somehow in the part where you go through the adding the internal testers (24:00) I dont see my build in the "test flight" section (no builds at all even though I successfully have created a build through the unity cloud build and can see it appeared in the "app store" section (where we add the screenshots)). Did you skip some part how to make a build appear there in the test flight section? There is a box however in the "test flight" section offering me to "Upload your builds using one of several tools. See Upload Tools". I was assuming the build should already be uploaded by the unity cloud build at this point, or am I missing something? Thank you for your support!

[@midniteoilsoftware]

The build is automatically uploaded so you can ignore the "Upload your builds..." option.
I do remember there was a "manage compliance" link I had to click. It's possible I didn't cover that in the video.
Can you post a question on my discord with a screen shot of what you're seeing on the app store section?
discord.gg/wrdqXPtw9y

[@santiagocalderon6842]

Excellent video, I only have some question:
If i want to do all this process, I have to pay something to apple or is free?
And what if i want to visualize my app in my phone before uploading to the appstore, i have to do all this stuff ?
Thank you

[@midniteoilsoftware]

An Apple Developer account is $99/year.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

You can deploy your app to your iPhone using iTunes without publishing to the App Store.

[@mastreo90]

Hi. This seems to be a great solution. Thank you for this. I am trying out this process and want to know if i can do this process with Free apple developer account before buying the paid developer account?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I would imagine so. I don't have a free account so can't say for sure. I just know you need and Apple Developer Account. I would assume whether you got it for free shouldn't matter but don't hold me to it :)

[@mastreo90]

@@midniteoilsoftware ok. Thank you. I will try it out.

[@chelseaphilpott8315]

Did you manage to do this with a free developer account? I'm also trying to do this as i don't know if my "idea" will work yet so i don't want to part with money if it's not going to work haha!

[@mastreo90]

@@chelseaphilpott8315 nope. i didnt proceed ahead as you need atleast one apple device to create free developer account with your apple id. unfortunately i don't have any apple device.

[@garen591]

Great tutorial! Is building on Unity Cloud free if i were to use it for building IOS apps? Cause i don't see any fees specified in your tutorial

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Unity’s services have a pretty generous free tier. I think building for iOS may have changed recently to use Mac hardware and there may be a very small fee depending on usage but I’ve never incurred any build fees. Of course you have to pay Apple their developer fee every year.

[@malwida1022]

Thanks for the video. How do I go about this when it’s my unity project but I want somebody else to publish it on their App Store account?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I've never been in that situation. If you wanted to build it uses your Unity account then I think you'd have to get them to enter their iTunes credentials into the build configuration.

[@malwida1022]

@@midniteoilsoftwarethanks for the fast reply. Is it possible to build without providing the credentials and add them later in AppStore Connect? Or these have to get built into the ipa file when I run the cloud build?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

The credentials are needed to send the build to App Store Connect (which my build does in the post-build step using a bash script). In the past, I have used a third-party tool, called AppUploader, which can be used to upload a signed build to App Store Connect.
www.applicationloader.net/
@@malwida1022

[@recOndbz]

Friend, first of all, thank you very much for this video. I'm in a project where most of the things were already configured. I needed more help in the part where when generating a build in Unity Cloud it goes directly to my builds in Test Flight. I just have a problem, in the "Environment variables" section, the ITUNES_PASSWORD key, can I generate it in the "Keys" section in the developer section on the apple website? If not, how can I obtain this key?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

For me it’s my iTunes password. I think should be the same credentials you use to log into test flight.

[@recOndbz]

@@midniteoilsoftware Okay, I managed to solve this part. You can generate a key just for this type of access, configuring it in your Apple Connect account. Now I have another problem, the path of my bash file that you made available apparently takes the wrong credential path (an old credential, not the one configured in Unity Cloud). Can you tell me why this could be happening? In Player Settings the bundler identifier is configured with the correct certificate. Here is the path that appears:
'/BUILD_PATH/{here}/.build/last/release-ios/build.ipa' cannot be found. (-43). Where I put "here" is getting an old ID, not the one I put in the build settings in Unity Cloud.

[@martalog74]

What is the PEM pass phrase? Where should I get it? Is like another password that it asks me to create at this step?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

It’s a password you create. I use the same one throughout the process.

[@ayitiannfelansanm]

Hello there great tutorial can you done step-by-step how to build and publish an iOS App to the the Apple App Store without access to a Mac. for UE5 please \\\ Thanks

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Thanks. I have never published a game developed with UE5 so I'm afraid I won't be of much help there.

[@hatiko8227]

LoL, I'm doing it on April 19 like the author.

[@ddkigaming6730]

Ive followed all of your process, But im stuck in unity cloud payment. I just want to publish it to IOS and it's saying to subscribe package to make a build

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Yeah, Mac builds are no longer free but they're only 7 cents per build minute.
cloud.unity.com/home/organizations/18966651098468/devops/about

[@maxbennett1765]

Hey I'm really stumped by this tutorial. I'm sure I'm making an idiotic mistake, but I've gotten as far as the unity cloud set up, but my unity cloud portal looks fundimentaly different, and I can't find any of the options shown in the video. has there been a major update in the past year? if so, is there an updated guide that I could be pointed to?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I wouldn't be surprised if some things have change. Log into my discord, and post a screenshot of what your seeing and explain what part of the tutorial you're stuck at.

[@maxbennett1765]

@@midniteoilsoftware Thank you I will do that!

[@Hikaru97Kurosaki]

Hi, thank you for this awesome video. I have followed each step by step, and the build is successful, but I keep getting this error on the upload part:
Error: Error uploading '/BUILD_PATH/something.default-ios/.build/last/default-ios/build.ipa'.
Error: Unable to upload archive. Failed to get authorization for username 'my email here' and password.
Upload IPA to Appstore Connect failed

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Is the email address and password the same one you use for iTunes?

[@Hikaru97Kurosaki]

@@midniteoilsoftware Thank you for the reply. I don't have iTunes, do I need to have it?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

If you don't have iTunes, what ID and Password are you using? You need an Apple Account to be able to publish games on Apple.

[@Hikaru97Kurosaki]

@@midniteoilsoftware Sorry, I got a bit confused. Yes, I have Apple developer account. But I am not sure about iTunes.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

​@@Hikaru97Kurosaki well for me, the credentials I use to log into App Store Connect are the same I use for iTunes. Are you able to log into appsstoreconnect.apple.com?

[@punkouter23]

i already bought a mac to do this :( i guess il llearn both ways..

[@punkouter23]

after watching.. im leaning towards sticking with the mac.. I think the unity cloud thing costs money and it seems like so much extra to do .. and I do already have the mac so I just need to use onedrive to sync it with the built xcode project and go from there.. having it set up to just build when checking in the from the pc is nice though... maybe someone will create a tool to make this all simple.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

The Unity Cloud Build is free. I am still on the personal free plan and never paid a penny. But if you have a mac and are comfortable using it then by all means keep using it. My video was mainly for those that don't have the option of using a Mac.

[@punkouter23]

i just moved to godot :-0 @@midniteoilsoftware

[@janruretief4329]

I got to the point where the build succeeds, but the build doesn't appear in App Store Connect. The log also shows that the bash script ran successfully. There is no build at TestFlight or Distribution tho. I don't know if it takes time to show but the activity isn't even showing that it is processing to the App Store Connect.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Hmmm, I have not encountered. You might need to reach out to Apple about that.

[@janruretief4329]

@@midniteoilsoftware I just saw in the log it failed Uploading to Appstore Connect, it gives me this error:
"[error] shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory"
My post-build script is set as Assets/post-build.bash but it doesnt seem to work?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

@@janruretief4329 These type of questions are best posted in my discord channel but I would look at the actual paths shown in the log and confirm that the file structure is correct.

[@doublehitgames531]

My history build every return fail with error: unrecognized project! Please check your app configuration - if this is a Unity application, We expect your "Project Subdirectory" ... Im looking for some reason for that but i cant found. My Folders assets and ProjectSettings is not in subfolders. All there i root folder, so why this error? Im missing something here? Could help me Midnith? Oh, im using (Unity version Control), im build dashboard i have this options, so i keep using this. Mybe is here the proplem? some native unity problem ?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

At what stage is the build failing? Is it failing to get the code from version control?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I did some digging. Post this question on my discord server and I'll try to provide some assistance there.

[@doublehitgames531]

@@midniteoilsoftware Ty for attention Creg. I wil do.

[@dovekie3437]

I am getting this same error.

[@doublehitgames531]

@@dovekie3437 I simply asked for a clean build and it worked. I think it was some cache

[@mike73miller]

I used VMware to create a virtual mac to upload my app.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I wouldn’t broadcast that publicly if I were you. Installing MacOS on non-Apple hardware contravenes the Apple EULA.

[@zanyarkamaran7436]

does Apple reject an App that published to the App Store using VM Machine?@@midniteoilsoftware

[@test-dj3js]

i heard this will only work if you if you have pro or plus unity licence.. is this true?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Not at all. I have the free tier and have never accrued any costs for this.

[@Noir-Road]

@@midniteoilsoftware So is unity cloud free?
I understand the app developer have a cost of 99$. Not sure about unity cloud tho

[@midniteoilsoftware]

It might as well be. I've only been charged $0.08 for the enter year for DevOps storage.
unity.com/products/unity-devops#pricing

[@wesher]

I keep getting "unrecognized project Please check app configuration" error

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Join my discord server and post a more detailed description of where you're encountering that error.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

But I suspect the issue is around the name of your project folder. Most git repos replace spaces with hyphens. I think casing matters too.

[@test-dj3js]

i couldnt even do step 1.. i feel so useless. my windows downloaded a zip file and not an openssl installer. sigh.. so i cant even get to see the bin directory in there to paste my environment path like his

[@midniteoilsoftware]

did you unzip the zip file you downloaded to a folder?

[@christianbalsero251]

Hi, thanks for your tutorial. I'm actually stuck on the generate key on CMS, I entered to my folder and I've pasted "openssl genrsa -out kinesis.key 2048" but CMD keeps showing that Openssl is not a valid command. Thanks in advance.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Did you follow the steps to download and install openssl? You need to either make sure it's in your execution path or provide the full path on the command-line when you enter the command.

[@christianbalsero251]

@@midniteoilsoftwareUPDATE: I found the Path entry on environment variables.
I couldn't install from the Tar.gz. didn't find any executable. Only a file named config, but Windows wasn't able to open it. Then I find an openssl.exe on another web.

[@ErezShahaf]

Hey, thanks for making this video.
I am getting the following error when the post-build starts running:
Uploading IPA to Appstore Connect...
[error] 2023-09-21 10:48:20.464 *** Error: /APPLICATION_PATH/Xcode13_4_1.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/ipatool, terminated with status: 1
[error] [warning] 2023-09-21 10:48:20.465 *** Error: /APPLICATION_PATH/Xcode13_4_1.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/ipatool (1): /APPLICATION_PATH/Xcode13_4_1.app/Contents/Developer/usr/bin/ipatool:2245: warning: statement not reached
Any idea what may cause it?

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I have not seen that before? Was that in Unity Cloud Build? I would probably contact Unity support and send them the build logs.

[@AwesomeTutes]

I am stuck in this sttep 3:02 openssl req -newkey rsa:2048... When I enter that command I'm getting this output
req: Use -help for summary. Any help

[@midniteoilsoftware]

Make sure your command looks like exactly like this (except replace mykey with your key name)
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout mykey.key -out mykey.csr

[@midniteoilsoftware]

The really important thing is to make sure that the -newkey -keyout and -out have hyphens in front of them. In your line I see it's missing. I thing the text file I put on github was wrong although I typed it correctly on the video. I will fix it asap.
Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

[@midniteoilsoftware]

I've fixed the typo in the file on github.

[@remijoel1448]

Is unity cloud build free?

[@veiterio]

Yes, up to the consumption of certain limits they have specified per month.