IOS – What happens when a distribution certificate expires or revoked

app-store-connectcertificateios-appstore

My app is already in App Store. Now my distribution certificate is expired. I know my app in App Store will continue running, but my questions are:

  1. If now I have a bug fix in my app, does it mean I am not able to submit the updated app to App Store since my distribution certificate expired?

  2. If I renew the distribution certificate, my understanding is that it is identical as revoke the distribution certificate and create a new distribution certificate, am I right?

  3. If the answer to my 2nd question is "Yes", does it mean in future when I see my distribution certificate is expiring soon, I just revoke it and create a new one for existing app in App Store, am I right?

Best Answer

To answer your questions:

  1. Yes
  2. Yes
  3. Yes

 

When revoking a distribution certificate the below scenarios will occur for your users:

  1. When you revoke a certificate that means that any app that is not deployed onto a device (not hosted by AppStore) will no longer be valid. Existing users can continue to use the app.
  2. When you revoke a certificate and your App is being hosted on the AppStore; users that have already installed the app will not be affected. New users that go to install the app will not be affected.
  3. When you revoke a certificate and your App is being hosted in-house (internally) and users download it via OTA; users that have already installed the app will not be affected. New users that go to install the app will not be able to install it. Please note this is based off of behavior we have experienced from Apple.
  4. Revoking a certificate will not affect the ability to update existing apps regardless of whether they are AppStore or in-house apps.

Please note that this has been the behavior observed from working with Apple recently and if any updates were made on Apple's end than this is subject to change.

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