Verifying assets with the iTunes Store… solved

Verifying

Your mileage may vary with this post, but in my case, I was chasing my tail for some time while finally coming to a solution.

At work, I generally author all kinds of prototypes. Sometimes I use Xcode and author iOS applications with interesting levels of interaction and communication. In these cases, I often need to share my work with a designer who lives several time zones away from me. Instead of him installing Xcode and building to his own devices while utilizing source control, I can swing a binary his way using TestFlight. This works pretty well. Until recently.

I would archive my project and attempt to upload it to App Store Connect so I could assign it to the designer and they would be able to install directly from TestFlight on their device.

This time the upload stuck at “Verifying assets with the iTunes Store…”

Googling for answers, I came across a lot of chatter about getting off a corporate network because of potential port blockage that would allow the upload to complete. That did not work for me. I tethered to my iPhone X, public Wi-Fi outside my work LAN, etc. Those did not work. My upload remained stalled at the same place each and every time. I restarted my laptop. No difference.

I then did the following which actually told me what was going on:

  1. Create an Archive in Xcode of my project.
  2. Export the archive to my desktop instead of uploading to the iTunes Store. Saved to my desktop.
  3. From Xcode, I launched the Application Loader. Selected the .ipa generated in step 2 above.
  4. After getting stuck during the same activity, AL actually gave me a bunch of error feedback. I forgot to apply artwork for all of my application’s icons. Oops. Without using AL, I never would have known this.
  5. I assigned all the icon images in the project – then tried to upload a new archive from Xcode.
  6. It was stuck yet again. No idea why.
  7. I took that new archive, exported again to my desktop. Used AL to upload the newly created .ipa to the iTunes Store.
  8. This worked quickly and just fine!

I had become so used to authoring my own prototypes (apps) without worrying about icons for TestFlight that I simply didn’t include them. I spent a few hours trying to solve the problem. It seems there is still some sort of thing preventing me from uploading an archive directly through Xcode – I still needed to use Application Loader. However, I was able to get the binary uploaded, and after about 10 minutes it was processed and ready for TestFlight activity.

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