How to Publish an App to the App Store

Certificates, provisioning, review - the complete guide to surviving the App Store process.

App Store publishing involves more moving parts than any other deployment process in software development: certificates provisioning profiles App Store Connect configuration metadata requirements and a review process that can reject your app for reasons you didn't anticipate. This guide covers the complete process.

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The Certificate and Provisioning Profile System Explained

Apple's signing system confuses every developer the first time. The core concept: a certificate proves the developer's identity a provisioning profile links the certificate to a specific app and allowed devices and the entitlements declare what capabilities the app uses. For distribution: you need a Distribution Certificate an App Store Distribution provisioning profile and properly configured entitlements for any capabilities (push notifications in-app purchases HealthKit etc.) in both the profile and Xcode.

At Valletta Software, we focus on:

Apple Developer account: $99/year required before any of this - set up early

Distribution certificate: one per team stored in Keychain - back it up losing it is painful

App ID: register in the Developer Portal enable entitlements that match your code

Provisioning profile: Distribution type linked to your App ID and certificate

App Store Connect: create the app record configure pricing territories age rating

Metadata: screenshots for every device size (iPhone 6.5in 5.5in iPad) - App Store Connect validates dimensions

Privacy manifest: required since Spring 2024 for any app using third-party SDKs

Common App Store Rejection Reasons (And How to Avoid Them)

Most rejections are preventable. These are the most frequent.

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Guideline 2.1 App Completeness: demo content placeholder text non-functional features

Guideline 4.0 Design: native UI expected web wrappers without native value rejected

Guideline 5.1.1 Data Collection: missing privacy policy undeclared data collection

Guideline 3.1.1 In-App Purchase: physical goods OK via payment links digital goods require IAP

Performance: crashes on review device - test on the oldest supported OS version

Privacy manifest: missing required keys for SDKs using required reason APIs

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How to Publish an App to the App Store - With Engineers Who've Done It Before

Our iOS engineers handle the complete App Store publishing process: certificates provisioning App Store Connect configuration privacy manifests and pre-submission review checklist.

Our engineers are trained in today's most powerful tools - Copilot, Claude, Cursor, and AI-assisted tooling - and use them daily to move faster without cutting corners.

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Our iOS engineers handle the complete App Store publishing process: certificates, provisioning profiles, App Store Connect configuration, privacy manifests, and pre-submission review checklist.

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