iOS signing certificate: what to do after the purchase

Your purchase gives you two files and a password. On their own they install nothing — they are used to sign an app, and only a signed app installs on your iPhone. Here is how to do it.

What came with the purchase

The files are in your account, on the key card. Download them separately or as one archive.

.p12The signing container. It holds the certificate and the private key, which is why it is password-protected.
.mobileprovisionThe provisioning profile. It records your device — the certificate only works on that one.
PasswordThe password for the .p12. A signing app asks for it when it imports the certificate.

The short way — let us sign it

No computer and no third-party tools: everything happens on the key page, including from your phone.

  1. Open your account, go to My keys and tap the certificate.
  2. In the “Sign an app” block choose the .ipa file — the app you want to install.
  3. Wait for the signing to finish. Large apps take a few minutes.
  4. Tap “Install on device” from your iPhone, or point its camera at the QR code next to it. The link only works from the device itself.
Go to my keys
Why the iPhone says the password is wrong

If you open the .mobileprovision on the phone itself, iOS offers to install a profile and asks for a password. That is the profile password, not the certificate one — we do not have it, and ours does not fit there. The refusal does not mean anything is wrong with your purchase.

The password from the key card is only for the moment a signing app asks for the certificate password while importing the .p12. It is not entered anywhere else.

If you sign it yourself

The order is the same in any iOS signing app — ESign, for example. Only the button names differ.

  1. Download the archive with both files and the notes from your account.
  2. Open the archive on your iPhone and send it to the signing app via Share. Or import the .p12 and the .mobileprovision by hand in its certificates section.
  3. When the app asks for the certificate password, enter the password from the key card.
  4. Pick the .ipa file, select the imported certificate and sign. The app then installs from the signing app itself.

How long this all works

A signed app lives exactly as long as the certificate is valid — the date is on the key card. Once it passes, the app stops launching and has to be signed again with a new certificate.

Sometimes Apple revokes a certificate, and apps signed with it stop opening before that date. This is not a broken app or a failed install: a new certificate is needed.

If something did not work

Write to us — we will walk you through it and find where exactly it got stuck. Support