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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?

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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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    Please elaborate on point 4. How can one make updates to a published App Store app after the distribution certificate has expired? The only way to make an update is to submit a new binary, so don't we need to sign that binary with the distribution certificate?
    – ArrowCase
    Commented Jan 30, 2018 at 14:09
  • As @ArrowCase I also believe point 4 is not entirely correct.
    – Coch3
    Commented May 18, 2018 at 14:40
  • But what happens when FairPlay Streaming certificate expires?
    – sabiland
    Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 7:40
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    I think, what @pjc90 meant on point 4 is, revoking a certificate will not affect the user(who is running on the older versions)'s sability to update existing apps regardless of whether they are AppStore or in-house apps.
    – Ashok
    Commented Jun 13, 2019 at 0:38

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