Hi, and thanks for excellent stuff. I’m quite an experienced programmer (at least counted in years), though new to this environment. I’ve done the 14 day challenge and found it a breeze.
There’s one aspect I’ve found surprisingly little info about, here and anywhere: How to actually Build the app (whether I’m a registered developer or not) and get it working on iPhones, iPads and even plain computers. Your courses are super detailed about everything else, but hardly mention the last crucial steps for anyone not content with running their apps within Xcode. Am I looking in the wrong places?
This is a video Chris Ching recorded in 2020 on how to submit your App to the App Store.
That seems to be an excellent tutorial on how to provide the App Store people with what they need. I am looking for something simpler (?): A working executable which doesn’t involve the App Store. Is that an exotic wish?
Using the War Challenge (which works perfectly in Xcode simulations), I’ve set the target platform (my iPad), went through Project > Build, got a War Challenge app (fished it out of some obscure folder with Show Build Folder in Finder), got it to the iPad, failed to put the app where all the other apps are, and failed to get it running; trying to exectute it from the Files app, I get an otherwise blank screen with “War Challenge – app – 1.2 MB”.
I have of course read what I assume are the pertaining bits in the Xcode documentation.
You cannot circumvent the App Store in order to have your App on your real device.
You can build the App directly to your device by simply attaching the device to your Mac and choosing it as the destination rather than choosing a simulator BUT if you do not have a paid Apple Developer account you are very restricted in being able to place Apps on a real device. They only work for a short period of time.
Even with a paid Apple Developer account your App will expire on your real device after 12 months and you will have to reload it.
If you want your App to be on your device forever then you have to either get it approved through the App Store process or reload it from Xcode each year when it expires.
When you think about it carefully why would Apple give you access to Xcode for free and then allow you to place Apps on your real device as you please? The $99US per year Developer Account subscription is reasonable really given that Xcode is free.
OK, that’s how it works. Thanks!
