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I'm attempting to migrate an Xcode project to another computer. It gives me the warning "Warning: unable to build chain to self-signed root for signer" and when it runs it crashes immediately similarly to what is shown in this Stack Overflow:

App working on simulator but not on iPhone( dyld`__abort_with_payload dyld`_dyld_start)

My issue seems similar to what is described on the Apple Developer Forums here: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/86161

and similar to what is described on this Stack Overflow: Xcode ios app development code signing

except the suggestions of deleting certificates and re-adding them, re-adding my account and restarting didn't seem to help. I have removed my developer cert for the second time and now I don't see it coming back, and I'm at a loss of knowing how to get it back since my dev portal doesn't appear to have a place to download it like it used to.

I've also tried deleting the derived data folder several times.

e: I've determined ANY project on this computer results in the same crash and warning.

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21 Answers 21

Reset to default
137

If none of the other solutions work, try adding the intermediate signing certificates to your system keychain. I found this while trying to manually create provisioning profile/certificates as nothing else was working - from the Create a New Certificate step of the New Provisioning Profile process on Apple Developer platform:

To use your certificates, you must have the intermediate signing certificate in your system keychain. This is automatically installed by Xcode. However, if you need to reinstall the intermediate signing certificate click the link below:

After downloading these two files and double-clicking them to automatically add to the system keychain, the automatic provisioning profile in xcode started working (I didn't need to complete the manual provisioning profile process, but that's where I found the links)

Edit: There are now 4 files listed there. I assume they should all be double-clicked into the system keychain.

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10 Comments

Thank you! For whatever reason, Xcode did not install the 02/20/2030 certificate, and that caused the signing to fail. After manually installing 02/20/2030 it worked. I did have 02/07/2023, but looks like you need the most recent one for brand new certificates.
Thank you so much, Im facing this problem for days. I had just one of this two certificates.
@RootFool this. My newly generated Mac App Distribution and Mac Installer Distribution certificates did require the new 2030 Worldwide Developer certificate to be installed as well. This link helped me to realize that I need the 2030 certificate event though I have the 2023 one: developer.apple.com/support/wwdr-intermediate-certificate
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! 3 days of anguish solved.
This worked for me! I also had to follow this tip to ensure it was installed to the "System" Keychain (Initially was seeing Error -25294) developer.apple.com/forums/thread/675290
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122

I had the same problem and fixed with below steps:

  1. Open Keychain Access
  2. Select login, and click Certificates
  3. Double click Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certificate Authority
  4. Expand the trust section, then next to "When using this certificate", change the setting from "Always Trust" to "Use System Defaults"
  5. Clean the build folder and run
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12 Comments

Perfect. It worked for me.
Thank you. For me, it was set to "Use System Defaults". So I changed it to "Always", closed the XCode, again set it to "Use System Defaults". These steps fixed the problem.
This comment worked for me
3a) look for the little blue plus on the Apple certificate; 4) Open trust section, change from "Always Trust" -> "Use Systems Default" ("set from A to B" is much clearer phrasing in my brain)
@MarjanBasiri comment solved for me, since the option was already "Use System Defaults"
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In my case the error was only resolved after I deleted Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority which expires in 2023 from both System and login keychains and imported the other certificate that is valid until 2030. It seems that codesign was picking the incorrect one when both were present in the keychain.

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"from both System and login keychains" <- System keychain was key point in my case
19

I could fix the issue by downloading a new certificate from here and installing it. Look at https://developer.apple.com/de/support/expiration/ for more detail.

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2 Comments

Kindly add context to any links so your Answer is self contained, meaning the answer needs to be here in the Answer itself. See "Provide context for links". It would be preferable if you could answer the Question in your own words here and link only as a reference. Can you add some of the details you refer to?
downloading above certificate from the link helped in my case as well.
9

@waaheeda's answer led me in the right direction to fix this.

I have a keychain in my repo which is used for signing on my CI. After renewing my iOS enterprise distribution certificate and provisioning profile and updating the keychain accordingly, my CI signing stopped working. Code signing worked locally on my own machine.

I suddenly stumbled upon this and found this part particular interesting:

Enterprise iOS Distribution Certificates generated after September 2, 2020 require the new intermediate certificate installed on any machines that will be code signing.

I therefore found the "Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Intermediate Certificate Expiration" in my local "login" keychain in Keychain Access and added it to the keychain in my repo, and it seems to have fixed the signing for now (and hopefully until 2030):

enter image description here

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7

I have been facing same issue for days now. Finally i solved it by just changing my root CA from Key Chain Access. View in System/ Login key chains. which certificate authority is being used as signer for your personal provisioning profile's certificate. Enter a valid CA certificate and you are good to go! Hope it helps. Ciao!

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5 Comments

Thank you. I forget how I finally resolved it, but I think it was a long period of time between the problem and coming up with a solution that not only would work in theory, but where my computer and Xcode were restarted several times. Sometimes it takes restarting Xcode to have everything snap into place as far as certificates and provisions goes. My certificate problem was certainly system-deep and required downloading the certificates from Apple.
Could you add step by step instructions for this @Euros?
@ChewieTheChorkie Can you please tell us the steps and elaborate more. I've tried everything today, but still unable to resolve this issue.
Hi @KiranJasvanee, I would love to help you, but I have not used Xcode in so long, I am a little foggy on the matter at hand. If you tried all the answers here, maybe start a new question, or post on the Apple Developer's forums.
Please provide steps.
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1.change the certificate trust: "Always Trust" ==> "Use System Defaults"

2.change "codesign" command ==> "sudo codesign" command

3.change the "Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certificate Authority" certificate in login and system items trust: "Always Trust" ==> "Use System Defaults"

worked for me when use codesign command in command line

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6

In the machine where you created the certificate

  1. Open keychain
  2. Look for "Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certificate Authority"
  3. Look at the column "Expires" and check apple.com/CertificateAuthority to see which has the same expiration

In your ci

  1. Install this certificate to your system keychain

    a. via fastlane

    import_certificate( certificate_path: "~/Downloads/AppleWWDRCAG3.cer" )

    b. via cli

    sudo security import ~/Downloads/AppleWWDRCAG3.cer \ -k /Library/Keychains/System.keychain \ -T /usr/bin/codesign \ -T /usr/bin/security \ -T /usr/bin/productbuild
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5

This is too late to answer , but if anybody still looking for solution on this thread --

this happens if you are installing certificate for the first time or installing certificate which is created on another machine

In your Xcode project go to signing capabilities enter correct bundle identifier, disable automatic signing , select appropriate profile / import / download profile

then you will find trust repair option below profile , tap on it tap on trust enter your login credentials

this will create and install following certificates

enter image description here

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1 Comment

Many above options (trust settings or root CA ) failed for me, but this one worked, since I transfer key and cert from another mac. Thanks.
3

1.open xcode-> Preferences-> Accounts

2.select you appleid and click on Manage Certificates

3.click + (Add) and select Apple Development

  1. Clean Build Folder and run project
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2

In my case I had an automatically signed project and my own developer certificate was not trusted (anymore) which was apparent in Keychain > login > certificates. On my own certificate I put Always trust in the Get Info popup.

After that I had to select again the "Automatically manage signing" in the Signing & Capabilities tab, which gave an error like "Repair trust settings". After clicking that it fixed the trust of my developer CA.

Also when it was again broken after this, I copied the G3 Apple Worldwide Developer Relations CA from the login keychain (default keychain) to the System Keychain (System).

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1

none of those actually worked for me. I had to delete the derived data; link, remove all the certificates and reinstall them, clean cache and had to reinstall pod files. After messing around for few hours I found a proper solution.

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1

On Xcode 13.1 and received this error when attempting to archive my app, despite it building fine on the simulator. I didn’t have to change anything with my certificates in the keychain, just cleaning the build folder worked for me.

  1. Open “Product” menu
  2. Select “Clean Build Folder”
  3. Build / Archive your app

I’ve seen some other answers reference which certificates they’ve had, so I’ll just add that I also have the 2030 “Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority” cert and the old one is still in my keychain as well, which I’ll probably need to delete at some point.

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0

In addition to the other answers, make sure that if you are sudoed to root, exit out before you try to codesign, so that you are signing as the login user. My codesign was failing when I forgot that I was running as root.

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0

It work for me:

macbook air,m1 2020

  1. delete old root CA(if existed): Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Certification Authority
  2. reinstall root CA from certificateauthority,and double click to intall.
  3. reinstall yourself cer. example: Apple Development: XXX Tang (9DHXXX87D)
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0

If anyone is here for Electron related signing related to Mac & Apple, something fixed it for me but I'm not sure what it was:

  • I had 2 Apple Worldwide certificates, deleted the one that expired the soonest
  • I gave permission to my dist/main file via chmod
  • I opened XCode and opened up another iOS project I had. I think this seems the likely fix as it probably updated my certificates

Then when I used electron-builder again, it worked

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0

If none of the suggested solutions worked (as in my case), make sure that you put the WWDR Intermediate Certificate into your System keychain, not in login.

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0

I've removed my apple id from XCode->Settings->Accounts and add it again, it solved my problem.

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0

I have tried a lot of methods, but still it does not work.

Finally, I found that it was because my local time do not match to the system time.

After change the time to the current time, it works!

Hope this is useful!

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0

Since this is the top result on Google, let me reorganize the explanation for clarity:

Key Findings:
After troubleshooting, I confirmed the core issue: ​Apple's developer certificates function as a certificate chain, not standalone files. The complete set must be properly installed for trust validation.

Steps to Fix:

  1. ​Download Apple's Root Certificates (e.g., G3, G6) from the official list:
    → Apple Certificate Authority Page

    • If signing requires a specific type (e.g., Developer ID -G1/-G2), locate and install the matching certificates from the right-side list.

  2. ​Critical Pre-Requisite:

    • Your personal/team certificates ​will not work until Apple’s root and intermediate certificates are installed system-wide.

    • Why "Always Trust" fails? → Missing root certificates break the trust chain, making manual trust settings ineffective.

  3. ​Final Verification:

    • After installing the root CA, ​reinstall your certificate.

    • Check the trust status under ​**"Use System Default"—it should now show ​"Trusted"** automatically.

This issue commonly blocks developers, and Apple’s documentation doesn’t emphasize the certificate chain dependency. By clarifying the workflow here, we save others hours of debugging.

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0

I'm using Mac OS 15 Sequoia

I struggled with this issue for at least a week. This was the problem, and this is how I solved it.

First, you need to install Apple's intermediate certificates. These are: G2, G3, G4 and G6

Certificates

https://www-apple-com.translate.goog/certificateauthority/

Download the certificates, those that appear in the image as system, include them as system and those that appear as trusted (those with the blue "plus") must be placed as trusted

enter image description here

Place them that way, don't forget any step and everything will work fine. :)

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