การตั้งค่าบัญชี Apple Developer และใบรับรอง

To distribute an iOS app on the App Store, you need an Apple Developer Program membership, which costs $99 per year. This grants you access to App Store Connect (to manage your listings and builds), the Developer Portal (to manage certificates and devices), and the ability to distribute apps to the public. Without membership, you can only run apps on your own registered devices.

An App ID (also called a Bundle ID) uniquely identifies your app in Apple's ecosystem. It follows reverse-domain notation: com.yourcompany.appname. You register it in the Developer Portal under Certificates, Identifiers and Profiles > Identifiers. The Bundle ID must match the ios.bundleIdentifier value in your app.json exactly — a mismatch prevents the app from being signed and submitted.

Apple uses two types of signing certificates: a Development certificate for running apps on test devices during development, and a Distribution certificate for builds submitted to TestFlight and the App Store. Each developer can have one distribution certificate at a time. The certificate proves the code came from you and was not tampered with. Certificates are linked to your Apple ID and stored in macOS Keychain.

To get a distribution certificate, you first generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) using Keychain Access on your Mac. Open Keychain Access, choose Certificate Assistant > Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority, fill in your email and Common Name, save the CSR file to disk. Then upload this CSR in the Developer Portal to receive your signed certificate.

After Apple approves your CSR, download the .cer file and double-click it on macOS to install it into your Keychain. Verify it appears under My Certificates in Keychain Access. The certificate is only valid on the machine that generated the original CSR (because the private key pair lives in that Keychain). To sign on a different machine, export the certificate with its private key as a .p12 file.

A provisioning profile links your App ID, your distribution certificate, and (for development profiles) specific device UDIDs. Apple requires a valid provisioning profile for every build. For App Store distribution use an App Store Distribution provisioning profile. Create it in the Developer Portal under Profiles, select your App ID and certificate, and download the .mobileprovision file.

Managing certificates and provisioning profiles manually is error-prone. EAS Build (Expo Application Services) can handle this automatically. Run eas credentials and EAS generates the CSR, creates the certificate through the Apple API, generates a provisioning profile, and stores everything securely in its credentials store. You never need to touch Keychain or the Developer Portal manually.

The eas.json file at the project root configures EAS Build profiles. The production profile is what you use for App Store builds. Set distribution to 'store' so EAS uses App Store distribution signing. The credentialsSource of 'remote' means EAS fetches certs from its secure cloud storage automatically.

Apple requires two-factor authentication (2FA) on all Apple Developer accounts. When EAS needs to perform credential operations, it authenticates with Apple's API on your behalf. You must provide your Apple ID and password plus an app-specific password (generated at appleid.apple.com) for automated tools, because Apple does not allow your main account password in CI environments.

In a company, typically one person (the Account Holder) owns the Apple Developer account. Other developers are invited as Admin or App Manager roles in App Store Connect. Distribution certificates are tied to the Account Holder or an Admin. Using EAS Build means the certificate is stored in EAS's secure store and all team members can trigger builds without needing the private key on their personal Mac.

Apple distribution certificates are valid for one year. When a certificate expires, you cannot create new App Store builds until you renew it — but existing builds in the store continue to work fine. EAS Build notifies you before expiry and can auto-renew. If you manage certificates manually, set a calendar reminder 30 days before expiry. Revoking a certificate invalidates all provisioning profiles that reference it.

Test your understanding of React Native Mobile Development concepts from this lesson.

In this lesson you learned: how to register an App ID in the Apple Developer Portal, how to generate a CSR and obtain a distribution certificate, and how provisioning profiles link the App ID and certificate for App Store builds. You also saw how EAS Build automates credential management so you rarely need to handle certificates manually. Next up we configure signing specifically with EAS Build.