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Anyone know if I can I legitamately make and submit iPhone builds off a macosx VM?



Technically, yes probably. You’ll be breaking Apple’s ToS though, so depends how big of a fish you are as to whether Apple cares.


I don't think you can. All virtualized MacOS machines, iirc, can't fully install the tools necessary to build software for MacOS. For example, I don't believe you will ever be able to sign and staple the app.

I would really love to have someone prove me wrong on this thread but I've never found a solution other than building on MacOS hardware, which is such a pain to maintain.

I have multiple old MacOS machines that I keep in a stable state just so I can be sure I'll be able to build our app. I'm terrified of failure or just clicking the wrong update button.


You can run codesign just fine in a VM.


I really appreciate your comment, I'm hoping I am wrong about my experiences!

But, this is the issue I believe:

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/09/15/limitations-on-macos-virt...

(or, the original is here: https://eclecticlight.co/2023/12/26/when-macos-wont-work-wit...)

You cannot login using AppleID. If you can't do that, aren't you prevented from basically doing any kind of stapling and/or retrieving certificates for signing?

I would LOVE to be wrong about this. You've done that?


This is only true for products based on the Virtualization framework. Intel “Macs” can sign in just fine. (Also, I think you can authenticate things with an API key these days rather than your credentials?)


Meaning, Intel vms? This is great. I'll check it out.


Yep. Give it a try!


How will they know?




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