iOS App Beta Distribution (large scale)

Question

I am developing an iOS app of which my clients would like roughly 50 people to beta test. However, I don't want to have to keep adding UDIDs to my developer portal account and to generate a new provisioning profile each time. Is there a way in which I can distribute the beta without having to go through the aforementioned painful process of adding a new user? I'm thinking something automatic!

Look forward to hearing your responses!

Answer 1

Using a standard individual Developer enrollment, testing any app on stock OS iOS devices requires generating profiles with each device's UDID. No exceptions.

So you have to keep adding UDIDs to your developer portal (or let testflight gather them for you), or tell the client no more. (I would consider charging the client a sufficiently large additional amount for each extra device to be added after the initial batch, that you will become happy to do so, instead of it being a "painful" task.)

The Enterprise program can only be used for employees of the enrolled developer, not clients or customers. If your client has a D&B rating, then they might be able to enroll themselves in this program to allow distribution to their employees without gathering UDIDs.

Answer 2

The developer portal has an option in which you upload a list of your user's UDIDs (look in the device tab and click "Upload file"). Just prepare your beta user's UDIDs and upload once, then you can just generate an ad hoc profile once and wirelessly distribute this.

Note the file format should be (tab delimited):

device_id_hex_40_chars    description_text
...                       ...

The first line of the file is ignored, so you can add a header.

Answer 3

If you're willing to pay the $299, then you can join the iOS Enterprise Developer program and distribute applications using iOS Enterprise distribution. This lets you distribute to an unlimited number of users.

https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/

Otherwise I'd suggest Testflight.