iOS Enterprise Distribution (Ad Hoc) Provisioning Profile

Question

If I create a Distribution Provisioning Profile, why can I associate just one certificate with that? If I create a Development Provisioning Profile, I can associate multiple/all certificates in the iOS Dev Center.

The latter is handy because it means I can make use of existing Provisioning Profiles by just adding a new certificate to that profile. However, if I need to distribute my app on an Ad Hoc basis, I have to create a new Distribution Certificate in KeyChain, and then a new Distribution Provisioning Profile.

Is there an explanation behind this? I hope what I said makes sense!

Answer 1

Development provisioning profiles have multiple certificates to allow multiple developers within your organisation to build and collaborate on the same app.

Distribution profiles only have one certificate because distribution builds are from your organisation, of which there is only one.

You only need to create the Distribution Certificate once per year. You can and probably should use the same distribution certificate to generate Ad Hoc provisioning profiles for multiple apps and also for AppStore provisioning profiles.