# Free ios deployment **URL:** \ **Category:** iOS\ **Created:** [May 5, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245 "2025-05-05T19:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/1 "2025-05-05T19:28:21Z")
So I’ve coded and run my ios app on the simulator and now want to get it to my phone and I’m at a loss. I have purchased the IOS Xojo license and clicked build. I can’t seem to figure out how to get it to my phone through Xcode. It can see my phone and I supposedly created a certificate. Does anyone have recent instructions on how to do this as all the ones I’ve found don’t match what I see on my screen. I don’t want it on the app store so would rather not pay extra for app developer license. Thanks Sharon ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/anthony_g_cyphers/32/16862_2.png) [@Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Anthony_G_Cyphers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/2 "2025-05-05T19:59:29Z")
I’ve not tried this myself, and the article in the docs is three years old so your mileage may vary, but it’s probably worth a shot. [Deploy to device with free xcode provisioning profile](https://documentation.xojo.com/versions/2022r1/topics/application_deployment/mobile/deploy_to_device_with_free_xcode_provisioning_profile.html) If that doesn’t work, I think you’d need to pay the $99/yr and use Ad-Hoc Distribution or TestFlight. ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/3 "2025-05-05T20:00:51Z")
yeah I tried that but didn’t get very far… ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/anthony_g_cyphers/32/16862_2.png) [@Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Anthony_G_Cyphers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/4 "2025-05-05T20:02:01Z")
Unfortunately, it’s Apple’s playground and we just get to play in it when and how they let us. I have my own horror stories about the Apple’s policies, but you’re not here for that. I’m afraid your best bet is to toss that $99 at them and use one of the alternative methods I mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/rick_araujo/32/251_2.png) [@Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Rick_Araujo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/5 "2025-05-05T20:12:43Z")
They say it is unnecessary for personal use, but you need some personal tuning… > **[Do I have to be a paid developer t… | Apple Developer Forums](https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/705932)** ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/anthony_g_cyphers/32/16862_2.png) [@Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Anthony_G_Cyphers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/6 "2025-05-05T20:13:27Z")
Isn’t that link for Mac apps and the OP is asking about iOS? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/rick_araujo/32/251_2.png) [@Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Rick_Araujo)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/7 "2025-05-05T20:20:16Z")
You are correct. I didn’t think the process and the account abilities would care about the final device, so I didn’t observe that. ---
**Author:** ![Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/anthony_g_cyphers/32/16862_2.png) [@Anthony\_G\_Cyphers](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Anthony_G_Cyphers)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/8 "2025-05-05T20:35:54Z")
Distribution of iOS apps is very different from macOS apps. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_O](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/greg_o/32/22785_2.png) [@Greg\_O](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Greg_O)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 6:29am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/9 "2025-05-06T06:29:08Z")
While I’ve not tried those instructions, they were written before you needed to put your device into Developer Mode for any of that to work. @Sharon_Dankwardt - it’s important to note that Developer Mode turns off some of the security protocols that are present on a normal users device. Usually developers have dedicated devices just for testing purposes and then later use TestFlight for installing on non-developer devices later, as Anthony suggested above. I think you’re going to find that for iOS development, there’s just no way to get away from having Xcode on your machine and having an Apple Developer Account so you can access all of the tools, certificates and profiles you need to be successful. ---
**Author:** ![Jean-Yves\_Pochez](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/jean-yves_pochez/32/21769_2.png) [@Jean-Yves\_Pochez](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Jean-Yves_Pochez)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/10 "2025-05-06T12:45:33Z")
and if I remember correctlyn once you have the app on your ios device, it’s here max for a week ! ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/11 "2025-05-06T14:40:43Z")
I’m in Developer mode. Is there a way to test it on the actual dev ice without pay the developer fee. I’d like to make sure it works before I put more money into app just for me 🙂 I’ve seen some links that indicate this but haven’t been able to get it to actually run on my phone ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/rick_araujo/32/251_2.png) [@Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Rick_Araujo)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/12 "2025-05-06T17:35:01Z")
> [@Jean-Yves\_Pochez](#): > > once you have the app on your ios device, it’s here max for a week ! > [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](#): > > Is there a way to test it on the actual device without pay the developer fee. I’ve saw a guy doing it, needed to create a “Solo Team” and Apple sets the expiration to 6 days. So, to test yes, to use no. Differently of Android, in iOS you can’t build free apps for yourself, you really must to pay as any Pro does. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_O](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/greg_o/32/22785_2.png) [@Greg\_O](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Greg_O)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/13 "2025-05-07T12:25:39Z")
It looks like you can but it’s going to involve using Xcode, as it sounds like you need Xcode to create some of the necessary pieces for you. Normally, you would use an apple developer account to create the dev and release certificates and the dev and release provisioning profiles, but without a paid account, I don’t think those things are available to you through a free account, at least without going through Xcode. In case anyone has some ideas, I think that you’re going to need three things: 1. A way to provision the application identifier 2. A way to provision the development certificate 3. A way to provision the development profile, with a reference to your device ID, app id and dev certificate. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_O](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/greg_o/32/22785_2.png) [@Greg\_O](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Greg_O)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/14 "2025-05-07T12:29:57Z")
To be fair, I don’t think we (when I was at Xojo) ever thought about a user that had a free apple developer account when all of this was set up. I don’t remember, but it’s very possible that the free apple dev account wasn’t even a thing yet. ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 1:22pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/15 "2025-05-07T13:22:08Z")
Yeah, I’ve followed instructions on creating these and can get an app on my phone but it does nothing even when testing. The simulator works fine. I think there is a gap in getting the real Xojo app talking to the XCode one. I guess I’m going to have to break down an pay an additional $99 on top of the $399 for the XOJo license. I understand That everyone needs to get paid but it seems a bit excessive for someone who has no intention of selling the end product ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 2:01am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/16 "2025-05-08T02:01:30Z")
so I should be able to get it on my phone to test but can not yet. I’m beginning to think there is a build issue going on. EIther that or I haven’t got something right with the team which is current just set to myself, so that sounds right. When I build however I get a file in the IOS build folder but a get a message when building “An Apple development profile is required when building an iOS application.” Do I need to put in apple credentials in my xojo app somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/rick_araujo/32/251_2.png) [@Rick\_Araujo](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Rick_Araujo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 3:29am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/17 "2025-05-08T03:29:50Z")
Have you followed these instructions? > **[Installing Xcode and Apple certificates — Xojo documentation](https://documentation.xojo.com/topics/application_deployment/apple_requirements/installing_xcode_and_apple_certificates.html)** And after > **[On-Device testing during development — Xojo documentation](https://documentation.xojo.com/topics/application_deployment/ios/on-device_testing_during_development.html)** ---
**Author:** ![Philip\_Cumpston](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/philip_cumpston/32/621_2.png) [@Philip\_Cumpston](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Philip_Cumpston)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 11:34am UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/18 "2025-05-08T11:34:19Z")
If yu have a MAC (OSX) Download and install Xcode (it is free). Run it Top menu - ‘Window’ (click on it) OPen devices and simulators Connect your phone to your Mac computer You need to register it with serial number of identifier (I forget which) by clicking on the + at bottom left. Then you can copy the app to your phone by clicking another + in the right hand side of the screen. Hope that helps ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/19 "2025-05-08T14:43:22Z")
did all that, no luck ---
**Author:** ![Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/sharon_dankwardt/32/6589_2.png) [@Sharon\_Dankwardt](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Sharon_Dankwardt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245/20 "2025-05-08T14:46:23Z")
yes to both. I get a generic icon for my app on my phone but when it starts I just get a blank white screen. I tried doing a sample one this morning but ran out of apps I could install on the free license. I didn’t know it counted ones you add an remove to try again, but I guess so [Next page](https://forum.xojo.com/t/free-ios-deployment/85245.md?page=2)