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MobilePro #181: Launch Your App on a Real iOS Device Like a Pro

Hi ,

Welcome to the 181st edition of MobilePro! This week we bring you something different.

This edition walks through a pragmatic setup for iOS development, the kind that makes device testing feel less like a hurdle and more like a launchpad. It’s drawn from hands-on workflows and reframed here for the everyday developer looking to get builds onto real devices—quickly, reliably, and without surprises.

If you’ve ever hit a wall trying to run your app outside the simulator, this feature that borrows from Ahmad Sahar's iOS 18 for Programming for Beginners is for you.

You will learn the following from this article:

How to connect your iOS device to Mac?
How to enable developer mode?
How to set up Xcode for device deployment?
How to add a developer account to Xcode?
How to trust the developer app certificate?

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Know The Author

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Ahmad Sahar is a trainer, presenter, and consultant at Tomafuwi Productions, specializing in conducting training courses for macOS and iOS, macOS Support Essentials certification courses, and iOS Development courses. He is a member of the DevCon iOS and MyCocoaHeads online communities in Malaysia and has conducted presentations and talks for both groups. In his spare time, he likes building and programming LEGO Mindstorms robots.

📱 How to run your app on an iOS device

Developing apps with Xcode and the iOS Simulator is a great way to get started, but if you want to truly understand how your app behaves in the real world, there’s no substitute for testing it on an actual device. Physical devices offer access to real sensors, hardware features, and network environments that simply can’t be replicated in the Simulator. Whether you’re building your first app or refining a production-ready project, deploying to a real iPhone or iPad helps you catch bugs, optimize performance, and deliver a better experience to your users. In this article, we’ll walk you through the entire process—from connecting your device and setting up Developer Mode to configuring and signing certificates.

While Apple's Simulator allows you to run and test your app during development, there's no substitute for using a real device. Some hardware components and software APIs simply can’t be simulated, which is why testing on a physical iOS device is crucial for a complete development experience.

Note

To explore the nuances between running your app on a simulator versus a real device, Apple provides a detailed comparison here.

Step 1: Connecting your iOS device

Before running your app on a physical iOS device, make sure you have:

Your iOS device
An Apple ID (a free or paid developer account)
A Mac with Xcode installed

To connect your iOS device, follow these steps:

Use the cable that came with your iOS device to connect your device to your Mac, and make sure the iOS device is unlocked.
Your Mac will display an Allow Accessory to Connect alert. Click Allow.
Your iOS device will display a Trust This Computer alert. Tap Trust and key in your device passcode when prompted. Your iOS device is now connected to your Mac and will appear in Xcode's Destination menu.

Step 2: Enabling the developer mode (iOS 16+)

Developer Mode was introduced by Apple during their Worldwide Developers Conference in 2022 (WWDC 2022) and is required to install, run, and debugyour apps on devices running iOS 16 or greater.

To watch a WWDC 2022 video on Developer Mode, click here.

Follow these steps to enable Developer mode:

Choose Window | Devices and Simulators in the Xcode menu bar. You will see a window displaying a message saying Developer Mode disabled.
To enable Developer Mode on your iOS device, go to Settings | Privacy & Security, scroll down to the Developer Mode item, and tap it.
Turn the Developer Mode switch on.
An alert will appear to warn you that Developer Mode reduces the security of your iOS device. Tap the alert's Restart button.
After your iOS device restarts and you unlock it, confirm that you want to enable Developer Mode by tapping Enable and entering your iOS device's passcode.
The Devices and Simulators window will display a Preparing iPhone message. Wait a few minutes, then verify that the Devices and Simulators window no longer displays the Developer Mode disabled text.

Your iOS device is now ready to install and run apps from Xcode.

Step 3: Setting up Xcode for device deployment

To set up Xcode, follow these steps:

In Xcode, choose your iOS device from the Destination menu.
Run the project by clicking the Run button (or use Command + R). You will get the following error in Xcode's Signing & Capabilities pane, Signing for "JRNL" requires a development team.

This is because a digital certificate is required to run the app on an iOS device, and you need to add a free or paid Apple developer account to Xcode so the digital certificate can be generated.

Note

Using an Apple ID to create a free developer account will allow you to test your app on an iOS device, but it will only be valid for 7 days. Also, you will need a paid Apple developer account to distribute apps on the App Store.

Certificates ensure that the only apps that run on your device are the ones you authorize. This helps to protect against malware. You can also learn more about them here.

Step 4: Adding a developer account to Xcode

Here are the steps to add Developer account to Xcode:

Click the Add Account... button.
The Xcode Settings window appears with the Accounts pane selected. Enter your Apple ID and click Next.

Note that you can create a different Apple ID if you wish using the Create Apple ID button.

Tip

You can also access the Xcode settings by choosing Settings in the Xcode menu.

Enter your password when prompted. After a few minutes, the Accounts pane will display your account settings.
Close the Settings window when you're done by clicking the red close button in the top-left corner.
In Xcode's Editor area, click Signing & Capabilities. Make sure Automatically manage signing is ticked and Personal Team is selected from the Team pop-up menu.
If you still see errors on this screen, try changing your Bundle Identifier by typing some random characters into it, for example, myname6712.JRNL.
Build and run your app. If you are prompted for a password, enter your Mac’s login password and click Always Allow.
Your app will be installed on your iOS device. However, it will not launch, and you will see the following message:

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This means you need to trust the certificate that has been installed on your device. You'll learn how to do this in the next section.

Step 5: Trusting the developer app certificate on your iOS device

A Developer App certificate is a special file that gets installed on your iOS device along with your app. Before your app can run, you need to trust it. Follow these steps: