Submit to the Apple App Store

Learn how to submit your app to the Apple App Store from your computer and CI/CD services.

This guide outlines how to submit your app to the Apple App Store from your computer or from a CI/CD service.

Submitting your app from your computer

{
  "ios": {
    "bundleIdentifier": "com.yourcompany.yourapp"
  }
}

Once you have completed all the prerequisites, you can start the submission process.

Run the following command to submit a build to the Apple App Store:

The command will lead you step by step through the process of submitting the app. You can configure the submission process by adding a submission profile in eas.json:

{
  "submit": {
    "production": {
      "ios": {
        "ascAppId": "your-app-store-connect-app-id"
      }
    }
  }
}

How to find ascAppId

1. Sign in to App Store Connect and select your team.
2. Navigate to the Apps.
3. Click on your app.
4. Ensure that App Store tab is active.
5. On the left pane, under the General section, select App Information.
6. Your app's ascAppId can be found under General Information section under Apple ID.

Learn about all the options you can provide in the eas.json reference.

To speed up the submission process, you can use the --auto-submit flag to automatically submit a build after it's built:

Learn more about the --auto-submit flag in the automate submissions guide.

Submitting your app using CI/CD services

Prerequisites

5 requirements

1.

Sign up for an Apple Developer account

An Apple Developer account is required to submit your app to the Apple App Store. You can sign up for an Apple Developer account on the Apple Developer Portal.

2.

Include a bundle identifier in app.json

Include your app's bundle identifier in app.json:

app.json

Copy

{
  "ios": {
    "bundleIdentifier": "com.yourcompany.yourapp"
  }
}

3.

Configure your App Store Connect API Key

Run the following command to configure your App Store Connect API Key:

Terminal

Copy

- eas credentials --platform ios

The command will prompt you to select the type of credentials you want to configure.

1. Select the production build profile
2. Log in with your Apple Developer account and follow the prompts
3. Select App Store Connect: Manage your API Key
4. Select Set up your project to use an API Key for EAS Submit

Do you want to use your own credentials?

App Store Connect API Key: Create your own API Key then set it with the ascApiKeyPath, ascApiKeyIssuerId, and ascApiKeyId fields in eas.json.

App Specific Password: Provide your password and Apple ID Username by passing them in with the EXPO_APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD environment variable and appleId field in eas.json, respectively.

4.

Provide a submission profile in eas.json

Then, you'll need to provide a submission profile in eas.json that includes the following fields:

eas.json

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  {
    "submit": {
      "production": {
        "ios": {
          "ascAppId": "your-app-store-connect-app-id"
        }
      }
    }
  }

How to find ascAppId

1. Sign in to App Store Connect and select your team.
2. Navigate to the Apps.
3. Click on your app.
4. Ensure that App Store tab is active.
5. On the left pane, under the General section, select App Information.
6. Your app's ascAppId can be found under General Information section under Apple ID.

Learn about all the options you can provide in the eas.json reference.

5.

Build a production app

You'll need a production build ready for store submission. You can create one using EAS Build:

Terminal

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- eas build --platform ios --profile production

Alternatively, you can build the app on your own computer with eas build --platform ios --profile production --local or with Xcode.

Once you have completed all the prerequisites, you can set up a CI/CD pipeline to submit your app to the Apple App Store.

Use EAS Workflows CI/CD

You can use EAS Workflows to build and submit your app automatically.

1. Create a workflow file named .eas/workflows/submit-ios.yml at the root of your project.

2. Inside submit-ios.yml, you can use the following workflow to kick off a job that submits an iOS app:

   .eas/workflows/submit-ios.yml

   Copy

   on:
     push:
       branches: ['main']
   
   jobs:
     build_ios:
       name: Build iOS app
       type: build
       params:
         platform: ios
         profile: production
   
     submit_ios:
       name: Submit to Apple App Store
       type: submit
       params:
         platform: ios
         build_id: ${{ needs.build_ios.outputs.build_id }}
   

   The workflow above will build the iOS app and then submit it to the Apple App Store.

Use other CI/CD services

You can use other CI/CD services to submit your app with EAS Submit, like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and more by running the following command:

This command requires a personal access token to authenticate with your Expo account. Once you have one, provide the EXPO_TOKEN environment variable in the CI/CD service, which will allow the eas submit command to run.

Manual submissions

If you ever need to submit your build without going through EAS Submit, for example, if the service is temporarily unavailable for maintenance, you can upload to the Apple App Store manually from a macOS device.