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How to add UDID (iOS devices) to your Apple Developer Account

Directus Asset
Alain Stulz
November 21, 2019

When we use Updraft internally for app distribution, we often choose to use our Apple Enterprise distribution certificates because this provides the most hassle-free experience to distribute our apps within our organisation once everything is set up. If you are using a regular developer account, you probably prefer to use Ad Hoc signing since it comes with your developer membership and without any additional costs. 

For Ad Hoc signing you need to make sure to pre-register all the devices that you want to run the app on with your unique device identifier (UDID). Within this blog post, we would like to show you how easy it is to register your iOS devices for Ad Hoc app distribution with Updraft.

Ad Hoc Distribution

Certificate: Distribution

Provisioning Profile: Ad Hoc provisioning

Distributing your app means that it runs on more and more iOS devices. It also means that more people are exposed to apps that possibly do malicious things. This is why things get more restrictive here. 

Let's take a look at Ad Hoc distribution. This kind of signing allows your app to run on a specific set of devices that you have to register in advance to the provisioning profile before building the .ipa for distribution. If you have a small group of real test devices, this is a convenient way to test your applications on just those devices. 

If you are using Ad Hoc provisioning, you will need to add all your iOS devices to your provisioning profile. Registering your device is done in the Apple Developer Portal, and it requires you to submit a UDID.

Registering a UDID for Ad Hoc Distribution

In case you are not sure how to find and register your UDID, we have got your back! Below you can find an instruction that will guide you through the registration process step by step.

 Take your devices and let’s start. 

Finding your UDID

Every iOS device has a Unique Device IDentifier or UDID assigned to it. Finding the UDID used to be simpler, nowadays you have to either:

 Find your UDID with Apple Music App

  1. Connect your iOS device to your machine

  2. Open Apple Music App

  3. Click on your device within the left sidebar. 

  4. Centred on the top of the app your device is displayed

  5. Click on the product name displayed (for example: iPhone 6)

  6. The Serial Number and the UDID of your iOS device will be displayed

Find your UDID with Xcode

  1. Connect your iOS device to Xcode

  2. Open the Window > Devices and Simulators menu

  3. You will find your device in the list. You can now see the UDID where it says "identifier"

Find your UDID with Finder (macOS Catalina)  

On macOS Catalina, you can see the UDID of a connected device in Finder.

Find your UDID with getupdraft.com/get-my-udid

If you don't want to or are not able to connect the device physically to your computer, you can use our service getupdraft.com/get-my-udid which allows you to read the UDID on the device directly and can send the UDID to you or your developer via email. Our website will guide you through the necessary steps to collect your UDID in less than 30 seconds.

Registering the UDID

Once you have found your UDID, you need to enter it in the "Devices" tab of the Certificates, IDs & Profiles section on the Apple Developer portal. 

 First, you need to add your test devices to your Apple developer account

  1. Sign in to http://developer.apple.com 

  2. Click on "Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles" in the right sidebar (http://developer.apple.com/account/ressources/devices/list).

  3. Click Devices

  4. Click the plus icon (+)  to add a new device

  5. Click Register Device

  6. Enter the device name and the collected UDID

  7. Continue and then Register

 In a second step, you need to add your devices to the application’s provisioning profile you want to distribute to your testers.

  1. Select Profiles on the left sidebar

  2. Select the provisioning profile to which you want to add the new device and click on Edit.

  3. Select the App ID for your app 

  4. In the list of all devices, select all or just the ones that you want to include in the provisioning profile 

  5. Click on Generate. After the Profile is generated you can download it

In your last step, you need to build or rebuild the application with the updated provisioning profile you generated.

  1. Import the downloaded profile to Xcode 

  2. Open Xcode and select your project in the left sidebar

  3. Click on Build Settings

  4. Enter ‘Code Sign’ in the search bar

  5. Select your release configuration and choose the provisioning profile you generated

  6. Create a new build Product > Archive

You're good to go! Upload now your new .ipa to getupdraft.com and notify your testers. 

Be aware that if you are using Enterprise certificates, you only distribute your apps within your organisation.

Hopefully, this blog post helps you to register your devices easily.

If you are new to Updraft sign up for free on https://getupdraft.com/signup  

Documentation: https://docs.getupdraft.com/ios-sdk/registering-a-udid-for-ad-hoc-distribution