fastlane upload to TestFlight failed with error "ITMS-90034 missing or invalid signature"

TL;DR

Re-sign the archive with a valid Apple Distribution certificate and a matching App Store provisioning profile, then re-upload. In Xcode or fastlane, confirm the signing identity inside the IPA matches the profile, export with the app-store method, and check that no framework was signed with a development certificate. A fresh archive after fixing signing almost always clears ITMS-90034 on the next upload.

ITMS-90034 missing or invalid signature

Use this when

• fastlane pilot or uploadtotestflight fails validation with ITMS-90034.
• The IPA uploads but App Store Connect rejects it minutes later by email.
• You recently renewed certificates or moved signing to CI with fastlane match.

Not for this skill when

• The build fails before archiving with a codesign error. Fix local signing first.
• You are distributing an enterprise or ad hoc build. Those use different profiles and portal checks.

Steps

1. Download the current Apple Distribution certificate and App Store profile in the developer portal, or run fastlane match appstore in readonly mode to sync them. Verify: the portal shows an unexpired distribution certificate and match reports the profile as installed
2. Inspect the IPA before uploading by unzipping it and running codesign verification on the app and every embedded framework. Verify: codesign reports valid on disk and satisfies its designated requirement for the app and frameworks
3. Check that the bundle identifier inside the embedded provisioning profile matches the app target exactly, including extensions. Verify: the profile application-identifier suffix equals the app bundle id and each extension has its own profile
4. Re-archive from a clean state, deleting derived data and any stale manually signed frameworks, and export with the app-store export method. Verify: the export log lists method app-store and the new IPA timestamp is current
5. Re-run the fastlane upload lane and wait for the App Store Connect processing email instead of judging by upload success alone. Verify: the build appears in TestFlight with status Ready to Test and no invalid-binary email arrives
6. If it still fails, compare the certificate fingerprint in the profile against the keychain identity used on the CI machine. Verify: both fingerprints match character for character; a mismatch means CI signed with a different certificate
7. Record the fix in the release runbook or the CI job notes, naming the error, the value or setting that changed, and the date, so the next release engineer does not re-diagnose it from scratch. Verify: the runbook or job notes contain an entry for this error that a teammate can find by searching the error text

Why it happens

ITMS-90034 means Apple validated the binary and found the signature chain broken: the certificate is expired or revoked, the profile was created for a different certificate, or a nested framework kept an old signature. Upload tools cannot detect this locally because the IPA is structurally fine; only portal-side validation compares the signature against the current account state.

In practice this failure is rarely a one-off. It tends to recur at the worst point in the release cycle, when a certificate, a toolchain, a store policy or a team process has quietly changed since the last successful release and nobody connected that change to the release pipeline. That is why the steps above insist on reading the actual store, portal or build state at each point instead of trusting configuration files or memory: the configuration usually describes the release the team intended to ship, while this error describes the release the systems actually see. Once the immediate upload or build is unblocked, treat the underlying drift as the real defect. Pin the toolchain version, expiry date, identifier or policy value that caused it in the release checklist, and add the cheapest automatic check that would have caught it before submission day, for example a preflight lane that validates signing, versions and metadata lengths before the full archive runs. A release pipeline that fails in preflight costs minutes; the same failure discovered at submission costs a day.

Variants and edge cases

ITMS-90034 fastlane upload rejected

The fastlane-specific phrasing; the fix is identical because pilot only transports the IPA. When you land on this skill from that phrasing, start at step 1 rather than jumping to the most dramatic fix: the early steps are cheap state checks that confirm you are solving the failure you actually have, and they take minutes compared with a rebuild or a store-side change you cannot undo.

missing or invalid signature TestFlight build invalid

Use when the rejection arrives by email after an apparently successful upload. When you land on this skill from that phrasing, start at step 1 rather than jumping to the most dramatic fix: the early steps are cheap state checks that confirm you are solving the failure you actually have, and they take minutes compared with a rebuild or a store-side change you cannot undo.

Edge case: extensions and widgets

App extensions signed with the main app profile trigger this error even when the app itself is signed correctly. Give each extension its own App Store profile. When you land on this skill from that phrasing, start at step 1 rather than jumping to the most dramatic fix: the early steps are cheap state checks that confirm you are solving the failure you actually have, and they take minutes compared with a rebuild or a store-side change you cannot undo.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_ariQiwhZjvAzta6H67xcow

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_ariQiwhZjvAzta6H67xcow

Thread query: fastlane upload to TestFlight failed with error "ITMS-90034 missing or invalid signature"

TL;DR: Re-sign the archive with a valid Apple Distribution certificate and a matching App Store provisioning profile, then re-upload. In Xcode or fastlane, confirm the signing identity inside the IPA matches the profile, export with the app-store method, and check that no framework was signed with a development certificate. A fresh archive after fixing signing almost always clears ITMS-90034 on the next upload.