Xcode Product -> Archive disabled

Question

I have been archiving for ad hoc distribution fine for many months and suddenly today I cannot do so as the Archive menu item is disabled. I have not changed anything. I went through the provisioning setup for the project and it looks ok.

My Ad Hoc profile is about to expire in 14 days. Could this be the problem? I don't believe I can renew it until the day it expires. There is a a "renew" button for my ad hoc profile in the organizer but when I click it I get...

The given profile was not found on the provisioning portal. Please refresh your provisioning profiles before attempting to renew “MyAddHocProfile”

The profile in the provisioning portal shows active, expiring on the 30th. I noticed that I had not yet upgraded to 4.6.2 and did so. Then I downloaded my profile and double cliked it thinking that would refresh the profile in Xcode, still no joy. I also tried manually replacing the profile file MyAddHocProfile.mobileprovision in the Library.

What do they mean "refresh your provisioning profile"?

Even so, I would think that as long as the profile is active, I should be able to create an archive. I must be doing something else wrong.

Solution 1

You've changed your scheme destination to a simulator instead of Generic iOS Device.

That's why it is greyed out.

Solution 2

Select "Any iOS Device" in newer versions of Xcode. And Archive Option will be enabled!

Solution 3

Change the active scheme Device from Simulator to Generic iOS Device

Solution 4

Select active scheme to Generic iOs Device.

Solution 5

In addition to the generic device (or "Any iOS Device" in newer versions of Xcode) mentioned in the other answers, it is possible that the "Archive" action is not selected for the current target in the scheme.

To view and edit at the current scheme, select Product > Schemes > Edit Scheme... (Cmd+<), then make sure that the "Archive" action is checked in the line corresponding to the desired target.

In the image below, Archive is not checked and the Archive action is greyed out in the Product menu. Checking the indicated checkbox fixed the issue for me.

View more solutions

Comments

[rob mayoff]

Product > Archive is only enabled when your scheme has a destination of “iOS Device” or an actual iOS device. Have you checked that?

[user278859]

Darn! That was easy. Thanks! Please post your comment as an answer so I can give you credit and mark this as ansered.

[rob mayoff]

possible duplicate of Archive option greyed out in xcode 4.5.2

[Mathijs Segers]

Does that even make sense?

[naz]

Archiving a sim version is possible on the terminal. Looking forward to Apple to enable it in Xcode, since you need it when distributing XCFrameworks.

[Matt]

Thanks for this, the perfect fix. Any ideas why this happens though?

[wiseindy]

Well, it's just a guess... Maybe Apple wants you to actually test your on a real device before you actually package it for the App Store. Just a hunch :)

[MattL]

@user278859 if this is the right answer you should mark it as such.

[dgatwood]

Thanks for the answer. That's so completely non-obvious from a UI perspective that it catches even those of us who have been building apps for many years off guard. Apple should at least float a tooltip or something when it is in that state....

[wiseindy]

Yep. This was back in the iOS 6 days. Still applicable :)

[Nicolas Janel]

Si I cannot archive a ios product if I don't have an ios pluged on the mac ? I'm using a cloud access to a Mac, so I cannot plug a device on it...

[JCutting8]

I can't believe I spend over 6 months using xCode and this never was an issue with me until just now. Good solution, but just surprised how long it took for me to run into this problem given how simple the solution is.

[Stefan]

I guess this has to do with the simulator not being an emulator. This means the device simulator on OS X executes Intel processor code whereas the actual iOS devices are provided with ARM processor code. So, in order to generate ARM code, the code generation has to be switched to real devices which is done by selecting such a device as target.

[redolent]

If your phone is not available, choose Generic IOS device

[user1366265]

Come on Apple!! show some indication as to why it is grayed out!!

[Bernardo Dal Corno]

OMG... so much time wasted!!

[Heshan Sandeepa]

voting second time :(

[Altimus Prime]

I can't find the options in the screen shot given.

[shauneba]

A few people have asked for the reason 'Archive' is disabled when a simulator is selected. I don't know for sure but I suspect it's because building for a simulator will compile the code for x86, whereas building for a device will compile for ARM, which the App Store requires.

[vin shaba]

Xcode 13.1 uses this. Thanx