I spent the last three days troubleshooting an issue submitting a Mac app to App Store Connect. The problem appears to be triggered by a subtle change between Xcode 14.3.0 and Xcode 14.3.1. I have this issue when using Xcode 14.3.1 and Xcode 15. My temporary workaround is to submit the app using Xcode 14.3.0. I reported this as FB12418390:

Submitting a storyboard-based Mac app where the default Window Controller Scene and View Controller Scene are removed from the default storyboard results in an inability of the app to be processed by App Store Connect.

App Store Connect processing works as expected when the app is compiled and submitted with Xcode 14.3.0, but not with Xcode 14.3.1 or the current Xcode 15 beta releases. After submitting such an app with Xcode 14.3.1 or later, the upload appears to work. But then I get an email saying that processing failed because of an invalid signature (ITMS-90238) and because sandboxing is not enabled (ITMS-90296).

To reproduce:

  1. Create a storyboard-based Mac app with Xcode.

  2. Take the necessary steps to submit it to App Store Connect (icons, provisioning profiles, etc). But there is no need to add any functionality to the app.

  3. Submit to App Store Connect. Observe that the app can be submitted and processed as expected.

  4. Open the storyboard file and remove the Window Controller Scene and View Controller Scene. Leave only the Application Scene with the Application, App Delegate, Font Manager, and First Responder.

  5. Increment the build number.

  6. Resubmit to App Store Connect.

Expected result: The app can be uploaded and processed as expected.

Actual result: This works as expected with Xcode 14.3.0. When built and uploaded with Xcode 14.3.1 and Xcode 15.0 beta 2 (15A5161b), the app can be uploaded but I get an email saying that processing failed because of an invalid signature (ITMS-90238) and because sandboxing is not enabled (ITMS-90296).

I can also reproduce this with the attached sample project. If I submit this to App Store Connect using Xcode 14.3.1 or Xcode 15.0 beta 2 (15A5161b) it fails as described above.

I believe this to be a very serious problem. It took me 3 days of trial and error to determine what was triggering the App Store Connect processing failures. I do not know if it is common to remove the default Window Controller Scene and View Controller Scene from the main storyboard. I tend to do this because I like windows to have their own storyboard files. I use the default storyboard just to configure menus in the menu bar.