Error when distributing an IPA over the air with dropbox - iOS 7.1

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As Apple requested to use https instead of http for distributing the IPAs over the air, I tried to use dropbox. I followed this solution Enterprise app deployment doesn't work on iOS 7.1 but I'm getting this error:

"Cannot connect to dl.dropboxusercontent.com"

when trying to install the plist through this link: <a href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/56ny312cwdacho7/xxxxx.plist> Install </a>

Thanks in advance.

Unsteady answered 26/3, 2014 at 11:4 Comment(1)

@nano....please let us know the steps to Distributing an IPA over the air with dropbox – Hotspur 4/10, 2018 at 4:46

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I had exactly the same issue. Firstly I tried putting all of my files in the public folder of my dropbox account. It still didn't work but I noticed with modifying my plist file I had overwritten the closing "</string>" XML tag for the ipa file itself. Once I added that back in it all worked. So whether it would have worked without moving to the public folder I do not know. I haven't tried because I have the result I desire for my users.

Dragonhead answered 27/3, 2014 at 4:43 Comment(1)

Right. The problem was in the title of the plist file. I was using a strange character. After removing it, it worked using dropbox. Thanks! – Unsteady 27/3, 2014 at 8:52

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NOTE : Shared links don’t render HTML content in a web browser

Refer https://www.dropbox.com/help/desktop-web/force-download

Check question

How to force render a file in a browser

EDIT : Reason is you will need to change link url and reupload it :

replace www.dropbox.com with dl.dropboxusercontent.com inall links
Reupload by making changes in link which are in html and plist file again.

Thats it. Enjoy

TOTAL SOLUTION

Needed file for distribution using example link are given below :

Build your app from xcode using Build and Archive option. Upload your ipa file to Dropbox. And get public link for the ipa.

Note : replace www.dropbox.com with dl.dropboxusercontent.com in the link.

Download the manifest.plist - edit the line #14 with the public link of your ipa . Modify other keys as well (bundle-identifier, bundle-version, title) .
Upload the modified manifest.plist to Dropbox and get its public link.
Download the index.html - edit url param at line #8 with public link of your manifest.plist

Hosting using Github. How that can be achieved is explained in following steps

Create a new project.
Add index.html as we will be hosting a site in Github Pages. Note html file with other name will not be valid as it should always be with index name.
Now go to project settings. Traverse through Github Pages
Under source tab select master-branch and click on save
Traverse back Github Pages you will see site will be published

Now you have Download link like https://paresh-navadiya.github.io/install.html/

Refer How to distribute using DropBox by @ oldman's answer and Distribute your iPhone/iPad adhoc builds Over The Air using DropBox

It working 100% percent.

Have a nice day to all :)

Breeding answered 14/8, 2014 at 7:30 Comment(7)

How did you find the link dl.dropboxusercontent.com for dropbox.com? – Intranuclear 20/8, 2014 at 10:10

@Intranuclear all you have to do is replace www.dropbox.com in the URL with dl.dropboxusercontent.com – Ardent 27/10, 2015 at 22:11

I don't know why ? but in my case it's downloading index.html file :( – Bascom 5/12, 2017 at 9:31

@Bascom I have updated my answer with solution to downloading link – Breeding 21/11, 2018 at 11:33

@paresh will adding github, dropbox link with major downloads cause problem with apple guidelines?.. i saw many link on dropbox not works due to huge traffic.(limited calls only) – Bascom 21/11, 2018 at 13:12

@Bascom According to apple guidelines, OTA download link should be https or secured. Dropbox download link is secured hence apple should not have any problem. – Breeding 23/11, 2018 at 6:24

THANK YOU. None of the many guides I found for this process mentioned dl.dropboxusercontent.com .... that's the only thing I had to change to get it working! – Hemimorphic 21/12, 2018 at 10:27

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I had exactly the same issue. Firstly I tried putting all of my files in the public folder of my dropbox account. It still didn't work but I noticed with modifying my plist file I had overwritten the closing "</string>" XML tag for the ipa file itself. Once I added that back in it all worked. So whether it would have worked without moving to the public folder I do not know. I haven't tried because I have the result I desire for my users.

Dragonhead answered 27/3, 2014 at 4:43 Comment(1)

Right. The problem was in the title of the plist file. I was using a strange character. After removing it, it worked using dropbox. Thanks! – Unsteady 27/3, 2014 at 8:52

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I faced the similar issue with dropbox few days back, saying cannot connect to dl.dropboxusercontent.com, what I did is deleting the sharable link which I created earlier and created a new sharable link for both plist and ipa files. And I updated these links in plist and html page. I don't know what was wrong with my old sharable links. Hope this answer might be helpful for someone.

Happy coding.

Tetrahedron answered 17/12, 2018 at 13:1 Comment(0)

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As already pointed out in a similar reply here, if the PLIST file is malformed, this error will appear.

In my case, I forgot the fact that the ampersand ("&") charcater is forbidden in XML, and the name of my app contained "&" in it, so I had to replace the & with & in the containing the name and everything worked.

Imagery answered 13/3, 2015 at 16:54 Comment(0)

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