"Untrusted App Developer" message when installing enterprise iOS Application

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I'm developing an enterprise application. When I was testing it in iOS8 beta I saw the following alert view:

Untrusted App Developer
Do you trust the developer "iPhone Distribution: ---" to run apps on you iPad?

It only appears the first time. Can I avoid it somehow? And what is it related to?

Screenshot

Ned answered 8/9, 2014 at 7:59 Comment(2)

Think about it: If you can suppress this message, then every evil hacker in the universe can suppress it as well. – Maebashi 8/9, 2014 at 9:16

@Maebashi yes, easy to imagine the situation where I've downloaded an app from a developer I don't trust, then tapped on the icon of that app from a developer I don't trust. But oh! I see this alert! I don't trust this developer! Whew: cancel. Dodged a bullet there... – Motile 20/10, 2014 at 8:2

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You cannot avoid this unless you distribute an application via the App Store.

You get this message because the application is signed via an enterprise certificate that has not yet been trusted by the user. Apple force this prompt to appear because the application that is being installed hasn't gone through the App Store review process so is technically untrusted.

Once the user has accepted the prompt, the certificate will be marked as trusted and the application can be installed (along with any other future applications that you wish to install that have been signed with the same certificate)

Note: As pointed out in the comments, as of iOS 8, uninstalling all applications from a specific certificate will cause the prompt to be shown again once an application from said certificate is re-installed.

Here is the link to Apple website that confirms this info: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204460

Subhead answered 8/9, 2014 at 8:5 Comment(11)

This is not true. If i install the certificate on the device, it is still untrusted, whether i accepted the app or not. The app will be trusted, though, except for iOS8 - you have to tap 'Trust' for each app by the same publisher. – Fike 12/9, 2014 at 10:51

@Fike that doesn't sound right... I've only ever had to trust an organisation once per device. We distribute our testing build via an enterprise account internally and this has always been the case (even on iOS 8) – Subhead 12/9, 2014 at 11:3

is this an enterprise distro set up? how do you actually install the app - testflight or ipcu or? – Fike 13/9, 2014 at 8:57

Yes it is an enterprise setup, we have a custom jenkins build server hooked up internally to dish out builds via itms-services download links so don't need to worry about external access and things like testflight. – Subhead 15/9, 2014 at 8:5

so when your jenkins server builds, does it sign with a Developer Profile with device UUID's hardcoded, or is it a Distribution Profile (Provision all devices)? – Fike 15/9, 2014 at 12:14

An Enterprise Distribution Certificate. We deal with too many devices to be able to maintain them all under a single developer account. – Subhead 15/9, 2014 at 12:23

I tried this, and I still get my results - if I install the app this way and then DELETE it, if I install it again, the user is prompted again. If I upgrade, that doesn't happen, but that doesn't depend on the deployment method. This is iOS8 only. – Fike 16/9, 2014 at 0:1

@Fike You are correct. In iOS 8 (unlike earlier versions), iOS will now "untrust" the application signer if the user deletes the last app by that signer from the device. So, if you delete your last enterprise app from the device, reinstall it and then the user taps to run the app, you will see this alert. – Reproach 16/11, 2014 at 10:16

Yeah, i've looked at this since and realised that i was wrong.. Our test devices are managed under MDM and have a preinstalled app that we never delete signed under the same cert.. thats why i didn't notice this prompt.. Same also applies for ad-hoc builds/certs.. will update my answer – Subhead 16/11, 2014 at 12:3

I found that with iOS 8 this is true for any developer profile you create yourself. Since I need to test first launch, I'm leaving a dummy app on my device to make it work. – Ashmore 12/7, 2015 at 5:22

Once I delete my app from settings->profile->delete app and reinstall it, app doesn't prompt user for Location service permission. Does iOS saves setting for app and certificate.! – Backed 18/11, 2015 at 12:59

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Today, I was testing this with iOS 9 Beta and found the solution.

To solve it, go to:

Settings -> General -> Profiles [Device Management on iOS 10]
Under ENTERPRISE APP, choose your current developer account name.
Tap Trust "Your developer account name"
Tap "Trust" in pop up.
Done

Omega answered 10/6, 2015 at 16:38 Comment(7)

This should be marked as the correct answer. The other answers are worth reading in their own right, however. – Confidant 1/7, 2015 at 13:56

I already have an existing MDM profile from my company's email system, and when I go to Settings / General, there is only "Profile" which has this one profile. How can I get the developer certificate to show up here? – Shagbark 9/7, 2015 at 23:49

I have two profiles and enterprise MDM one and my Apple Profile for testing iOS9 betas. I manually added my Developer profile and it didn't give me the option to hit trust.. it only shows untrusted. Can anyone help? – Mendelson 25/7, 2015 at 18:59

@MichaelRowe I think you need to install app(with your dev profile) into device, instead manually add developer profile. – Omega 26/7, 2015 at 5:51

There's a separate question now: #30723383 – Lunna 15/10, 2015 at 9:43

@Joni, I am able to trust custom enterprise apps by the way you mentioned. But everytime I reinstall the app, it is asking me to trust. Is there any way to trust it permanently? – Berfield 23/3, 2017 at 11:48

Plus to the question above - I'm using WebDriverAgentRunner which I need to reinstall all the time and it is not possible to run tests, because I need to trust an app every time manually in settings. It is blocking my work every time. – Asymptomatic 9/9, 2022 at 7:23