Failed to parse altool output: Failed to parse PList data type: /

Question

I have a Xamarin.Forms application. I am up to date on my VSMac, XCode, Xamarin, Xamarin.Forms, Mac, and everything else that I can think of. I am stumped regarding where to go resolve this issue. It is happening when I attempt to deploy the application to the iOS app store. I have checked my plist file with "plutil -lint" and it comes back as OK. any ideas are greatly appreciated. TIA.

Kava

That error seems to be an error on the VS4M tool. Try archiving the ipa and publishing locally (file system) then upload it using Apple's Transporter app. (apps.apple.com/us/app/transporter/id1450874784?mt=12) – Kaddish

Can you share the plist file (redacted if needed)? – Hypoderm

@Hypoderm thanks for the suggestion. I've been sick so I did not get back to this. I incremented my build number and that seems to have resolved the issue. Thank you. – Kava

Increasing my build number also resolved for me. – Festoon

Strange error but the +1 on the build number does the trick. You would think if the previous build failed you wouldn't need to increase the number, but you do... – Totipalmate

Answer 1

Increase the build number in the info.plist file

Civility

Tada. Would love to know why this works, but thanks! – Tallu

Answer 2

I had this issue today. I tried changing the build number and it didn't work for me. I closed Visual Studio for Mac and deleted the obj/bin folders and restarted Visual Studio and did a clean and rebuild and it didn't work. Finally I closed Visual Studio and restarted my machine and opened Visual Studio (I didn't delete the obj/bin folders this time) and tried to publish to the App store and it worked! So I guess try restarting your machine if you get this error...

Ereshkigal

Answer 3

I had the same issue, increasing the build number fixed it.

To do this, in your Info.plist increase the CFBundleVersion like so:

<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>2</string>
<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
<string>1.0</string>

You can keep the CFBundleShortVersionString the same, e.g., I kept mine at 1.0 as it was the first version of this app.

Heliometer

Answer 4

Had a similar issue when publishing app from "Visual Studio for Mac" version 8.7.9 (build 9). I have tried following suggestions and those are not worked to me.

• increase the CFBundleVersion
• Restart the mac

Only thing works for me as suggested by @pinedax, is upload app using Apple's Transporter app. (apps.apple.com/us/app/transporter/id1450874784?mt=12)

Mongolia

Answer 5

Just thought I'd add my cause of getting this error. I was trying to publish with my root apple account password rather than the expected app specific password.

Drambuie

That was also my issue! Had a new app that would upload correctly with Transporter, but not in VS. After creating the AppSpecific PW, it worked! – Chiropodist

Thank you, you saved me a ton of time! This was my issue. It's very unfortunate a better error message couldn't be provided. – Ledda

Answer 6

In addition to increasing the build number I had to increase the version number as well. I had a version ready to go in the app store but not released. I wonder if that's the root cause. Updating build numbers did not work. Changing the version number from 1.3 to 1.4 worked.

Dennisedennison

Answer 7

I too encountered this issue today when trying to upload an archive via MS Visual Studio for Mac and stumbled upon another reason for this to happen (incrementing the bundle version did not work in my case).

It seems Apple had made an update to the Apple Developer Program License Agreement (available in App Store Connect) that I had yet to accept. I saw a notification that I needed to accept the agreement when I logged in to App Store Connect.

I was able to upload the archive after I accepted the agreement.

Cyaneous

Answer 8

Okay, i found a new and exciting cause for this error: Incompatible iOS version!

I ran into this problem today and tried all solutions to no avail. I attempted to make an archive with one of the virtual iOS devices and noticed that all of them were still running with iOS 16.4. The iPhones i previously used to make an archive with all ran iOS 16.5.

So i grabbed my older iPhone 6S running iOS 15.7.1 and successfully created an archive with it.

Mchale

Answer 9

I had the same issue when trying to publish. Deleted obj/bin, restarted machine. checked the plist, changed the linking.

1. Run this command in terminal, it should return "ok" if the plist is correct. Change the path...
2. plutil -lint /Users/abcFolder/Projects/abc/abc/abc.iOS/Info.plist

What finally worked is i downloaded the "Transporter" app from the app store and it worked and i was able to publish with no issues. Very simple to use and quick... So the next day, i was ready to publish again after fixing some code and i decided to try VS for mac again and it worked this time for some reason...

Auburn