Is there a way to view your app's .entitlements file from your app's .ipa archive?

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I think there's an issue with my app's .entitlements file when a .ipa is created and so I want to check the Bundle ID of the entitlements file. There's a fairly complicated build script I am using to change some stuff in there before building so I want to see what the final product is. I know that there used to be an Entitlements.plist that I could get off of the ipa but it doesn't seem to be there any longer. Is there any way to access the .entitlements file now?

Annieannihilate answered 11/10, 2012 at 23:48 Comment(0)

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Sure, unzip the .ipa file which will create a Payload directory. Inside of the Payload directory is the application package. Right-click the app package in Finder to "Show Package Contents".

Look for the embedded.mobileprovision file which you can open with a text editor or plist editor. Look for the <key>Entitlements</key>

Fortunia answered 12/10, 2012 at 3:41 Comment(7)

My embedded.mobileprovision file just shows a bunch of numbers and no text at all. Is there some other step I need to take to make that human readable? – Annieannihilate 12/10, 2012 at 18:30

The format should be a property list - just verified with one of my ipa's. – Fortunia 13/10, 2012 at 4:49

Is your ipa recent? I am fairly certain they used to be plists in the past. I tried renaming my embedded.mobileprovision file to a plist and I got told it was corrupted when I tried to open it. When looking at the 'Kind' of file it was with Get Info, Apple says it's a 'Developer Provisioning Profile.' – Annieannihilate 16/10, 2012 at 18:14

Yes, I just went through this process on an app submitted and accepted in the last 2 weeks. – Fortunia 17/10, 2012 at 3:58

If you're using Sublime Text, just reopen with encoding -> UTF-8 – Dominga 17/10, 2014 at 13:36

Or just select the file in finder, and press Spacebar to preview it. – Broadcast 28/6, 2019 at 11:15

This answer is incorrect. In my case embedded .mobileprovision file contains aps-environment property, but iTunes Connect and codesign utility show that it is missing. – Benedictbenedicta 3/4 at 7:24

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For those getting here via Google, the Information Apple provides at https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/qa/qa1798/_index.html is a lot more recent. Specifially, after unzipping the IPA:

Display the entitlements in the app by running:

codesign -d --entitlements :- "Payload/YourApp.app"

and display the provisioning profile by running:

security -D -i "Payload/YourApp.app/embedded.mobileprovision"

Gardiner answered 14/4, 2015 at 22:20 Comment(3)

in my case 'security -D -i' did not work, I had to use 'security cms -D -i' instead – Antoinette 29/4, 2015 at 19:8

The codesign command doesn't seem to work anymore with Big Sur – Veradia 28/4, 2021 at 22:10

The codesign command worked for me on Ventura (macOS 13.5.2) – Ousel 4/10, 2023 at 14:23

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