iOS - watchOS App publishing issue CFBundleIdentifier collision

You don't need to change every target, its cleaner to write something like this:

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    if target.platform_name == :watchos
      target.build_configurations.each do |config|
        config.build_settings['PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER'] = 'org.cocoapods.${PRODUCT_NAME:rfc1034identifier}-$(PLATFORM_NAME)'
      end
    end
  end
end

As a temporary workaround I have manually renamed the bundle identifier in the watchOS extension then the app publishing is working fine but it does not look like a nice solution, especially if you are running the build on a CI system.

A better option is to add a specific post install operation in pod file:

post_install do |installer|
 installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
  if target.name == 'CocoaLumberjack-watchOS'
   target.build_configurations.each do |config|       
    config.build_settings['PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER'] = 'org.cocoapods.${PRODUCT_NAME:rfc1034identifier}-$(PLATFORM_NAME)'
   end
  end
 end
end

or if you have to handle multiple libraries:

post_install do |installer|
 watchosLibs = ['Lib1-watchOS', 'Lib2-watchOS', 'Lib3-watchOS']
 installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
  if watchosLibs.include? target.name
   target.build_configurations.each do |config|
    config.build_settings['PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER'] = "org.cocoapods.${PRODUCT_NAME:rfc1034identifier}.${PLATFORM_NAME}"
   end
  end
 end
end

Pay attention to rename pods bundle identifier because some libraries don't behave correctly otherwise.

I suggest to rename only the libraries rejected by Apple in order to minimize the possible issues.

Currently there are some different open threads about this issue:

  • On Apple forum (currently no more available)
  • On Cocoapods github project

A similar issue is present also using Carthage instead of Cocoapods

  • On Carthage github project

If Apple will not change this new policy about bundle identifier then a more clean solution will probably come from cocoapods team.


Apparently Apple changed the validation process. It looks like they don't allow to platform specific frameworks within an app to have the same identifier.

There's a post on the forum about this as well: https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/122048

If you're running into this issue because you're using Cocoapods you could patch your Podfile to append the Platform Name to the bundle identifier so that they'll be always unique (source):

post_install do |installer|
  installer.pods_project.targets.each do |target|
    target.build_configurations.each do |config|
      config.build_settings['PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER'] = 'org.cocoapods.${PRODUCT_NAME:rfc1034identifier}-$(PLATFORM_NAME)'
    end
  end
end

If you have multiple targets in your app you can change the watchOS targets in your scheme in XCode and append .watchos to the identifier as well.