I am unable to use prepare wda command to build the resigned ipa. It gives blank bundle identifier after it has created the ipa, Can someone help me with this. I am using macbook with iOS 26 and iPhone 17 with iOS 26

[Mridul2110]

Component
Version
Appium
3.0.0 (also tested on 2.19.0)
appium-xcuitest-driver
10.9.0
Device Farm Plugin
11.1.3 → 11.2.10 → 11.2.11 tested
macOS
Sequoia 15.x
Xcode
16.1 / 16.2
iOS devices
iOS 18.x (model with UDID 00008150…)
Signing
Free Apple Developer account
Issue Summary
Preparing WebDriverAgent IPA using:
appium plugin run device-farm prepare-wda
--mobile-provisioning-file="/Users/.../Provisioning Profiles/.mobileprovision"
✓ WDA project is found
✓ Build is successful
✗ Signing step corrupts generated IPA
plutil -p Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/Info.plist | grep CFBundleIdentifier
"CFBundleIdentifier" => ""
Meaning:
• Bundle identifier becomes empty string
• Installed app fails integrity verification
• App does not launch or quits instantly
• Appium logs:
Failed to start the preinstalled WebDriverAgent in XXXX ms
Integrity could not be verified
CFBundleIdentifier is empty / missing
So preinstalled WDA sessions always fail.
⸻
Expected Behavior
prepare-wda should produce a valid IPA using the correct bundle identifier derived from:
• provisioning profile
• or updatedWDABundleId capability
• or Xcode project defaults
⸻
What does work
✔ Building and running WebDriverAgent directly from Xcode
✔ Appium Inspector can establish a session using Xcode-launched WDA
✔ Device Farm works fine for Android and iOS simulators
→ Issue is isolated to signing WDA IPA via prepare-wda.
Attempt
Result
Different plugin versions (11.1.3 → 11.2.11)
Same issue
Different provisioning profiles
Same issue
Using correct capabilities (usePreinstalledWDA=true)
WDA does not start — /status fails
Custom manual ZIP packaging
Bundle ID preserved, install succeeds
prepare-wda IPA resign logic
Always results in empty bundle identifier

[saikrishna321]

U have issue with your provision profile. I would say open xcode and allow it to automatically sync n create a new profile

[Mridul2110]

Thanks for the response!

I tried that already — Xcode automatically creates & syncs provisioning profiles for both targets (WebDriverAgentLib + WebDriverAgentRunner). The build from Xcode installs and runs perfectly on my real device, and /status from WDA returns ready to accept commands.

The issue happens only with the IPA generated by prepare-wda:
• The resulting IPA has CFBundleIdentifier = "" (verified using plutil)
• Because of that, iOS refuses to launch WDA when Appium / Device Farm tries to start it
• Signing succeeds but the produced IPA is invalid before signing
• Even with multiple freshly-generated provisioning profiles, the result is always the same

So the provisioning profile seems OK (since the Xcode-built binary works fine) — the prepared IPA is missing its bundle identifier before re-signing.

[Mridul2110]

mobileautomation@192 ~ % ls -lt /Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Provisioning\ Profiles/
total 32
-rw-r--r-- 1 mobileautomation staff 12332 6 Dec 20:58 xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx.mobileprovision
mobileautomation@192 ~ % PROFILE=/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Provisioning\ Profiles/xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx.mobileprovision
security cms -D -i "$PROFILE" > /tmp/profile.plist
plutil -p /tmp/profile.plist | head -40
{
"AppIDName" => "XC com xxx WebDriverAgentRunner"
"ApplicationIdentifierPrefix" => [
0 => "FX2F446564"
]
"CreationDate" => 2025-12-06 15:28:20 +0000
"DER-Encoded-Profile" => {length = 3443, bytes = 0x30d62a48f712... 92aea4ec30bfb1ee}
"DeveloperCertificates" => [
0 => {length = 1499, bytes = 0x305304a02210... 54d2ae4b141de79f}
]
"Entitlements" => {
"application-identifier" => "FX2F446564.com.xxx.WebDriverAgentRunner"
"com.apple.developer.team-identifier" => "FX2F446564"
"get-task-allow" => true
"keychain-access-groups" => [
0 => "FX2F446564.*"
]
}
"ExpirationDate" => 2025-12-13 15:28:20 +0000
"IsXcodeManaged" => true
"LocalProvision" => true
"Name" => "iOS Team Provisioning Profile: com.xxx.WebDriverAgentRunner"
"Platform" => [
0 => "iOS"
1 => "xrOS"
2 => "visionOS"
]
"ProvisionedDevices" => [
0 => "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
]
"TeamIdentifier" => [
0 => "FX2F446564"
]
"TeamName" => "xxxxxxxxx"
"TimeToLive" => 7
"UUID" => "xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx"
"Version" => 1
}
mobileautomation@192 ~ % appium plugin run device-farm prepare-wda
--mobile-provisioning-file=/Users/mobileautomation/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Provisioning\ Profiles/xxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxx.mobileprovision
✔ Found WebDriverAgent.xcodeproj at: /Users/mobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent
✔ Successfully built WebDriverAgent
✔ Preparing webdrivergaent ipa
⠙ Signing WebDriverAgent ipa
Cannot find entitlements in binary. Using defaults
[
'/Users/mobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac-483c-9b05-e103adef5c27/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/PlugIns/WebDriverAgentRunner.xctest/WebDriverAgentRunner'
]
Cannot resolve rpath for: @rpath/XCTest.framework/XCTest from /Users/mobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac-483c-9b05-e103adef5c27/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner
Warning: Cannot resolve dependency library: /Users/mobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac-483c-9b05-e103adef5c27/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner
Cannot resolve rpath for: @rpath/XCTest.framework/XCTest from /Users/cdxmobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac-483c-9b05-e103adef5c27/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/PlugIns/WebDriverAgentRunner.xctest/WebDriverAgentRunner
Warning: Cannot resolve dependency library: /Users/cdxmobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac-483c-9b05-e103adef5c27/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/PlugIns/WebDriverAgentRunner.xctest/WebDriverAgentRunner
Cannot resolve rpath for: @rpath/libXCTestSwiftSupport.dylib from /Users/cdxmobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac-483c-9b05-e103adef5c27/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/PlugIns/WebDriverAgentRunner.xctest/WebDriverAgentRunner
Warning: Cannot resolve dependency library: /Users/cdxmobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac-483c-9b05-e103adef5c27/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/PlugIns/WebDriverAgentRunner.xctest/WebDriverAgentRunner
Warning: missing file: @rpath/XCTest.framework/XCTest
Warning: missing file: @rpath/libXCTestSwiftSupport.dylib
Cannot resolve rpath for: @rpath/XCTest.framework/XCTest from /Users/cdxmobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.zip.d8d4fed4-caac ✔ Found WebDriverAgent.xcodeproj at: /Users/cdxmobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent
✔ Successfully built WebDriverAgent
✔ Preparing webdrivergaent ipa
✔ Successfully signed WebDriverAgent file for ios: /Users/cdxmobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.ipa
✔ prepare-wda successfully ran
mobileautomation@192 ~ % WDA_IPA_PATH="/Users/mobileautomation/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/appium_wda_ios/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/wda-resign.ipa"
mobileautomation@192 ~ % rm -rf /tmp/wda_check
mobileautomation@192 ~ % mkdir -p /tmp/wda_check
mobileautomation@192 ~ % unzip -q "$WDA_IPA_PATH" -d /tmp/wda_check
mobileautomation@192 ~ % plutil -p /tmp/wda_check/Payload/WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner.app/Info.plist | grep CFBundleIdentifier
"CFBundleIdentifier" => ""

[saikrishna321]

#1913

[Mridul2110]

Hi Sai,

I am using the free account.

[Mridul2110]

Any other workaround you can suggest? I also tried to build the ipa from from xcode directly and i am facing the same issue mentioned in #1927