Cryptic App Store Upload Error

I recently had cause to take another look at Swish, my iOS app for generating white noise and static visuals. OK, the reason was Apple sending me an email notification that, because it has been over three years since I last updated the app, they were going to remove it from the App Store in 30 days.

I had previously had it in mind to ship an update that supports the newest screen sizes for devices such as iPhone X, but I sort of lost track of that. This was a good motivation to get an other update out so I made a few quick improvements and set about uploading a build to Apple to “blow out the cobwebs” and see if I was missing anything else.

Upon uploading the app, I was met with this surprising error:

Screenshot of an error from Xcode indicating that \

The Info.plist indicates an iOS app, but submitting a pkg or mpkg.

Hmm. That’s weird. I’m not submitting a pkg or mpkg. At least, I don’t think I am. My Info.plist should indicate an iOS app, because Swish is an iOS app.

I racked my brain trying to figure out what was going on here, and finally ended up filing a bug to Apple. Luckily, they got back to me within a day or two with this unexpected advice:

Please remove the LSMinimumSystemVersion from the Info.plist.

I had added the “minimum system version” to the Info.plist because I decided this update would support only iOS 11 and higher. I didn’t understand why that value would have anything to do with my issue, but I dutifully followed their advice, submitted the app, and … it worked perfectly!

Doing a little research, I discovered that LSMinimumSystemVersion is for macOS only, and that the iOS counterpart is simply called MinimumOSVersion. But, here’s the catch: the Xcode build process generates and inserts that MinimumOSVersion plist entry automatically, based on the deployment target for your app.

I hope this helps some frustrated Mac developer who is simply following old habits, and makes the mistake of adding LSMinimumSystemVersion to their iOS app’s Info.plist. Remove it, and your App Store uploads should work again!