Creating an App Center Account
What is App Center?
App Center is a continuous integration, delivery, and testing solution for Android and iOS. App Center enables developers to ship apps faster, with more confidence by automating the development life cycle. App Center allows developers to release the apps to you, a tester, via a download link that you will receive via email.
How to Signup to App Center
You can either sign up on the App Center website, alternatively, if provide your Product Specialist with the tester's email, they will send you an invite. When you're invited to test an app, you should receive an email notifying you of the assignment. This email includes a button that enables you to create an App Center account if you don't currently have one.
After logging in, the steps for installing your apps are slightly different depending on the device your team will be using for testing, see below.
How to add a device (a requirement for iOS devices only)
Linking your device to your App Center account is a necessary step in the iOS installation process if you've received an email from App Center to create an account and test an app. The device registration process allows apps to be installed onto your device. Without it, you can't install the app you're supposed to be testing.
If you don't already have a device added to your account, you can add it when a new release is available to you. You can add the device via the link in the release email, or directly from the App Center install portal.
Adding your device consists of the following steps:
Navigate to the App Center install portal device menu on the device you're attempting to add. This can be done through either of the following methods:
Click the add device button located in the email you received when a release was distributed.
Click the profile icon in the upper-right corner of the App Center portal.
2. Click the Add new device button within the App Center install portal. App Center will display a dialog asking to show you a configuration profile. If you are not seeing Add new device option then go to https://install.appcenter.ms/register-device on your mobile device.
3. In the phone's Settings, select General, Profile & Device Management, then Install profile, and enable Allow. This profile is a necessary part of adding your device.
4. Click the install button in the upper-right corner of this screen to install this profile.
5. Once the profile installs, App Center will direct you to the install portal. The device you're using will now be in the "My Devices" table.
Troubleshooting
Here are some common issues along with their solutions we've seen in the installation process:
I get the message “Untrusted Enterprise Developer”
In order for the app to be available for use, you'll need to trust the developer's certificate. From your phone’s home screen, tap Settings > General > Profiles or Profiles & Device Management. Under the Enterprise App heading, you see will see a profile for the developer. Tap the name of the developer profile and then confirm you trust them. You can now launch the app.
When I press the “Install” button, the installation alert never shows up and the app isn't installed
If you've previously installed the app from the App Store, and it carries the same version of the app that's being installed, there'll be no alert to confirm the installation. As a workaround, try uninstalling the existing version of the app, and then tap the Install button again.
When I press the "+ Add new device" button nothing happens
Typically this occurs on iPads when Safari requests a desktop version of App Center instead of a mobile version. To resolve this, tap on the 'AA' and select the option 'Request Mobile Website'. On older versions of iOS, Safari has this feature integrated into the refresh button. To handle this case, press and hold the refresh button and the same option should appear.
The App Center profile will not install on my iPhone device
This often occurs when the ‘Developer Mode’ has not been enabled. To enable ‘Developer Mode’ on your iOS device, please follow the following steps:
Open Settings
Navigate to Privacy & Security
Scroll down and tap Developer Mode
Toggle the switch to enable Developer Mode
Follow the on-screen prompts to restart your device
Upon restarting, you'll receive a confirmation prompt
Tap Turn On to finalize enabling Developer Mode
Enter your device passcode when prompted