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I'm developing an enterprise application. When I was testing it in iOS8 beta I saw the following alert view:

Untrusted App Developer
Do you trust the developer "iPhone Distribution: ---" to run apps on you iPad?

It only appears the first time. Can I avoid it somehow? And what is it related to?

Screenshot

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    Think about it: If you can suppress this message, then every evil hacker in the universe can suppress it as well.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Sep 8, 2014 at 9:16
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    @gnasher729 yes, easy to imagine the situation where I've downloaded an app from a developer I don't trust, then tapped on the icon of that app from a developer I don't trust. But oh! I see this alert! I don't trust this developer! Whew: cancel. Dodged a bullet there...
    – buildsucceeded
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 8:02

11 Answers 11

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Today, I was testing this with iOS 9 Beta and found the solution.

To solve it, go to:

  1. Settings -> General -> Profiles [Device Management on iOS 10]
  2. Under ENTERPRISE APP, choose your current developer account name.
  3. Tap Trust "Your developer account name"
  4. Tap "Trust" in pop up.
  5. Done
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    This should be marked as the correct answer. The other answers are worth reading in their own right, however.
    – Owen Hartnett
    Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 13:56
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    I already have an existing MDM profile from my company's email system, and when I go to Settings / General, there is only "Profile" which has this one profile. How can I get the developer certificate to show up here?
    – Orion Edwards
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 23:49
  • I have two profiles and enterprise MDM one and my Apple Profile for testing iOS9 betas. I manually added my Developer profile and it didn't give me the option to hit trust.. it only shows untrusted. Can anyone help?
    – Michael Rowe
    Commented Jul 25, 2015 at 18:59
  • @MichaelRowe I think you need to install app(with your dev profile) into device, instead manually add developer profile.
    – Joni
    Commented Jul 26, 2015 at 5:51
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    @Joni, I am able to trust custom enterprise apps by the way you mentioned. But everytime I reinstall the app, it is asking me to trust. Is there any way to trust it permanently?
    – Avijit
    Commented Mar 23, 2017 at 11:48
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You cannot avoid this unless you distribute an application via the App Store.

You get this message because the application is signed via an enterprise certificate that has not yet been trusted by the user. Apple force this prompt to appear because the application that is being installed hasn't gone through the App Store review process so is technically untrusted.

Once the user has accepted the prompt, the certificate will be marked as trusted and the application can be installed (along with any other future applications that you wish to install that have been signed with the same certificate)

Note: As pointed out in the comments, as of iOS 8, uninstalling all applications from a specific certificate will cause the prompt to be shown again once an application from said certificate is re-installed.

Here is the link to Apple website that confirms this info: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204460

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    This is not true. If i install the certificate on the device, it is still untrusted, whether i accepted the app or not. The app will be trusted, though, except for iOS8 - you have to tap 'Trust' for each app by the same publisher.
    – zaitsman
    Commented Sep 12, 2014 at 10:51
  • @zaitsman that doesn't sound right... I've only ever had to trust an organisation once per device. We distribute our testing build via an enterprise account internally and this has always been the case (even on iOS 8)
    – liamnichols
    Commented Sep 12, 2014 at 11:03
  • is this an enterprise distro set up? how do you actually install the app - testflight or ipcu or?
    – zaitsman
    Commented Sep 13, 2014 at 8:57
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    I tried this, and I still get my results - if I install the app this way and then DELETE it, if I install it again, the user is prompted again. If I upgrade, that doesn't happen, but that doesn't depend on the deployment method. This is iOS8 only.
    – zaitsman
    Commented Sep 16, 2014 at 0:01
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    @zaitsman You are correct. In iOS 8 (unlike earlier versions), iOS will now "untrust" the application signer if the user deletes the last app by that signer from the device. So, if you delete your last enterprise app from the device, reinstall it and then the user taps to run the app, you will see this alert.
    – Nobosi
    Commented Nov 16, 2014 at 10:16
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On iOS 9:

Settings -> General -> Device Management -> Developer app / your Apple ID -> Add/remove trust there

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    Previous answers seem to reflect iOS 9 betas. Current iOS 9.2 users need to use the settings mentioned in this answer.
    – Justin Noel
    Commented Jan 15, 2016 at 22:07
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This issue comes when trust verification of app fails.

Screenshot 1

You can trust app from Settings shown in below images.

Screenshot 2

Screenshot 3

Screenshot 4

If this dosen't work then delete app and re-install it.

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    is there a way to allow this by default? Every time I reinstall the app I have to re-allow this. Which is pretty annoying. btw. I like the reddish scribble on your screenshots ;) xD
    – themenace
    Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 21:24
  • I think this alert will prompt every time you install app.
    – Jayprakash Dubey
    Commented Nov 4, 2019 at 9:36
  • Is there an option to trust developer certificate permanently? I'm using WebDriverAgentRunner which I need to reinstall all the time and it is not possible to run tests, because I need to trust an app every time manually in settings. It is blocking my work every time.
    – Mikhail Barinov
    Commented Sep 9, 2022 at 7:27
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In my case, i just change some step below with iOS 9.3 To solve this problem:

Settings -> General -> Device Management -> Developer app Choose your current developer account name. Taps Trust "Your developer account name" Taps "Trust" in pop up. Done

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For iOS 13.6

Go to settings -> General -> Device Management -> Click on Trust « Apple Development » -> Click on the red trust button and you’re all set! 😁 Enjoy

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You absolutely can avoid this issue if you manage the device with MDM or have access to Apple Configurator.

The solution is to push either the Developer or iOS Distribution certificate to the device via MDM or Apple Configurator. Once you do that, any application signed by that cert will be trusted.

When you click on "Do you trust this developer", you're essentially adding that certificate manually on a per-app basis.

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    i'm sorry mate but i did try this and this advice is wrong - i got MDM delivered cert on the device and it still says 'untrusted developer'.
    – zaitsman
    Commented Nov 19, 2014 at 10:12
  • I get the same result as zaitsman - delivering the iPhone Distribution certificate via MDM does not prevent the "Do you trust this developer" alert (iOS 8.1.3). I have verified that the certificate is present in the Remote Configuration profile. If you have gotten this to work, can you detail the steps?
    – Mr Friendly
    Commented Mar 5, 2015 at 18:51
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    Can you be bit more explanatory on MDM? What is MDM & how can i use this MDM to avoid it?
    – Asif Bilal
    Commented Nov 25, 2015 at 12:25
  • Mr Friendly: Have u checked on iOS9 now? Whats the result? I want to go for MDM, so verifying whether still issue is there with iOS9.
    – Asawari
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 5:31
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If you push it out through MDM it should auto-trust the application (https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204460), but it still has to verify the certs etc with Apple to ensure they've not been revoked etc i presume. I had this message preventing the application from launching and it was only when the proxy information was configured so it i could use the internet that it went away after a couple more launch attempts.

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In iOS 9.1 and lower, go to Settings - General - Profiles - tap on your Profile - tap on Trust button.

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In iOS 9.3.1 and up: Settings > General > Device Management

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  • Please explain why and how will this help address the problem. You have outlined the steps to open up the Decide Management window, but what should happen once he opens Device Management?
    – ishmaelMakitla
    Commented May 29, 2016 at 17:12
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I got this error with a Meraki MDM enrolled device and a managed app - it was happening only on some devices, and an iOS update seemed to fix the issue.

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