How can I make my ad hoc iPhone application's icon show up in iTunes?

Question

I've got an iPhone app with icon file Icon.png.

This icon shows up properly when the app is on the phone itself, but it doesn't show up in the applications pane in iTunes.

What do I need to do to get it to show up properly?

Answer 1

The application icon only shows up in iTunes if your app is distributed through the app store.

I assume you are asking about a developer or ad hoc build. Those get the default black "A" icon.

Answer 2

Actually, it is possible to provide iTUnes icons for iPhone software released as ad-hoc. See this blog post for more information.

Answer 3

In order to make it easier for those arriving at this post, here are the actual instructions (straight from the blog post linked from the accepted answer).

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There has been some talk on twitter about how to create your own IPA file for your iPhone app, so I thought I would give the instructions that I have used to build an IPA before. Enjoy.

1. Create a folder on your desktop called “working”. Open that and create another folder inside of it called “Payload” (case-sensitive)
2. Move your iTunesArtwork file into the “working” folder and your .app into the Payload folder.
3. Open Terminal and run the following command: chmod -R 775 ~/Desktop/working/Payload
4. Go into your ProgName.app folder within Payload.
5. Double-click the Info.plist file. Make sure there is a item called: SignerIdentity with a value of: Apple iPhone OS Application Signing. If there is not, add it.
6. Zip it all up. Zip the iTunesArtwork and Payload folder. (So zip up what is inside of the working folder)
7. Rename the zip file to have the name you want, and the extension of ipa.
8. Double click to install with iTunes

Answer 4

Create a 512x512 png of your icon, name it "iTunesArtwork" (no extension, no quotes) and add it to your project under Resources. Then build.

More details here:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/Xcode/Conceptual/iphone_development/145-Publishing_Applications_for_Testing/chapter_9_section_3.html

Answer 5

The cleanest way to do this is described in the official Apple documentation, in a section called Publishing Applications for Testing. Below is the exact instructions given to you on that page:

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The iTunes artwork your testers see should be your application’s icon. This artwork must be a 512 x 512 JPEG or PNG file named iTunesArtwork. Note that the file must not have an extension.

After generating the file of your application’s icon, follow these steps to add it to your application:

1. Open your project in Xcode.
2. In the Groups & Files list, select the Resources group.
3. Choose Project > Add to Project, navigate to your iTunesArtwork file, and click Add.
4. In the dialog that appears, select the ”Copy items” option and click Add.

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Note that the PNG or JPEG file is just 'iTunesArtwork', with no suffix.

If you try to copy the file into the application bundle after you have built it, it will break the app signing, and you will get a verification error when trying to sync it to your device. Ensure that the artwork file is included in the "Copy Bundle Resources" folder, within your project's target in XCode (step 4, above).

Answer 6

You can try http://github.com/tapmates/iOS-Development-Utilities

Answer 7

I'll just add my recent experience. I had fooled around trying to get my ad hoc app to show up in iTunes with an icon (strictly, iTunesArtwork). Finally, I was convinced I had followed the instructions to a 'T' but it still wouldn't show up in the grid view. However, my artwork was properly displayed in the Cover Flow view. I deleted and reinstalled my app from/to iTunes to no avail. Then I quit iTunes and restarted - and, voila! - my artwork was correct in all places. It appears there is some kind of caching that is not reset in Grid view.