Authentication Error publishing to AppStoreConnect using Apple app specific password.

[ibnYusrat]

Environment

• CLI: 6.0.1

Describe the bug
If we run tns publish ios (and provide it a path to the ipa) on the CLI 6.0.1 it fails and complains that the username/password are incorrect (when we are using app-specific-password, in our case).

The exact command we usually run to publish (which is part of a shell scrip) is:
tns publish ios --ipa /Users/aurangseb/Documents/fdbk/mobile/platforms/ios/build/Release-iphoneos/mobile.ipa

And the error it comes back with is:
{ "serviceErrors" : [ { "code" : "-20283", "message" : "Your Apple ID or password was incorrect." } ] }

This has been like that since {N} cli versions >5.3.1 on wards.

Workaround
Our current work around (a really nasty one) is to build the ipa file with the distribution certificate using {N} Cli 6.0.1, once we have the path to the ipa, we go ahead and uninstall {N} Cli with npm remove -g nativescript and then install npm install -g nativescript@5.3.1. At this point I push the app to AppStoreConnect using tns publish ios which works just fine with the exact same credentials. Once its successfully published I remove {N} cli 5.3.1 and install {N} cli 6.0.1 again (doesn't get more painful than this).

To Reproduce
Try to publish any app to AppStoreConnect using app-specific-password.

Expected behavior
Publish the app to App Store Connect successfully.

Sample project
Would behave the same with even a blank project.

Additional context
It took me quite sometime to migrate everything from {N} 5.x to {N} 6 so completely downgrading the project to 5.3.1 is not an option at the moment.

Edit:
Come to think of it.. since now 2 factor authentication is a must with Apple accounts, and the ONLY way we can publish application to the AppStoreConnect by using the CLI is through the use of application specific passwords, it seems pretty much impossible to use CLI for this purpose.

[ibnYusrat]

Is this not a bug?

[Fatme]

@ibnYusrat,

We've already merged a pull request in release branch that enables support for publishing apps for accounts with two-factor authentication. You can install it using npm i -g nativescript@rc. With these changes you'll be able to provide your application specific password:

tns publish ios <username> <password> --appleApplicationSpecificPassword <appSpecificPassword>

Let us know if this will work for your case.

[erjdriver]

I'm at the latest 5.x CLI, core and platform.

How can I upload to ios store using CLI - looks like appleApplicationSpecificPassword is not supported in CLI 5.4.2.

I cannot upgrade to 6.x at this time.

[ibnYusrat]

I'm at the latest 5.x CLI, core and platform.

How can I upload to ios store using CLI - looks like appleApplicationSpecificPassword is not supported in CLI 5.4.2.

I cannot upgrade to 6.x at this time.

You can try reading the workaround I posted above.

[erjdriver]

What's your workaround?

I see appleApplicationSpecificPassword - but that's for CLI 6.x.

I'm using CLI 5.4.2 and when I used the above option - told me unsupported.

Do I need to get a special version?

[Fatme]

@erjdriver,

The --appleApplicationSpecificPassword option is supported from CLI 6.0.3, it is not supported in CLI 5.4.2. If you want to use this option, you should migrate to CLI 6.0.3.

[ibnYusrat]

@ibnYusrat,

We've already merged a pull request in release branch that enables support for publishing apps for accounts with two-factor authentication. You can install it using npm i -g nativescript@rc. With these changes you'll be able to provide your application specific password:

tns publish ios <username> <password> --appleApplicationSpecificPassword <appSpecificPassword>

Let us know if this will work for your case.

Hi Again,

Sorry for the delay in response. I had to publish the app again and tried again with your specified version and its still broken, here is a screenshot:

By the same the same login credentials work just fine with NativeScripot 5.3.1.

It almost seems like no one has published any iOS App built with NativeScript for almost 6 months now because this is the only way to publish an app to AppStoreConnect and its broken.

[Fatme]

Hey @ibnYusrat,

One possible problem should be if your credentials contain special symbols. For example, let's say your username is test!123. Then you should escape the special symbol ! with \ when providing it to the publish command:

tns publish ios test\!123

Can you please check if this is the case on your side?

[rosen-vladimirov]

Closing due to inactivity.

[jdde]

I had the same problem - escaping didn't worked for my password with special characters, didn't find a way around.
So I just changed my password.