How to: Create an Apple Push Notification Certificate

Regardless of whether you intend to use push notifications to communicate with your app users, you are required to create a push notifications Certificate.

If you do not create this Certificate, your app will not be signed properly, and will not be accepted by Application Loader in the final stages of the app submission process.

To generate a Certificate, you must:

Mac Computer
App ID
Apple Developer
Keychain Access

Usually Liquid State will do this for you! Add us to your Apple Developer account if you don't want to complete the task below.

To create an Apple Push Notification Certificate:

Login to Apple Developer
Navigate to the iOS Certificates section.
Then, click the plus symbol ( + ) button to register a new Certificate.
Under the Production heading, select Apple Push Notification service SSL (Production)
Click the Continue button.
The following screen will describe a process whereby you request a Certificate from your Keychain. Login to a Mac Computer
Open Keychain Access program on your Mac
Request a Certificate from the top menu toolbar
Enter Certificate information
Save your CSR to your computer by selecting Saved to Disk and Continue
Open up your browser and Choose File... to upload your CSR
Click Continue
Download your Apple Push Notification Certificate
Open the certificate on your Mac and add it to your Keychain
Download the Apple Push Notification Certificate and add it to your Keychain
Click the drop-down next to your Keychain on the Apple Push Notification certificate
Right-click on the private key
Export the key and save it as a .p12 file
Backup the .p12. You will be using this .p12 in Setting Up Push Notifications for iOS

If you are ever confused by the different Certificates in your Keychain, have a look at the Expiry Date column. Your Certificate expires one year after it was created, so it is relatively easy to identify which Certificate is your app's production Certificate based on the date on which it was created.