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# Sharing the iOS Distribution Certificate
- URL: https://williamboles.com/sharing-ios-distribution-certificate/
- Published: 2010-12-13T20:29:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-26T09:11:52.000Z
- Description: It's increasingly rare for an app to be built by one developer. With multiple developers comes the need for sharing. Here, we look at how to share an iOS certificate between different developers on your team.
- Author: William Boles
- Tags: Provisioning, Teamwork

Due to Apple only allowing one member of an enterprise account to hold the role of `Team Agent` and that user having their certificate associated with that account's distribution certificate, if you want to have multiple machines capable of signing a build with that distribution certificate, we need a way to share that certificate's private key. Below are the steps I found for sharing that certificate and provisioning that second machine for producing a distributable build.

## Exporting the certificate

1. Open **Keychain Access**.
2. In **Category** panel, select **Certificates**.
3. Select the certificate you want to export (should be named something like: **iPhone Distribution: `[Original Developer Name]`**).
4. Highlight both the certificate and its private key.
5. Right-click and select **Export 2 items**.
6. Select a location to save the `p12` file.
7. (Optional) Enter a password - this will be used to install it on the other machine.
8. Press **Save**.

## Importing the certificate

1. Double click on `p12` file (this should cause **Keychain Access** to open).
2. If you set a password when exporting, enter it into the **Enter Password** prompt; else, leave it blank and press **OK**.
3. You should now have a new certificate in the **login** keychain. **N.B.** This certificate and private key will have the same name as it did on the first machine.
4. Log into your **Team Agent** account on [http://developer.apple.com/](http://developer.apple.com/?ref=williamboles.com).
5. Select **iOS Provisioning Profile** link.
6. Select **Certificates->Development** tab, download and install the certificate for the Team Agent.
7. Double-click the downloaded file to install it in the keychain.
8. Select **Certificates->Development** tab, download and install the WWDR intermediate certificate.
9. Double-click the downloaded file to install it in the keychain.
10. Select **Provisioning->Distribution** tab and download provisioning profile. **N.B.** the downloaded file should be a `.mobileprovision` file; if it's a `.cer` file, you are in the Distribution tab of the Certificates section.
11. Drag onto the Xcode icon to install.

Congratulations, you should now be able to sign builds with the distribution certificate on multiple machines.

### Possible roadblock:

When double-clicking on any of the above files, you may see the following message:

**"The system root keychain cannot be modified"**

To overcome this, you'll need to manually add the files to the appropriate keychain by dragging them into that keychain. The `AppleWWDRCA.cer` should be dragged into the **System** keychain and any development/distribution certificates into the **login** keychain.