APNS Push Notifications Not Working on Production

Question

I created an App to send remote notifications from a web server. When I tested the App in Development Mode all the notifications arrived correctly on the phone, after the AppStore release the app did not receive notifications anymore.

Here it is what I did:

1. Created a Private Key For Production and one for development.
2. Generated on my App ID two SSL Certificates by passing the previous CertFile Generated. I'm 100% sure to have generated correctly 2 key and passed them correctly to download the SSL Cert from Dev Center under AppID.
3. Created a file .pem for development and one for production (by converting the file .p12 extracted from my KeyChain etc etc).
4. Created 2 different provisioning profile one for development and one for production connected to the AppID of step 1.
5. Signed the app in Build Settings with the correct Provisioning Profiles created in step 4.
6. Created a Web App to catch and store users Tokens.
7. Created a php page to test Push Notification Sending.

Here it is what i tested:

1. Tested the development generated .pem file with telnet on sandbox link with a succesfull answer.
2. Tested the production generated .pem file with telnet on production link with a succesfull answer.
3. I'm 100% sure to have stored on my web app the development token of my iPhone.
4. I'm 100% sure to have stored on my web app server the production token of my iPhone.
5. I'm 100% sure to pass with my php page the right message to Apple Server (both for development and production).
6. The php page always return a succesfull message from Apple Server (both for development and production).

Here is how I sign the app on Xcode:

Here is the code of the php page to send notifications:

    $ctx = stream_context_create();

    //stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'passphrase', 'development_pwd');
    //stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'local_cert', 'ck_development.pem');
    //$fp = stream_socket_client('ssl://gateway.sandbox.push.apple.com:2195', $err, $errstr, 60, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT|STREAM_CLIENT_PERSISTENT, $ctx); //test

    stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'passphrase', 'production_pwd');
    stream_context_set_option($ctx, 'ssl', 'local_cert', 'ck_production.pem');
    $fp = stream_socket_client('ssl://gateway.push.apple.com:2195', $err, $errstr, 60, STREAM_CLIENT_CONNECT|STREAM_CLIENT_PERSISTENT, $ctx); //production

    echo "<p>Connection Open</p>";
    if(!$fp){
        echo "<p>Failed to connect!<br />Error Number: " . $err . " <br />Code: " . $errstrn . "</p>";
        return;
    } else {
        echo "<p>Sending notification!</p>";    
    }

    $i = 0;

    foreach ($deviceToken as $dt) {
        $dt = str_replace(' ' , '' , $dt);
        $msg = chr(0) . pack('n',32) . pack('H*', $dt) . pack('n',strlen($payload)) . $payload;
        echo "<p>" . $i . " - Message sent: " . $payload . "<br />Token: ". $dt . "<br />***" . $msg . "***</p>";
        $result = fwrite($fp, $msg, strlen($msg));
        $i++;
        if (!$result)
            echo '<p>Message not delivered ' . PHP_EOL . '!</p>';
        else
            echo '<p>Message successfully delivered ' . PHP_EOL . '!</p>';
    }
    fclose($fp);
    echo "<p>Total Notifications Sent: " . $i . "</p>";
    echo "<p>Connection Closed!</p>";
}
?>

Conclusions: I have the Test App on my PC that receive APNS Push Notifications. I have the exactly same app released on App Store that not receive APNS Push Notifications.

I realy made everything in my power to fix this issue and read about thousand pages of forums, stackoverflow and Apple Documentations.

I'm willing to retribuite everyone of you who helps me find the solution to my issue!

Answer 1

Device token for Production and Sandbox are different for same device.

So try getting device token by using Adhoc or Distribution certificates and use the generated token on production, this worked for me.

Answer 2

I Just came across the same problem. Push Notifications are arriving in Development Mode, not in Production. I also checked everything a few times and was sure that everything was fine.

But it wasn't. It was the very first step in the process. Creating the csr. I was sure I didn't have to create a csr file for Development and Production and ended up using the same csr file for both certificats. Didn't work...

Maybe someone in future does the same mistake und saves some time now.

Answer 3

The link you mentioned is Sandbox APNS link. Production APNS link is as per Apple documentation is:

You access the production environment at gateway.push.apple.com, outbound TCP port 2195.

Few things to verify:

1. Your AppId is enabled for Distribution APNS.
2. You have created Distribution APNS SSL Certificate and is installed on your build machine (for App Store submission).
3. You have installed the SSL Certificate in step 2 on your server.
4. You are not by mistake using Development APNS SSL Certificate.