How to generate an iOS IPA file with Ionic Framework? How to generate an iOS IPA file with Ionic Framework? ios ios

How to generate an iOS IPA file with Ionic Framework?


You can easily build IPA from ionic framework. by following these steps

  1. Navigate to app folder

OS X terminal with list command

  1. Run cordova build command

OS X terminal running ionic build command

  1. Open the Xcode Project

OS X Finder with project location

  1. Clean the project

XCode Product -> Clean menu

  1. Select iOS mobile device to build for, don't use iOS emulator as device otherwise the archive is disabled.

Xcode Target device selected

  1. Archive the project

Xcode Project -> Archive menu

  1. Distribute the project

XCode Organizer

  1. Choose a method for distribution

Selecting method for distribution

  1. Choose a Profile

Choosing a profile

  1. Select a location to save the .ipa file

Saving IPA file to Desktop folder

I have generate my .ipa file by using these steps hope it will works for your's.


this article is kind of old but should help you.

In Command line change into the folder that contains your *.xcodeproj, and run the following:

xcodebuild -target "My Target" -scheme "My Scheme"-configuration Release clean archive

Now you’ve got your xcarchive , Following line will generate ipa which you can upload to TestFlight.

cd platforms/ios/build/device/usr/bin/xcrun -sdk iphoneos PackageApplication "$(pwd)/$PROJECT_NAME.app" -o "$(pwd)/$PROJECT_NAME.ipa"

Hope this helps


What I do is to run this command:

ionic cordova run ios

It will build and make the project, generate the IPA and then launch the simulator. At that moment I just quit the simulator and voila! I have my IPA with just one command (Ionic 4).