Sideloading problems and how to fix them

Your iPhone can't reach Apple to check the app's signature, or the signature has expired.

Try in this order:

1. Connect to the internet and open the app again — the check needs a connection the first time.
2. If it still fails, the 7-day signature has run out. Refresh it in AltStore, or reinstall.
3. Check Settings → General → VPN & Device Management, find your Apple ID, and tap Trust.

If you're offline and can't get online right now, the app won't open. There's no way around that one.

Nine times out of ten you installed a TrollStore build without TrollStore.

Those builds are signed in a way only TrollStore accepts. Installed any other way, they close immediately — no error, just gone.

Fix: delete it and install the sideloading build instead — the Recommended file in sideload Watusi or sideload Regram. Find your way if you're unsure which you need.

That's the 7-day signature expiring. Normal, and expected on the free method.

Fix: open AltStore and refresh it. To stop it happening, keep AltServer running on a computer on the same Wi-Fi, and AltStore refreshes in the background.

To avoid it entirely, use a signing service or a developer account — both last about a year.

Your chats and settings survive an expiry. Don't delete the app.

Two apps can't share a bundle identifier, and the App Store version has the same one as ours.

Fix: either delete the App Store version first, or install the duplicate build, which uses a different identifier and sits alongside it.

The duplicate is also what the sideload guides recommend: it lets you keep the official app for notifications.

Your Apple ID has two-factor authentication on, and the tool can't handle the six-digit code.

Fix: go to appleid.apple.com, sign in, create an app-specific password, and paste that instead of your normal one.

Full steps are in what you need before sideloading.

AltStore is the exception — it handles two-factor directly and does not want an app-specific password.

Usually one of three things:

• Wrong password type — see the app-specific password entry above.
• Too many app IDs. A free Apple ID can only register 10 apps in 7 days. Wait, or use a different Apple ID.
• Apple is rate-limiting you after repeated attempts. Leave it an hour.

If you have several Apple IDs, keep using the same one — switching mid-way invalidates what you already installed.

Expected, on a sideload. Push notifications need a signature that includes them, which a free Apple ID can't issue — and WhatsApp doesn't get them on any sideload.

The fix is to keep the official app installed next to ours and let it deliver notifications — the Watusi and Regram sideload guides set it up that way. Everything else is in why sideloaded apps don't get notifications.

If you're jailbroken and notifications are late rather than missing, that's a completely different problem — see delayed Watusi notifications.

It only appears after your iPhone has seen a sideloaded app.

Fix: install the app first, then look under Settings → Privacy & Security → Developer Mode. Turning it on restarts your iPhone.