Switch from paid developer membership to free

I used to have a paid developer membership but now I'd like to do some development using the free personal membership that should be available.


When I log in to the developer portal I just get a red banner telling me to renew my paid membership. In Xcode when I log in with my Apple ID it shows my account as "Role - User" instead of "iOS Developer - Free", which I have seen should be the case according to some online tutorials for creating free developer accounts (such as this one).


There must surely be a way to go from a paid membership to a free one, but how? (All of this leads to that I can't create a provisioning profile for iOS Development).


Thank you!

Replies

Hmm...I've used both with no issues.


Try this process.


Free provisioning/testing on your device:

• From within Xcode 7.x or higher (Mac only), navigate to “Xcode—->Preferences—->Accounts.” Hit the '+' icon below left to add your Apple ID*. After you add your account, it will show within the main account window on the right.

• Select your account, hit the “View Details” button and wait (be patient) for them to load.

• Now create the 'signing identity' used to create a provisioning profile used for device testing - Hit the “Create” button next to the 'iOS development' label. When completed, hit ‘Done’. If the create button is dimmed, continue waiting for the process to complete.

• Connect your device (cable only, not wireless) and select it as build destination via the 'active scheme' dropdown to the right of the play and stop icons.

• In target's 'General' tab/settings:

• a. Set app identifier you want for your free profile

• b. Set team id as your apple id

• c. Hit 'Fix Issue' button below the provisioning profile warning

- You may have to ‘Fix Issue' more than once - keep at it so Xcode can step thru them as needed.

• Run your app with your device selected.**


Free provisioning secrets/things you’ll want to know:

- The profile will be valid for 1 week, after which time you will need to recreate a new one.

- There is a limit to how many apps you can build and test to your device. If you hit this error, delete old versions and try again.

- Maximum number of (connected only) devices limit is reported as 3.

- What you can/can't do w/free provisioning is listed here:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/SupportedCapabilities/SupportedCapabilities.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012582-CH38-SW1

- If you see an error that says "change your Bundle Identifier to a unique one”, that means don’t use: com.sample.app …add your last name or some string to the end such as com.sample.lastname. You may need to change it again if your app goes to the store.

- If this is about creating an .ipa to manually hand off, select Build For Archiving under the project menu, not ‘Run’.

- *If you have, or plan to have, a paid developer account, be sure to use a unique/different apple ID for each account.

- **Free accounts may experience issues launching apps on the watch for the first time.

Workaround: Launch the app manually on the device and click “Trust” when the security sheet appears. You should then be able to launch the app from Xcode.

v old post now, but for anyone else having problems going back to a free account - contact apple support.

In my case, it turned out I had an old iPhone registered to dev account from years ago, and had no way of unregistering it because the ability to manage devices is reserved for paid accounts.

Support removed it from my account, and I was able to build for my current iPhone straight away.