Developer ID Certificate and lapsed developer account

I am working for a company (Company A) that was recently acquired by another company (Company B). We have a Developer ID certificate under both companies, and we are in the process of transitioning all our applications from Company A to Company B.

Our Developer Program for Company A is set to expire in a couple of weeks, and we are wondering if we can continue to sign with Company A's Developer ID certificate for a couple of months after the developer program has lapsed. The Developer ID certificate doesn't expire until next year.

The problem is that there are some release cycle constraints on our side (as well as some deployment constraints with some of our largest customers) that means one application will not be able to be fully-transitioned to be signed by Company B's Developer ID certificate prior to the expiration of Company A's developer program. We plan to do a final release update for that application within a couple of months - which needs to be signed with Company A's Developer ID, and after that point we can begin using Company B's Developer ID.

So - the question is if we can let our Company A developer program expire (and use our Company B developer program for all DTS and certificate needs moving forward), but continue to sign our upcoming release with Company A's Developer ID certificate in a couple of months (after the developer program has expired, but before the certificate expires). Or, do we need to renew our Company A developer program for another year in order to continue using the Developer ID certificate in a couple of months?

Accepted Reply

Our Developer Program for Company A is set to expire in a couple of weeks, and we are wondering if we can continue to sign with Company A's Developer ID certificate for a couple of months after the developer program has lapsed.

You will be able to sign but you won’t be able to notarise, and I think that’s a bit of a showstopper.

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Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

Replies

Our Developer Program for Company A is set to expire in a couple of weeks, and we are wondering if we can continue to sign with Company A's Developer ID certificate for a couple of months after the developer program has lapsed.

You will be able to sign but you won’t be able to notarise, and I think that’s a bit of a showstopper.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"
We are currently able to notarize apps signed with Company A’s certificate using Company B’s developer account. Is that changing?

We are currently able to notarize apps signed with Company A’s certificate using Company B’s developer account.

Oh, yeah, that should work. The notary service requires that code be signed with a valid Developer ID but it does not require that the Developer ID match the team used to do the notarisation.

Share and Enjoy

Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"
Thank you for the guidance!