How do you delete a Signing Certificate from Xcode?

I have found multiple forum postings where people have asked for how they can delete or remove a Signing Certificate. Unfortunately none of them are helpful. Some respond with non-helpful questions like "Why do you want to delete your Signing Certificate?" I'll tell you why I want to delete it. It's mine and I don't want it any more. I want it gone! Others have responded to similar questions by saying to just create a new Apple ID. I don't want to do that either. I like my world clean and orderly without junk laying around, so that answer is not acceptable either. I want clear instructions on how to delete or remove a Signing Certificate. Interestingly, the option to delete it is there but it's grayed out. Why have it there if you can't delete it?


Can someone please help me with this?

Post not yet marked as solved Up vote post of noctufaber Down vote post of noctufaber
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Certificates aren't "in" Xcode, they're in the Keychain. You should be able to delete a certificate (and its related public/private keys) in Keychain Utility. Or are you saying that Keychain Utility won't let you delete them?

  • I'm having the same issue here. The keychains are all empty, yet xcode insists on claiming existing certificate, which of course it does not let me remedy in any way. This is very frustrating.

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People ask 'why?' to help prevent mistakes when working with a non-trivial process/IDE. The process to delete can differ based on need. If your need is simply to housekeep and you intend to stop development, that's fine.


Housekeeping in this example, as QM notes, is via the keychain, which means using Keychain Access, located in /Applications/Utilities.


You'll want to locate and delete your developer, distribution and if applies, server certs, including any copies. Select 'Keychain>Login' , then 'Category>My Certificates'.


Good luck.

Post not yet marked as solved Up vote reply of KMT Down vote reply of KMT

It's not enough to delete it from your keychain, the certificate is still present in Apple Developer Center at this point.

To remove it completely do the following:

  • Log in to Apple Developer Center
  • Find the certificate in question and click it
  • Now click the "Revoke" button (see attached screenshot). Certificate should disappear.
  • Go back to Xcode and refresh the dialog. Now it should be gone.*

If it's not gone after you have done this, it just means it's still present in your keychain locally, so just remove it from here as well and you should be good.

ref: How do you delete a Signing Certificate from Xcode?

  • Apparently I have to pay the 99/year subscription to be able to manage my certificates?

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I have single distribution certificate in Apple Developer center, as well as single distribution certificate in Keychain, but two certificates in XCode Settings, and the 2nd on has status: Missing private key.
I can't install dext, may be because of wrong certificate usage. Reloading XCode and reboot didn't help. 'Delete certificate' in popup menu is grayed.