An Application Group with identifier ... is not available. Please enter a different string

Question

I am working on a shared Xcode codebase for the first time, and trying to run the app on my phone. I am signed in to my developer ID, and I had to rename all the Bundle identifiers. However, now the app is not launching because it says

An Application Group with identifier 'your name here' is not available. Please enter a different string.

Where can I change the name of the Application Group?

Also I have tried the instructions here to change the Product Name: How to change the name of an iOS app? but actually in my project I see there is no product name, so this doesn't seem to be the right way.

Answer 1

From your error message I can determine that your chosen App Group ID is unfortunately used by someone else outside of your team. And based on that you need to:

Create a new App Group:

Create a new App Group with another ID, i.e. group.com.company.newappgroupname. The smoothest way is to open your project in XCode, then open your target information and then open the Capabilities tab. Here you'll find your team's App Groups and the possibility to add new ones (by clicking the + sign). This is also where you choose that you're app will "join" the specific App Group by checking the check box.

Extra - If you want to delete an App Group:

This can't be done in XCode, so then you need to log in to the Apple Developer Portal and click on 'Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles'. Then find your way to Identifiers -> App Groups on your left. Now all your team's App Groups are listed on your right. Click once on one of the App Groups and choose to delete it. NOTE: This also the place to edit the App Group Name, but observe that the name is different from the App Group ID. The error message in the question refers to the ID being taken!