Transfer Mac App Store app - sandbox

I am trying to transfer an app of mine into my company iTunesConnect account but are getting the error:
You can't transfer this app because of the following reasons:
Sandboxed Group Container
You can only transfer sandboxed apps that are not sharing a group container.
the thing is, my app isn't using the group container any more, it was in an older version but not the currently shipping version in the Mac App Store.
does anyone have any experience with how to go about transferring the app?

Even though my app wasn't currently using a group container (it had in the past) I couldn't transfer it. I had to re-upload as a new app losing all my reviews.. :(

It appears to be impossible. I got the following response from iTunes Connect Support (September 15, 2017):
I have reviewed your enquiry and found that once the app has the
entitlement included, an app transfer will not be possible, even if
you submit a new version without the entitlement. However, you can
transfer the app via the binary reassigned process.
By completing this process (a "binary transfer"), the app will effectively be a new and separate app on the Mac App Store. This might of course be very inconvenient, but there's not really anything to do about it, unless Apple changes the rules.

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Azure function - "Did not find any initialized language workers"

I'm running an Azure function in Azure, the function gets triggered by a file being uploaded to blob storage container. The function detects the new blob (file) but then outputs the following message - Did not find any initialized language workers.
Setup:
Azure function using Python 3.6.8
Running on linux machine
Built and deployed using azure devops (for ci/cd capability)
Blob Trigger Function
I have run the code locally using the same blob storage container, the same configuration values and the local instance of the azure function works as expected.
The functions core purpose is to read in the .xml file uploaded into blob storage container and parse and transform the data in the xml to be stored as Json in cosmos db.
I expect the process to complete like on my local instance with my documents in cosmos db, but it looks like the function doesn't actually get to process anything due to the following error:
Did not find any initialized language workers
Troy Witthoeft's answer was almost certainly the right one at the time the question was asked, but this error message is very general. I've had this error recently on runtime 3.0.14287.0. I saw the error on many attempted invocations over about 1 hour, but before and after that everything worked fine with no intervention.
I worked with an Azure support engineer who gave some pointers that could be generally useful:
Python versions: if you have function runtime version ~3 set under the Configuration blade, then the platform may choose any of python versions 3.6, 3.7, or 3.8 to run your code. So you should test your code against all three of these versions. Or, as per that link's suggestion, create the function app using the --runtime-version switch to specify a specific python version.
Consumption plans: this error may be related to a consumption-priced app having idled off and taking a little longer to warm back up again. This depends, of course, on the usage pattern of the app. (I infer (but the Engineer didn't say this) that perhaps if the Azure datacenter my app is in happens to be quite busy when my app wants to restart, it might just have to wait for some resources to become available.). You could address this either by paying for an always-on function app, or by rigging some kind of heartbeat process to stop the app idling for too long. (Easiest with a HTTP trigger: probably just ping it?)
The Engineer was able to see a lower-level error message generated by the Azure platform, that wasn't available to me in Application Insights: ARM authentication token validation failed. This was raised in Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Script.WebHost.Security.Authentication.ArmAuthenticationHandler.HandleAuthenticate() at /src/azure-functions-host/src/WebJobs.Script.WebHost/Security/Authentication/Arm/ArmAuthenticationHandler.cs. There was a long stack trace with innermost exception being: System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException : Padding is invalid and cannot be removed.. Neither of us were able to make complete sense of this and I'm not clear whether the responsibility for this error lies within the HandleAuthenticate() call, or outside (invalid input token from... where?).
The last of these points may be some obscure bug within the Azure Functions Host codebase, or some other platform problem, or totally misleading and unrelated.
Same error but different technology, environment, and root cause.
Technology Net 5, target system windows. In my case, I was using dependency injection to add a few services, I was getting one parameter from the environment variables inside the .ConfigureServices() section, but when I deployed I forget to add the variable to the application settings in azure, because of that I was getting this weird error.
This is due to SDK version, I would suggest to deploy fresh function App in Azure and deploy your code there. 2 things to check :
Make sure your local function app SDK version matches with Azure function app.
Check python version both side.
This error is most likely github issue #4384. This bug was identified, and a fix was released mid-june 2020. Apps running on version 3.0.14063 or greater should be fine. List of versions is here.
You can use azure application insights to check your version. KUSTO Query the logs. The exception table, azure SDK column has your version.
If you are on the dedicated App Service plan, you may be able to "pull" the latest version from Microsoft by deleting and redeploying your app. If you are on consumption plan, then you may need to wait for this bugfix to rollout to all servers.
Took me a while to find the cause as well, but it was related to me installing a version of protobuf explicitly which conflicted with what was used by Azure Functions. Fair, there was a warning about that in the docs. How I found it: went to <your app name>.scm.azurewebsites.net/api/logstream and looked for any errors I could find.

How to publish UWP app specifically for Xbox?

Is there a way to target Xbox device family specifically when creating a new UWP application? Thus making that application package unavailable for the other platforms, while potentially have a different package for other platforms?
Currently I'm trying to create a package for Xbox only by adding
<TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Xbox" MinVersion="10.0.14000.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.14000.0" />
to the package.appxmanifest. Unfortunately this gives permission error on uploading via the dev center:
Package acceptance validation error: The package *.appx targets the following Windows 10 device families for which you don't have permission(s): Windows.Xbox
I think this is the correct way to do it and that the permissions might be granted somewhen after the anniversary update? When will publishing be possible? Or is there another program you have to sign up to for being allowed to publish an Xbox only application / get the required permission?
Currently, Windows Store is not ready to accept XBOX app. As pnp0a03 mentioned, Microsoft will publish the new Dev Center feature and publish more details about publishing XBOX target app in Store, maybe later this month
Setting TargetDeviceFamily dependency is the right direction, the current available device families are Windows.Universal, Windows.Mobile, Windows.Desktop. Please waiting for the updates from Windows Store side.

Can I modify an app manifest and re-sign the SharePoint .app file?

I am building a SharePoint 2013 provider-hosted app using the high-trust model. This allows a customer to deploy the .app to their App Catalog and make it available to all SharePoint Sites. The provider-hosted portion of the app runs in an IIS box (cluster) which the customer also deploys (on-premise) with setup instructions and automated tools.
The .app file structure includes the application manifest - which specifies the precise endpoint where the provider-hosted portion resides, and also specifies whitelisted endpoints which the add-in can call. These are all specified by entering in URLs, hostnames, and port numbers into edit fields in Visual Studio in the 'Deploy App' form just before the .app file is built and digitally signed.
This seems to work just fine for a single app built by IT folks internally, if the org is small enough... but I really want to be able to distribute this solution to more than one customer. In order to do so, I would have to ask the customer for their respective endpoints, enter them into my build tools, and rebuild the .app for them. This just doesn't seem right... no customer wants to talk to the developer first and have a custom-built app. And why should they? No code is changing...
Upon investigation into the .app file format, it turns out it is really just a simple .zip file - and inside (voila!) there is the app manifest! Unfortunately, if you edit the app manifest and re-zip the file, the digital signature is broken, and the .app no longer works. (grrrr...)
What I want to do is simply reconfigure the app manifest to match the environment where it is deployed. This can happen programmatically during setup/installation time, or perhaps even just prior to download, but cannot be a process that involves developers typing into visual studio and pressing Rebuild. That simply won't scale.
Is there a tool that exists that can help with this problem? If not, does anyone have experience with the signing of .app files programmatically? I'm open to skinning this cat in any way possible.
This is a wild idea and not maybe even possible.
Create web ui, where clients enter their endpoints.
Have internal process that invokes MSBUILD/TFS to package app with endpoint
change app manifest with pre-build powershell
Then provide app via email or download?
http://www.sharepointconfig.com/2013/10/building-sharepoint-2013-apps-with-tfs-2013/
This is more of a workaround than a true answer - but would work:
For on-premise deployments of high-trust SharePoint 2013 apps - build the application with "known endpoints" - essentially hard-coded endpoints that can be deployed locally. Then instruct the customer to redirect those endpoints using DNS records or hosts file entries. In addition, the client would need to generate a local wildcard certificate signed by their own trusted root in order to satisfy the SharePoint 2013 app model requirements for appdomain and server-to-server communication.
This is by no means ideal, but for certain environments it might be the most practical approach. This also allows scaling for the IIS WebApp to occur at the customer-site, where it realistically belongs for a high-trust app.
This approach avoids the need to automate build tools and also avoids building a separate instance for every customer - both of which are somewhat undesirable. It might, for those reasons, be slightly less costly - but it also pushes some responsibility to the customer. Namely - hard-coding a DNS entry locally for machines in the topology.

Access 2013 web app - restoring previous app snapshot package without reverting data (structured staging environment)

I have a reasonably complex Access 2013 web app which is now in production on hosted O365 Sharepoint. I would like to take a backup (package snapshot) into a test environment, and then migrate this to production once development is complete (I certainly don't want to do development on the production system!). The problem is that the snapshot also backs up all data so uploading the new package over the top of the existing package in the sharepoint app repository reverts the data to the time of snapshot as well. Alternatively, rolling back to the original snapshot if there are issues would lose all data after the new package was applied.
I can easily get a second version of the app going by saving as a new application etc but this creates a new product ID etc in the app store. We also use a Access 2013 desktop accdb frontend to hook directly into the Azure SQL database to do all the stuff that the web app can't provide (formatted reports etc) so I cant just create a new app every time without dealing with all of the credential and database renaming issues.
So my question is, does anybody know how to safely operate a test environment for Access 2013 web app development? One needs to be able to apply an updated version, or rollback to the old one if there are problems without rolling back the data. With the desktop client I can just save a new copy of the accdb file every time obviously. I dont mind creating a new instance or link to the app on sharepoint each time, however this obviously generates a totally new database (server name, db location, login id's etc) as well. You would hope there is a way to upload and replace your app without touching the data, else how else can you develop without working directly in production?
Any answers would be really appreciated.
Thanks.

Deploying a privileged test app on FirefoxOS device

Is there any way I can distribute a "privileged" app prior to marketplace approval?
It's kinda hassle for me to "push" app to the device using Firefox OS Simulator every time I need to test it. Would it be great if I can just point my browser to app's html file and then it will automatically re-install the app? Just like what android *.apk does.
You cannot install a privileged app on a real device without the simulator dashboard (or app manager) if you didn't submit it to the marketplace first (and was approved). For security reasons, the application needs to be signed, so it's why you need to publish it to the marketplace.

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