How to generate iOS APNs certificate in macOS Big Sur?

In 2020, macOS Big Sur, there are some minor interface changes in the keychain and also on the apple developer portal.

In this article, I will show you how to generate an APNs certificate (.p12 file) in 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Creating a CSR from Your Keychain

On your MAC open Keychain Access, navigate to Certificate Assistant and select Request a Certificate From a Certificate Authority.

On selecting this option you will be directed to the Certificate Assistant, here you have to select Request is → Saved to Disk and let the CA email Address remain blank as shown below.

Click on continue and save the file. Your CSR is now ready!

Step 2: Downloading an APNs Certificate from Your Apple Developer Account.

Log in to developer.apple.com, and navigate to the Certificates, IDs & Profiles and then click on “+” button to add a certificate.

Under Create new certificate → Services, You will see below options to choose base on your certificate type.

Select Apple Push Notification service SSL (I’ll go with Sandbox & Production), click on continue and select the Application ID for which you want to create the Certificate.

Then you have to upload the CSR file we created on the first step and finally, we can download the certificate that has been generated.

Step 3: Converting the .cer File to a .p12 Certificate

Open the .cer certificate file that you just downloaded, it will open Keychain Access.

Select your certificate (Check expiry date to confirm), right-click and choose to export your certificate in a .p12 format. Once you have this file, you’re good to go!

Now you can submit the same .p12 certificate to your backend server.

The original article is here but I’ve documented base on latest settings.

Please clap 👏🏻 this article if it helps you. Thanks!