Apple Push Notification service – FAQs

1. I forgot to renew my APNs certificate. What will happen next?

You cannot manage the iOS, macOS, tvOS devices if the APNs certificate is expired. Once you renew the expired certificate, you can continue managing the devices.

2. I have more than one APNs certificates in Apple push certificate portal. How to identify the right one?

Go to Admin > APNs Settings and note down the Topic. Now go to Apple push certificate portal and click on the Certificate Info button. The certificate you are looking for will have the UID same as the Topic in Hexnode APNs Settings page.

3. Why the status “Failed” appear sometimes when I upload the .pem file?

That’s rare. The reason is unknown, but if that’s the case, uploading the file again after a few seconds will work.

4. Can I create a new certificate instead of renewing?

We do not recommend doing this. Uploading a newly generated APNs certificate requires you to re-enroll all the previously-enrolled Apple devices.

5. I get an ‘Invalid certificate’ message when I upload the file obtained from the push certificate portal. Why?

The certificate shows invalid due to several reasons. Any of the following methods will work for you.

• Make sure you have the right file uploaded.
• Check the file. It is possible that you’ve uploaded an older file or a file generated for any other MDM or similar servers.
• The file might be corrupted somehow. Please download it again from Apple push certificate portal.

6. What’s the file format for APNs certificate?

The file format is .pem generally, but Hexnode does not check for the file format, we check what’s in it.

7. Should the devices be re-enrolled if the APNs is renewed after expiry?

If your APNs certificate has expired, then you can no longer manage your enrolled Apple devices using Hexnode UEM. In such cases, you will need to re-enroll all devices after renewing the APNs certificate using the same Apple ID used initially to obtain the certificate.

If your certificate has expired and you would like to acquire a new APNs certificate, then you will have to re-enroll all your devices. If you renew the APNs before the expiry date, you can continue managing your Apple devices using Hexnode UEM.