xattr -d com.apple.quarantine extracted/Payload/YourApp.app Also, for better compatibility, clear any extended attributes:
chmod +x ipa2dmg.sh ./ipa2dmg.sh YourApp.ipa Converting an IPA to a DMG is straightforward once you understand that an IPA is just a zip containing a .app bundle . The real challenge isn’t the conversion – it’s whether the iOS app will behave well on macOS. ipa to dmg
mkdir ~/Desktop/IPAtoDMG cd ~/Desktop/IPAtoDMG unzip YourApp.ipa -d extracted Now look inside extracted/Payload/ . You should see YourApp.app – that’s the actual application bundle. If the app has never been launched on this Mac, macOS might quarantine it. Remove the quarantine attribute: xattr -d com
xattr -cr extracted/Payload/YourApp.app Now we’ll wrap that .app into a disk image using hdiutil (the built‑in macOS disk image tool). You should see YourApp
From IPA to DMG: A Developer’s Guide to Packaging iOS Apps for macOS
While iOS apps are distributed via .ipa (iOS App Store Package) and macOS apps often live inside .dmg (Disk Image) files, converting between them isn’t a simple “rename the extension” process. However, with a few terminal commands and a basic understanding of macOS app bundles, you can package an iOS app for direct installation on a Mac.
#!/bin/bash IPA="$1" NAME=$(basename "$IPA" .ipa) TEMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d) unzip -q "$IPA" -d "$TEMP_DIR" APP_PATH=$(find "$TEMP_DIR" -name "*.app" -type d) xattr -cr "$APP_PATH" hdiutil create -volname "$NAME" -srcfolder "$APP_PATH" -ov -format UDZO "$NAME.dmg" rm -rf "$TEMP_DIR" echo "✅ Created $NAME.dmg" Run it: