Why TestFlight silently drops your build after a successful CI upload

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App Store Connect silently rejects uploaded builds that share an identical marketing version and build number with a previously submitted build, treating them as duplicates. The upload tool reports a successful file transfer regardless, making the failure invisible in CI logs and leaving developers confused when no new build appears in TestFlight. The fix is to ensure the build number (CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION) increments on every upload, which in GitHub Actions can be automated using the built-in github.run_number variable. A common cause of the issue is a dynamic build number being accidentally dropped during customization of the archive step, or an environment variable silently expanding to empty in the wrong shell context. Developers can also check 'Build Activity' in App Store Connect for processing history, and should allow a few minutes for even successful uploads to finish processing.

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