Fixing fastlane metadata download for macOS apps

I’m using fastlane to automate my app release process. When I tried to download existing metadata of a macOS app project from App Store Connect, I ran into some issues. Here’s what worked.

The problem

Running fastlane init and selecting option 3 (“Automate App Store distribution”) asks “Would you like fastlane to manage your app’s metadata?” For iOS projects, this works and downloads all metadata and screenshots. But for macOS projects, it fails with:

undefined method 'get_app_store_version_localizations' for nil

fastlane init doesn’t accept a --platform flag, so there’s no way to specify that you’re working with a Mac app.

The solution

Instead, select option 4 (“Manual setup”) when running fastlane init. Then run:

fastlane deliver init --platform "osx"

This downloads all metadata fields and creates folders only for the locales you’ve actually localized on App Store Connect. If there’s an editable version on App Store Connect (not “Ready for Distribution”), screenshots are downloaded as well.

About the --use_live_version flag

You can also run:

fastlane deliver init --platform "osx" --use_live_version true

This downloads screenshots regardless of your app’s status on App Store Connect. However, it only downloads a subset of metadata: name, subtitle, privacy_url, and support_url. It misses description, keywords, marketing_url, promotional_text, and release_notes. It also creates folders for all locales, even ones you haven’t localized.

So I’m using fastlane deliver init --platform "osx" without the --use_live_version flag. If you need screenshots, create a new version on App Store Connect first, then run the command.