How to automate a 3rd party ios app on a real device

[MarkH]

I’m trying to use Appium to automate a 3rd party ios app (e.g. YouTube). My understanding is that this can not be done unless the app is signed with a development cert. And in order to resign/repackage an already signed app I will need to

1. Decrypt the installed app using a tool such as https://github.com/KJCracks/Clutch
2. Resign and repack the app with my development cert

From what I have gathered these two steps are very involved and need a jailbroken ios device.
Has anyone actually gone through these and is able to successfully automate a pre-installed ios app using Appium?
Is there any other way to achieve it?

[Cepin]

Hello,
maybe I don’t understand fully your problem. But why you don’t just install the app pro Appstore and the you will be able to run it and automate it.
In desired caps you will just use: bundleId": "com.apple.Preferences"
Above example will start the Settings app on iPhone. So you will just need to know the bundleid of your downloaded app

[MarkH]

My bad. I messed this up with another question I have in my mind. You are absolutely correct that an app that is already installed only needs its bundle_id specified. But if the app is from 3rd party (say YouTube for example) and I want Appium to install it using app capability. Is resign/repack the app with my development cert the only way to do it?