Jekyll2026-03-12T11:34:58-04:00https://volt.build/feed.xmlVoltBuilderApp Builds Made Simple!Weekly Wrap-up: July 25, 20252025-07-25T10:00:00-04:002025-07-25T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/07/25/weekly-wrap-upThis week, we added a feature that allows you to configure your release status when uploading your Android builds to Google Play. We also began a beta test to add support for using a custom Cordova Android engine version 9.1.1.

Set Your Own Release Status

Now you can use the googlePlayReleaseStatus attribute in your voltbuilder.json file to configure your app’s release status. You can set your status to one of four accepted release statuses: completed, draft, halted, or inProgress. The default value is completed. If you’re not sure which status to use, you can review the status definitions in the Google Play Developer API Documentation.

Check out what Android (and iOS) build attributes you can add to your voltbuilder.json over in our project set-up documentation for Cordova or Capacitor.

Custom Cordova Android Engine 9.1.1 - Now in beta!

We’re adding support for using a custom Cordova Android engine 9.1.1 - and this feature is currently in beta! If you’d like to get involved in the beta, email [email protected]!

Wrapping Up

We’re on the lookout for things we can do to make your experience on our site and using our build service better. If you have questions, feedback, or need support, drop us a line on our Support Forum — we’ll be happy to hear from you!

That’s all for this week! Happy building!

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Weekly Wrap-up: June 13, 20252025-06-13T10:00:00-04:002025-06-13T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/06/13/weekly-wrap-upUpdates to our tooling have been the focus of our work this week. We will be entering beta testing for Xcode 16.4 and macOS 15.5, but we’ve also begun internal testing of the new macOS Tahoe 26 and Xcode 26. Apple announced the new macOS and Xcode versions this week at WWDC 25.

macOS 15.5 and Xcode 16.4 Beta

We will be announcing the beta test of macOS 15.5 and Xcode 16.4 within the next couple of weeks. This beta will help us ensure compatibility and stability across our build services before full support rolls out. If you’re interested in participating, keep an eye out for our announcement here on our blog and in our newsletter! As always, your feedback during beta phases is incredibly valuable to us.

Internal Testing macOS 26 and Xcode 26

We began internally testing macOS 26 and Xcode 26 this week, following Apple’s announcements at WWDC. This early testing helps us stay ahead of compatibility issues so you can keep building with VoltBuilder as you update your apps. While it’s still very early in the cycle, our goal is to minimize turnaround time. We’ll share progress updates as we continue our evaluation.

Wrapping Up

As we gear up for Apple’s upcoming OS and tooling changes, we’re focused on giving you a smooth transition path and top-tier support. If you run into issues or want to chat about any of the changes, drop us a line on the Support Forum. We’re always here to help!

Thanks for building with us!

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Weekly Wrap-up: June 6, 20252025-06-06T10:00:00-04:002025-06-06T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/06/06/weekly-wrap-upClearer error messages and a smoother login experience are the focus of this week’s updates. Users experiencing App Store Connect validation failures or errors when <splash> tags are detected will now have an easier time troubleshooting their builds. We also fixed a bug on our website — now you can log in from any page!

Error Update: App Store Connect Validation Failed

We made two important updates to the the App Store Connect Validation Failed error:

  1. We added a clearer diagnosis of what went wrong: The new App Store Connect Validation Failed error message explains why the validation failed — for example, because the app has been removed or deleted.
  2. We reclassified the error type: The new error is classified as a UserError because App Store Connect validation failures indicate an issue with your app configuration or Apple account settings. Classifying the error as a ServerError led to some confusion.

These updates will help make your troubleshooting more efficient.

Error Update: Splash Tags Detected

The error when the deprecated <splash> tags are detected has also been updated to provide more specific guidance on resolving the issue. The new error still advises you to migrate to the <preference> tag, and then update your config.xml file.

Login Bugfix Correction

We also improved the login experience on the site this week by fixing an issue preventing you from logging in from some pages on the site. You can now log in from any page on the site (including this news post page — give it a try!).

You may see a brief “authenticating” message during login, but we’re working to remove that for an even smoother login experience.

Wrapping Up

We’re on the lookout for things we can do to make your experience on our site and using our build service better. If you have questions, feedback, or need support, drop us a line on our Support Forum — we’ll be happy to hear from you!

That’s all for this week! Happy building!

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Weekly Wrap-up: May 30, 20252025-05-30T10:00:00-04:002025-05-30T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/05/30/weekly-wrap-upThis week, we updated our Cordova sample project and build servers, and fixed a bug on the website — now you can login or register from any page on the site. These updates are a part of ongoing projects to expand and improve our service and improve your experience using our website.

Cordova Sample Project Updates

Our samples are a hands-on way for you to learn how to set up your own Cordova and Capacitor projects to build and publish to Google Play and the Apple App Store. Naturally, we periodically update the samples to use the same SDK and plugin versions you’ll be targeting.

Along with the usual updates, we expanded the Cordova sample project’s documentation and updated the code to better meet best practices and accessibility standards.

  • Updated the Android SDK version to 35
  • Updated the Cordova Plugin versions
  • Modernized and added comments to the config.xml
  • Added comments to the voltbuilder.json to provide better guidance for setting up your own
  • Improved the HTML structure and accessibility
  • Improved the sample app’s design

We’ll be making similar updates to the Capacitor sample project soon!

Build Server Updates

Along with our sample updates, we updated our agent hosts to maintain the performance, security, and functionality — so you can keep building with confidence.

Wrapping Up

That’s all for this week! Happy building!

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Weekly Wrap-up: May 23, 20252025-05-23T10:00:00-04:002025-05-23T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/05/23/weekly-wrap-upThis week, we resolved a bug affecting some Capacitor users with ESM enabled, and began testing updates to the plan page to make subscription management easier. The plan page updates are a part of a larger project to enhance user experience on the site. Our UX improvements are driven by the feedback you give us over on our support & community forums. We also recently moved to Bluesky and Mastodon — follow us there to stay up to date between weekly posts.

Bug Fix for Capacitor + ESM Projects

If you enabled ESM in your project by setting "type": "module" in your package.json, your capacitor.config.ts file may have been misinterpreted, causing unexpected behavior. We’ve fixed that! Things should now work as expected for Capacitor users using ESM.

Plan Page Improvements Now in Testing

We’re currently testing updates to the plan page that will make it easier for you to select and manage your subscription. These updates are part of an ongoing project to improve your experience using our website.

Our UX improvement goals are based on the feedback we get from the community over on our support & community forums. Your feedback is always welcome! You can post your feedback on the website in the Site Requests category, or request new features to our core service Feature Requests category.

Follow Us on Bluesky and Mastodon

We’ve recently moved to Bluesky and Mastodon. We’ll be sharing updates about new features and bugfixes there — give us a follow us to stay in the loop between weekly posts!

Wrapping Up

That’s it for this week! Whether it’s faster support or fewer clicks to manage your account, we’re iterating based on your pain points (and our own dev headaches). Got thoughts? Drop them in the support & community forum — we’re all ears. Until next Friday, happy building!

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Weekly Wrap-up: May 9, 20252025-05-09T10:00:00-04:002025-05-09T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/05/09/weekly-wrap-upThis week, we’ve been refining how you interact with VoltBuilder in our community forums and across our website. We’ve made updates to our support & community forums aimed at making it easier for you to get help and share your ideas. And, we’re in the process of making improvements to the Uploads and Pricing pages that should roll out over the next week.

Support & Community Forum Updates

We’ve restructured the forums to make it easier to find (and give!) help. We’ve added a dedicated space for Support Requests, and clarified the purposes of our other forum categories. Our goals for these changes are to:

  • Streamline Support Requests by giving you a dedicated space to ask us for help. We also set up a support request form, which asks you for key details (like build ID and error message) that will help our Support Team respond to questions more efficiently.
  • Enhance community participation with clearer topic categories that make it easier for you and other community members to ask each other questions and engage in discussions that interest you.
  • Improve your experience by creating spaces for you to request features and enhancements to our core service and our website. You can also vote on posts in the Feature Requests and Site Requests category to help us prioritize new features.

Website UX Improvements (Coming Next Week!)

We’re also in the process of rolling out several tweaks to the website to improve your experience:

  • Updates to the Plan page will make it easier for you to manage your account tier and billing schedule.
  • Updates to the Upload page include a more reliable “Cancel Process” button and more intuitive error and build ID copying.
  • Updates to the Documentation will expand and update the troubleshooting docs and add new migration guides.

These changes are in testing now and should roll out next week—we’ll share details once they’re live!

Wrapping Up

That’s it for this week! Whether it’s faster support or fewer clicks to manage your account, we’re iterating based on your pain points (and our own dev headaches). Got thoughts? Drop them in the new forum categories — we’re all ears. Until next Friday, happy building!

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Weekly Wrap-up: May 2, 20252025-05-02T10:00:00-04:002025-05-02T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/05/02/weekly-wrap-upIntroducing a new series: Weekly Wrap-ups! Every Friday, we’ll share a quick rundown of new features, quality of service enhancements, and bug fixes that the VoltBuilder Dev Team has worked on during the week. Our goal? To keep you in the loop on how we’re refining the platform, without burying you in technical jargon or marketing speak. If you’ve ever wondered, “What’s actually changing behind the scenes?”, these posts are for you.

Without further ado, here’s what we’ve been working on this week to make your app-building experience smoother:

JVM Fallback Flag for Capacitor

We recently added support for Capacitor 7, which requires JVM 21. Some of you ran into errors when trying to build projects with dependencies that are not yet ready for JVM 21. We’ve added a fallback flag to switch back to JVM 17 (our previous default) to allow building using older versions of Java.

That said, if you’re using Capacitor, we recommend updating to Capacitor 7, which targets the latest Android and iOS SDKs.

The new flag will help users experiencing errors like Execution failed for task ':[plugin]' > error: invalid source release: 21. Add the flag to your voltbuilder.json to use it:

{
  "capacitor": {
    "jvm_21": false
  }
}

Smarter JVM Version Detection

Along with the new flag, we’ve added smarter JVM version detection. No more manual guesswork! We’ve fine-tuned how VoltBuilder detects your Capacitor version and automatically selects the right JVM version.

Better Support for Legacy NPM Packages

Older NPM packages that rely on binary dependencies can be tricky. We’ve improved handling for these deprecated packages so they’re less likely to cause build failures.

Comment Support for JSON Files

We’ve added support for comments and other quality of life improvements for your JSON files. Here’s a short list of enhancements you can use to make configuring your builds easier:

  • Comments! Now you can add // single-line or /* multi-line */ comments.
  • Trailing commas in objects and arrays won’t break your config.
  • Single-quoted strings and multi-line strings (with escaped characters) are now valid.
  • Numbers can be hex, have leading/trailing decimals, or start with a +.
  • Extra whitespace is allowed for readability.

We’ll be updating our sample projects to showcase how you can utilize these changes soon.

Wrapping Up (pun intended…)

That’s it for this week! These updates are improvements and fixes that are based on your feedback (or what we notice ourselves as we use VoltBuilder). Got suggestions? Let us (and the community) know over on our forum. Until next Friday, happy building! 🚀

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VoltBuilder: An Ideal Alternative to Ionic AppFlow2025-03-19T10:00:00-04:002025-03-19T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/03/19/voltbuilder-an-ideal-alternative-to-ionic-appflowIonic has recently announced that AppFlow has been discontinued, leaving existing and new users searching for a reliable alternative. The solution? VoltBuilder – a CI/CD service designed to streamline mobile app development for Android and iOS. Whether you’re transitioning from Ionic AppFlow or starting fresh, VoltBuilder offers a simpler, more affordable solution.

Why You Should Migrate to VoltBuilder

With our simple, 5-step migration process, migrating from Ionic AppFlow to VoltBuilder is a seamless and smart choice. Developers who choose VoltBuilder enjoy:

Streamlined Development Workflow

  • A Seriously Simple Workflow: VoltBuilder’s process is as simple as Upload, Download, Run, Done. Zip your project files, upload to VoltBuilder, and let our platform handle the rest. Our straightforward process is perfect for transferring existing projects.
  • Store-Ready Apps in Minutes: VoltBuilder handles signing, building, and publishing your app to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, making it a seamless alternative to Ionic AppFlow. Not ready to publish? No problem! Scan a QR code to download and install your app on your device for easier testing and debugging.
  • Always Up-to-Date Tooling: Whether you’re targeting the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, VoltBuilder keeps your builds aligned with the latest platform requirements. We always use the latest Android and iOS SDK tooling, eliminating compatibility issues and saving you time.

Advanced Features for Developers

  • Powerful API for Advanced Workflows: The VoltBuilder API lets you submit and manage jobs programmatically, making it perfect for integrating VoltBuilder into larger build processes. Submit both Android and iOS jobs in one operation, monitor job completion status, and handle complex builds with multiple variations of configurations—all with ease.
  • Thousands of Capacitor and Cordova Plugins: VoltBuilder supports all Capacitor and Cordova plugins listed in NPM, allowing you to add native functionality to your apps effortlessly.

Security and Certificates Made Easy

  • Security You Can Trust: VoltBuilder prioritizes security. Your passwords, certificates, and source code are never stored in the cloud. VoltBuilder only stores your app as long as needed1.
  • Free Certificates with VoltSigner: Generate iOS and Android certificates for free with VoltSigner — no Mac or login required!

Flexible Pricing Plans

  • Free Plan for Android Debug Builds: VoltBuilder offers a free plan for Android debug builds that includes access to core plugins and free certificates with VoltSigner.
  • Affordable Premium Plans: Our premium plans are more affordable than Ionic AppFlow’s and come with a 15-day free trial, so you can explore the full range of features risk-free.

Conclusion

VoltBuilder is the ideal alternative to Ionic AppFlow, offering simplicity, security, and affordability. Whether you’re transitioning existing projects or starting new ones, VoltBuilder makes cross-platform app development easier than ever.

  1. Source code and signing keys are cached up to 48 hours on our servers. 

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Announcing: Open Beta Test for Capacitor Build Process Updates2025-03-12T10:00:00-04:002025-03-12T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2025/03/12/capacitor-7-open-betaWe’re excited to announce an open beta test of our updated Capacitor build process! These updates include support for Capacitor 7, and a refreshed build stack that includes the latest tools, SDKs, and operating systems. We’ve also updated the Capacitor sample project to use Capacitor 7.

The best part? These updates use the same quick and easy build process VoltBuilder is known for: upload, download, run, done. You shouldn’t see any changes to your job output, but to be certain, we’re running a limited-time beta.

Participating in the beta is simple:

  1. Check the box next to “Build using beta servers?” on the upload page.
  2. Upload your job.
  3. When your job completes, email [email protected] with your results. If you get an error, be sure to include the error message.

Your feedback is invaluable in helping us improve VoltBuilder for everyone. Thank you in advance for your help!

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NPM Plugins Now Pre-approved2024-08-26T10:00:00-04:002024-08-26T10:00:00-04:00https://volt.build/news/2024/08/26/npm-plugins-approvedWe’re excited to announce that our plugin review process has been updated to pre-approve all Cordova plugins in NPM. This change gives you full control over your plugin choices and makes your app build workflow faster!

What Plugin Pre-approval Means for You

Pre-approving all Cordova plugins in NPM means that you no longer need to wait to see if the Cordova plugins you want to use will be approved. If the plugin is listed in NPM, just add it to your config.xml and you’re ready to upload!

Updates to the plugin review process also make it easier for you to create your own plugins. Add your custom plugins to NPM (or fork existing one) and upload — no need to go through the review process.

You’ll still need to make sure the plugins you use are safe. Check that the plugin you want to use is well-maintained by its author, does what you expect it to do, and is compatible with your required versions of Android or iOS.

Why We’ve Updated the Plugin Review Process

The plugin review process was implemented to keep your projects safe and our servers running smoothly. Over time, we’ve improved our sandboxing and virtualization, reducing the need for us to review plugins for bad behavior.

Naturally, this means that we can now safely pre-approve Cordova plugins in NPM — and speed up your app build workflow in the process.

Looking Ahead

We have more exciting changes on the horizon aimed at making your experience with VoltBuilder even better. We’re committed to continuously improving your workflow, and we can’t wait to share what’s next!

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