How to Submit an iOS app to the App Store (iTunes Connect) using Xcode

Question

When you're done coding your app, if I'm right, you upload your build to iTunes Connect using either Xcode or Application Loader.

What I'm asking is:
How exactly would I go about submitting my build to iTunes Connect using Xcode (6.3.2)?

Answer 1

^{This post has been updated for 2019's new AppStore Connect and Xcode 10.}

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Here is a "short" guide for what to do:

In Apple's Member Center:

1. log in using your developer account's AppleID
2. navigate to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles
3. choose Certificates
4. download / create iOS Certificates for iOS Distribution and iOS Development
5. navigate to Provisioning Profiles
6. download / create Provisioning Profiles for iOS Distribution and iOS Development

In AppStore Connect:

1. log in using your developer account's AppleID
2. navigate to My Apps
3. in the top left corner press +
4. fill in all the data it asks for

In Finder:

1. navigate to your previously downloaded certificates and provisioning profiles
2. double-click them
3. enter passwords if necessary
4. close KeyChain if it popped up

In Xcode:

1. open your project
2. in the top left corner tap on the project file
3. under Identity set the version & build numbers
4. for Signing, check Automatically manage signing
5. ...then select your team as
6. select Generic iOS Device or a connected device under Schemes
7. use cmdb to build your project
8. in the status bar, find Product and select Archive. This will take a while to archive your project and eventually bring up the Archives section of xcode's Organizer
9. click Disrtibute App
10. follow the steps to complete the process. You should only have to press Next a few times. If everything goes well, the progress will say something like uploading binary.
11. Wait until Xcode has successfully uploaded the binary to AppStore Connect. Then proceed with the steps below.

Back in AppStore Connect:

1. log in using your developer account's AppleID
2. navigate to My Apps
3. select your app
4. scroll down and find Build
5. there it should show your build you just uploaded via Xcode, select it if necessary
   • note that the build might not be selectable just yet. It needs to complete processing first. This usually takes about an hour.
6. fill in all data required
   • note If you want to manually release your app after it's reviewed select that option under Version Release, otherwise skip this
7. next, press Submit For Review
8. answer the questions they ask

...

9. When the review is finished you can either release it manually to the AppStore or it will automatically do that depending on what you selected in step 6.
   • Review for new apps usually takes about a week, but it may vary. Updates will take a few days only
   • After release its status will be Processing for App Store, that may take about half an hour
   • The status will then change to Ready for Sale which effectively means, users can now download your app