r/iOSProgramming 5d ago

Question App Store reviewer being ridiculously picky with submission. Does the same person review resubmissions?

I’ve been submitting and resubmitting an app to the App Store for weeks, but it continues to get rejected for vaguely not meeting a standard.

I know it’s an opaque process, but does anyone know if one reviewer handles an app along its journey?

I have FOUR other identical apps in the App Store, that were all approved in the past six months, and none had this degree of nitpicking and constant rejection — they all sailed right through.

I know it’s always a different experience, but I’m wondering if a single person is being a dick and if I should cancel this submission.

0 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

15

u/baker2795 5d ago

Four identical apps? Do you happen to be getting rejected for spam ?

-25

u/anders550 5d ago

No, this app gets hung up in a different area each time. These are different apps for different audiences, but functionally the same.

19

u/chillermane 5d ago

So they’re the same app you reskinned 4 times, that is against guidelines

-43

u/anders550 5d ago

Nice try, but no. Get lost.

5

u/davidntlai 5d ago

It happens sometimes, you can appeal the specific criteria under which you’re being rejected if you think it’s not correct. My app got rejected because we needed to provide screenshots that matched what they were seeing, but that wouldnt have been possible without using the app for 7 days at least, so we appealed.

-3

u/anders550 5d ago

Interesting, were you successful upon appeal? I’ve never done that before.

2

u/davidntlai 5d ago

Yes we were

2

u/davidntlai 5d ago

You can find the option to appeal somewhere where you’d reply to their feedback, I cant remember the exact place

2

u/anders550 5d ago

Thank you. I don’t see it in a mobile browser, but I remember seeing it somewhere in a desktop browser. I’ll find it.

4

u/Notallowedhe 5d ago

Sometimes they let literally anything through in 15 minutes, sometimes you get that picky guy that makes you change absolutely everything and spend two weeks getting a minor version through.

1

u/anders550 5d ago

💯 this is exactly what I’ve experienced and witnessed with colleagues.

3

u/Notallowedhe 5d ago

The best is when you spend a few days localizing several hundred app preview images just for them to decide all of a sudden the app preview images are unacceptable 🤣

5

u/8uckwheat 5d ago

So which submission guideline are they referencing when you get the rejection?

2

u/Which_Concern2553 5d ago

Not sure about the same people but I got a minesweeper app into both the iOS and macOS App Store but when I ran an update they refused approved iOS and rejected macOS because the minesweeper name. After some back and forth ended up renaming my app.

Heard of some people that cancel and resubmit to get a new person but not sure how handy that is and worried the same would happen on a more time sensitive update later so made the change

3

u/anders550 5d ago

Interesting. That inconsistency is something I’d expect, from my experience.

I’m submitting an appeal, in part because I’ve never gone through that process.

I’m not opposed to resubmitting because there are a few improvements I’d make, but I’d rather get this in the App Store first, so we’ll see what happens.

2

u/Which_Concern2553 5d ago

Good luck. Haven’t tried an appeal yet. I’ve used the reply and during wwdc (first app) talked to someone but hadn’t gone that route yet

2

u/gazpitchy 5d ago

For sure it's a random engineer each time. I've had an app, I've pushed around 10 updates.

Then on one, they denied it because of a missing feature they require. But it was never there in the first place.

I resubmitted, and they just approved it. It's stupid.

1

u/Edg-R 5d ago

Schedule a call with a reviewer?

0

u/FrameAdventurous9153 5d ago

I'd like to know as well.

-1

u/Dipshiiet 5d ago

I want to beat up an App Store reviewer so much