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My update, which has a new feature but no bug fixes, is currently in limbo because the reviewer is getting mysterious proxy connection errors that no customer o

• dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  > the reviewer asked "How does the app utilize Touch Bar and where can we locate these features?" This kind of arrogant behavior really makes me mad.
  • donarb 6y ago
    Why is this arrogant? If they are asking about the Touch Bar, it's most likely because the developer mentioned adding some feature to the Touch Bar in the release notes and it is not apparent what that feature is. You can't advertise something that doesn't exist.
    • _qulr 6y ago
      No, the developer did not mention Touch Bar in the release notes, and the app has no specific Touch Bar features. Nothing about Touch Bar is required in the App Store guidelines.
      • dsl 6y ago
        You either referenced NSTouchBar or included a library that did so. Sometimes it is as simple as a error reporting library or ad network client trying to enumerate the device hardware. The Human Interface Guidelines explicitly lay out what is allowed and not allowed with the Touch Bar. For example, you can't turn it in to an extended display. https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/touch-bar/touch-bar-overview/ https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
        • _qulr 6y ago
          > You either referenced NSTouchBar or included a library that did so. Who are you talking to?
          • dsl 6y ago
            You were speaking authoritatively about the underlying code of an app that had a review issue related to Touch Bar, and made an incorrect statement that there are no design requirements for that feature. I was giving you guidance on why that item gets flagged for review.
            • _qulr 6y ago
              > You were speaking authoritatively about the underlying code of an app I know the developer, who was talking about the rejection. > that had a review issue related to Touch Bar, Several other developers chimed in and said they randomly got the same exact question. It's not a "review issue" per se, although it does prevent the app from getting approved. It may be some weird kind of obnoxious poll Apple is running. (Apple really wants devs to support Touch Bar.) > and made an incorrect statement that there are no design requirements for that feature. I was giving you guidance on why that item gets flagged for review. No, this is an incorrect interpretation of what I said. What I meant was that the App Store Review Guidelines don't require you to support the Touch Bar. You can have a Mac App Store app with no Touch Bar customization. None of my apps have any.
              • hobofan 6y ago
                Yup, sounds very much on par with our experience. On the first version of our app, we especially mentioned in the review comments (and configured in the release build) that we do not support iPads, as that wasn't a priority for our initial release and would have required additional testing work. Review came back as rejected with a comment along the lines of "Hey, why don't you support iPads?".
      • donor20 6y ago
        False. If you are using touch bar libraries you MUST have touch bar features and the reviewer can ask you where they are. This really shows why apple needs to be strict with devs. They will include third party code (ad networks etc) without enough care - the networks then try to device fingerprint etc. And 98% of the touch bar library use with no touch bar feature is abusive. They should let devs appeal, but if a dev lies and claims no touchbar library use when there is some, ban their account permanently. The reviewer in these cases may want to see the touchbar feature that justifies library use, the app author saying they don't have any touchbar feature means use of library is improper. So many devs do NO due diligence on the third party libraries they import.
        • _qulr 6y ago
          > If you are using touch bar libraries you MUST have touch bar features and the reviewer can ask you where they are. Ok but there are no touch bar libraries in this case. > They will include third party code (ad networks etc) without enough care - the networks then try to device fingerprint etc. Not the case here. Also, if this issue was triggered by code, then it would come up in every update, instead of just occasionally at random.
          • donor20 6y ago
            My point is simply there are guidelines around touchbar - despite your claims. Stop trying to claim that there is no guideline - as I have repeatedly pointed out - if you are using touchbar libs to fingerprint devices for ad networks - that is not allowed as one example. If this app wasn't doing any of that, then great! The reviewer was wrong. But to claim no rules around touchbar usage and calls is entirely false.
            • _qulr 6y ago
              > Stop trying to claim that there is no guideline - as I have repeatedly pointed out As I have repeatedly pointed out, I was never trying to claim that. You are arguing against a straw man. You're right. You win. The straw man is defeated.
            • 6y ago
• drampelt 6y ago
  I've been having similar issues with one of our apps, the reviewer can't seem to log in and keeps getting network error messages. No customers have had any issues, I've tried logging in to multiple accounts including the apple reviewer account on multiple networks and I have no issues whatsoever. It's really frustrating.
  • kevinob11 6y ago
    I had the same issue once and was convinced that I must have pointed the reviewer account to the wrong server. I spent 2 days debugging before I finally asked the reviewer to check their network connection, I was approved the next day. They did send a nice response admitting the issue was on their end, lesson learned.
    • _qulr 6y ago
      > lesson learned Did they learn a lesson, or just you?
      • kevinob11 6y ago
        Just me, spend ~15 minutes sanity checking then just ask them to test again.
  • ehsankia 6y ago
    Yep, I've been hearing a lot of issues like this for the past week. It's definitely an issue with their internal test servers, and even though hundreds of different apps are having the exact same issue, they keep insisting it's the devs fault...
    • heavyset_go 6y ago
      Apple takes 30% of all sales and yet can't even hire skilled quality assurance workers to run the approval process for their App Store? There needs to be real competition in the mobile app distribution space because this is absurd.
• drexlspivey 6y ago
  Wait, there are actual people reviewing every app update on the app store? Doesn't that require crazy amounts of manpower? Are they code reviewing or testing the app or what?
  • viro 6y ago
    Yea... Thats what that 30% pays for.
    • donarb 6y ago
      No, that's what the $99 a year pays for. You can create and upload a free app to the App Store and Apple gets nothing.
      • viro 6y ago
        You realize both things can pay those salaries right? Paying customers subsidizing non-paying customers is rather common. Also you know free apps have in-app purchases right?
        • donarb 6y ago
          Not every free app has in-app purchases. My city, Seattle, has an app called Find-it, Fix-it where I can report potholes or abandoned cars. One Bus Away is an app that shows bus arrival times. I have grocery apps that show me what's on sale and give me digital coupons. None of these apps have in-app purchases.
          • 8note 6y ago
            If no apps had in-app purchases, there's no guarantee that Apple could still pay those salaries.
          • ksec 6y ago
            By Apple's definition, these Apps have not contributed anything to the App Store and Apple.
• namiller2 6y ago
  We once got rejected and they sent a screenshot back of an error. The screenshot wasn't even our app.
  • Diederich 6y ago
    May I ask: if it was, how was that situation resolved?
    • hobofan 6y ago
      It's been a few years since I developed for iOS, but I guess via the "escalate this issue" button in the review dialogue. So many of our updates were first rejected by a reviewer in the first round for bogus reasons and after escalating them were quickly approved. With both of those steps taking a few days each, this made updates on iOS such an annoyance that we put it on a slower release cycle than Android.
• xuki 6y ago
  It's the inconsistency that makes me worried every time app review takes longer than a day. And then that dreaded message "New Message from App Store Review Regarding xxx" arrives, for something that has been in the app since 1.0.
• duxup 6y ago
  Stuff makes me wonder ... what does it take to be an apple app reviewer? Could I do a better job?
  • Zak 6y ago
    I suspect the problem is not primarily one of individual skill. It's one of volume/workload and incentives that don't prioritize fairness to developers. It's probably exacerbated by the lack of sideloading and alternate app stores on the platform.
    • duxup 6y ago
      Yeah I did some googling and it seemed to indicate the reviewers are actually at Apple... with the scale of work I would expect they were not / be someplace cheaper.
      • carstenhag 6y ago
        Could sti be hired at Apple directly, but at another city/country with cheap wage costs. No clue though where they have their employees.
  • sjwright 6y ago
    What Apple needs is to invest in reviewers that are also good developers who can then spend half their time reviewing apps and the other half developing tools and processes for improving the review process.
    • _qulr 6y ago
      I'm no longer engaging with you, because you completely rewrote your comment after I replied to it. That's highly misleading to readers. The reply below should be flagged and moderated for completely unacceptable behavior.
      • sjwright 6y ago
• banana_giraffe 6y ago
  I have had an app rejected because it described the ingredients necessary to cast a spell that could cause damage to others. This was in an app for managing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I made some trivial change and resubmitted without issue. I'm still annoyed by that.
  • Aeolun 6y ago
    That’s actually pretty funny.
• owaislone 6y ago
  I wonder if that is because of the technical skill required to do app reviews. If you are "too competent" as a coder, obviously you'd go and be developer somewhere else instead so I suppose it is kind of a requirement for people who reviews app submissions to not be as competent as developers as those people submitting the apps?
  • heavyset_go 6y ago
    Then Apple should pay their reviewers enough that they're able to do their job without having to jump ship to another employer. It seems like Apple doesn't care enough to do so, though. It's too bad that there isn't real competition on iOS app distribution.
    • owaislone 6y ago
      That's not what I was implying at all. It's not about money. If a person learns to actually write software on their QA job, why would they not do it for a living? In most cases, it's a more satisfying job to have. The assumption I made was that if a QA person who also reviews code a lot becomes really good at the job, they are very likely to try and become a developer themselves.
  • gcheong 6y ago
    I doubt you have to be a full on developer. Probably along the lines of a QA tester. Some overlap for sure with developers but a different skillset mostly. I think it would be interesting to work as one for a while just to see how the sausage is made though.
    • owaislone 6y ago
      I agree but there is a thin line. I've seen a lot of really good QA testers slowly start patching issues on their own and grow into proper developers. I think there is a very small window where a QA tester can be the best QA tester he/she can without getting into the developer territory especially if it involves reviewing code.
• Humdeee 6y ago
  I've honestly been successful just retrying, uploading and submitting the same build. Got it through the 3rd time.
• xiaolingxiao 6y ago
  Apple test everything on a VPN. This issue took me 2 weeks to resolve, and they had to whitelist the IP addresses for the provider I used :(
• deleted 6y ago
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• tinus_hn 6y ago
  Oh no! App review found a bug in your app that none of your customers ran into before and now you have to fix it before your app is accepted!
• jmull 6y ago
  That's almost a free bug report. That's a good thing. Investigate.
• jliptzin 6y ago
  I worked on a dating app that would almost always get rejected because the reviewer would find a profile that had partial nudity or someone in a sexy pose and would just reject the whole binary for that reason. Even for major bug fixes. Even for a feature we had added that would make it easier for users to report inappropriate photos on our app. They were holding back that feature because they found an inappropriate photo in the app. Updates would take on average 4 weeks to get approved. Very infuriating.
  • hkai 6y ago
    Sounds legit to me, it's an extra push for app developers to be extremely vigilant about their content.
    • jliptzin 6y ago
      We were trying to add tools to make it easier to find lewd profiles; their app review process was stopping us from releasing the tools that would allow us to fix the problem.
    • swiley 6y ago
      Why is it the job of app developers to do this? Also why can’t apps display lewd content? None of this makes sense.
      • Talyen42 6y ago
        Because it's Apple's phone, Apple's operating system, Apple's app store, not the developers. Does Disney allow lewd content on Disney+ or at Disneyland?
        • swiley 6y ago
          No, it's my phone, that's why I had to pay hundreds of dollars for it. If every video I watched on my computer had to be approved by Disney I'd be just as outraged.
• cnst 6y ago
  Touch Bar sucks. I cannot wait until they start offering the option to not have the Touch Bar; it's such a gimmick; I bet I'm not the only one who'd pay more to NOT have Touch Bar, but have the physical function keys instead.
  • FridgeSeal 6y ago
    I literally camped out the refurbished macs section until I found the specs I wanted without the Touch Bar. Took like 4 months, but I got it cheaper than new so it was worth it IMO
    • cnst 6y ago
      I'll be special-ordering MacBook Air as my next laptop, because the work only provides MacBook Pro, and MacBook Pro is not available with a professional (physical) keyboard -- only with Touch Bar. I really hope they release an Apple Silicon MacBook still without Touch Bar.
      • prawel 6y ago
        I'm using MB Air 2020 now because of that, just couldn't stand Touch Bar in my previous MB Pro. It is slower unfortunately, but at least it has normal, usable keyboard.
        • BigJ1211 6y ago
          The only thing you're missing is the F1-F12 keys, is this really so awful for you?
          • cnst 6y ago
            With TouchBar, you cannot change volume quickly without looking at the keyboard, spotlight gets activated all the time as you lay your hands around the keyboard -- yes, it's really that awful for many folk. A lot of people use MacBook Pros for software development and Terminal access, and F1-F12 keys are often mapped to specific functions, from console software in Terminal, to cross-platform web browsers, to VirtualBox and such. It's not that difficult to remember which Fn key stands for which functions if you're a professional, it's easier to document Fn than the special case of a pictogram that's only available on select hardware, and Fn is 100% backwards-compatible, cross-platform and supported through Terminal OSS applications, plus much faster to use if you're a professional. If you're a non-professional user who's never used F1-F12? Yes, sure, the TouchBar might be distractingly enjoyable to look at.
• Alex3917 6y ago
  > I saw another developer today say their app was "rejected" because the reviewer asked "How does the app utilize Touch Bar and where can we locate these features?" This might not be an Apple policy, as much as a reviewer just holding the app maker hostage until they get their personal feature request approved.
• ubertoop 6y ago
  Similar experience. Had an app reviewer when my app first launched, who was complaining that 2FA was failing for them, so they couldn't allow the app to go live. I was livid. It had worked for EVERY beta tester. It turns out it was 100% the tester's fault. It "mysteriously" fixed itself. Aka, they realized that the 2FA was via email instead of SMS and finally after 2 weeks of back and forth, passed the app.
  • deleted 6y ago
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