App no longer available

We work with a 3rd party developer. They upload builds and submit for approval while we edit store descriptions and release to the app store. We updated the name of our app on the app store through the iTunes connect portal, while the developers were responsible with updating the app name that displays on the iPad. All of these changes went live with our latest release.

After the new release we verified that the name updated on the iTunes connect portal and the store. We always download the store version after release to make sure that we verify that the release version matches what we tested on Test Flight beta. Unfortunately, our tester did not have the previous release installed. Normally he has only the latest beta installed through testflight.

A few days later a customer who was using the previous version of the app, noticed an issue. I was given physical access to the cutomers iPad. When I attempted to launch the app i noticed a popup with the text "App is no longer available". When I went to the app Store on the customers iPad, I could see that the latest App release was available, however, it did not have an UPDATE button available rather it had the a button get as if it didnt recognise that the previous release was installed.

What I am trying to figure out is what caused the previous release to be invalidated? and what caused the app on app store not to show as an an udpate?

I was not able to find anything useful in the MLT links below. Do you have insights you can share with me? or are there additional helpful resources you can point me at?

Check that the Bundle ID did not get changed somewhere during your app update (build or submission). A changed or different Bundle ID represents a completely different and new app as far as the App store in concerned. Thus customers of the app with the first Bundle ID can not just update to an app with a new Bundle ID, nor is data saved between those 2 completely different apps. A developer can change the name of an app (in the App store or under the icon) during an app submission without having to change the Bundle ID.

What I am trying to figure out is what caused the previous release to be invalidated? and what caused the app on app store not to show as an an udpate?

Might want to use the 'Contact Us' link below to call support and ask them to take a look (don't let them shuffle you back to the forums...).

Good luck.

We had to change the app store name (this was done through the iTunes connect portal) and the developers had to change the name of the app as it would appear on the iPad, this involved changing some field in the app configuration before ti was uploaded.