App Store Rejection Due To Being U… | Apple Developer Forums

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Hello! Please could we get some guidance on how to handle this situation.

We have developed an app which uses Firebase as its backend. This is only Firebase Remote Config for some basic text and feature roll outs, and Firebase Storage for the content of the app. Both sets of data are incredibly small.

When the app is in the App Store Review process, the data is not being delivered to the app for the reviewer, and the app states the user needs to retry their network request after a 10 second time out.

However, we are completely unable to recreate this issue. We've used real devices, simulators, different iOS versions, and a range of networking speeds and this proves to be completely fine for all users. However, it happens for the reviewers. We have tested the app fully on the exact same device and iOS as the reviewers.

This has lead to the app being rejected due to:

Guideline 2.1 - Performance - App Completeness**

We discovered one or more bugs in your app. Specifically, we were still unable to access the app. Please review the details below and complete the next steps.

We have read on a few other forums that people have seen similar issues where Apple cannot download data in the app, with people suggesting it is caused by an Apple Firewall.

We are confident the app is in a stable position. We are starting to get increasing pressure on getting this version released, and as a very small studio, this has the potential to ruin partnerships which will have a major knock on impact.

We're unsure what else to do. Any advice would be great!

Thanks you!

App Review

5.2k

Posted by

HackedRealityStudio

Reply

To add some more context to this: We're using Firebase via SPM. We're currently using version 9. This is not the latest version, but we're still surprised to see this.

The reviewers are using iOS 16.3. This has been used in prod by many users who have not seen this issue.

The app previously went through a review on iOS 16.2, and we did not have any issues.

We're using Xcode 14.2.

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HackedRealityStudio
(Continue) After some more investigation today, it appears the issue is with Firebase Cloud Storage rather than with Remote Config. The error being reported is "An unknown error occurred, please check the server response". Some people have suggested it's an issue with the access rules, but these are set as expected. Additionally, a more descriptive error is given when access is not allowed, so we are confident this is not the issue.

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HackedRealityStudio

Accepted Reply

I was in contact with Google support. They recently updated me that they resolved the issue with Apple reviewers. I had my app approved with no change to my existing code. Hope it helps someone!

Posted by

xjyribro

Replies

I have the same error, did you find a solution?

Posted by

Mettle

No solution yet, but I have messaged Firebase. I will post on here if this is solved. Please can you do the same if we solve this.

I have added more detail about the version of Firebase we are using etc as a comment on my post above. Please can you see if you are using the same version or if anything else links up which may be the root of the issue?

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HackedRealityStudio

I have the same error. Did you find a solution ? Thanks. Best regards, Dan

Posted by

Danvdb

No solution yet, but I have messaged Firebase. I will post on here if this is solved. Please can you do the same if we solve this.

I have added more detail about the version of Firebase we are using etc as a comment on my post above. Please can you see if you are using the same version or if anything else links up which may be the root of the issue?

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HackedRealityStudio

To add some more context to the original post about this issue to see if it lines up with’s experience:

We’re using Firebase version 9 with SPM. This version is slightly outdated (current version is v10.x) but this is still surprising behaviour. It appears fine everywhere else.

The App Store reviews are using iOS 16.3. We had a successful review with iOS 16.2, but this has always happened on 16.3. Many users in prod use iOS 16.3 without issue.

We have identified this is happening for Firebase Cloud Storage, rather than for Remote Config. The error reported is “An unknown error occurred, please check the server response”. Some people have suggested it’s caused by storage access rules, however the rules are as expected. Additionally, a specific error is thrown for when the user does not have access.

We are using Xcode 14.2.

We have emailed firebase support, but we're not expecting to hear about for a few more days. We are considering setting up a new cloud storage system in case this continues/ happens again.

Posted by

HackedRealityStudio

I have the same error. Did you find a solution? Thanks. Best regards, Arvi

Posted by

RidwanArvi

I have the same issue. Any solution found? Please help me out.

Posted by

RobiUllah

Update - Our version of the app was approved after they managed to get data from Firebase, but we could see from our analytics that this happened after the reviewer moved off WiFi to using data, making it feel more likely this is caused by something on Apple's WiFi. We have not seen the issue for a single user outside of the reviewers.

I reached out to Firebase, and they said they cannot recreate it so will not look into it.

My plan for upcoming reviews is to ask the reviewer to not use their WiFi. If the issue continues, I'm going to move away from Firebase as we cannot have a tool that is causing this much of an issue. Changing will be a fairly big job, but will save time in the long term.

I'll post any other updates here.

Posted by

HackedRealityStudio

Hi there! Yes be so kind please, drop a line if it worked 🙏

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nocodedev
Hi! I tried the same and asked them to use mobile data... With the 3rd try I finally see they heard me. But the images still not present.

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nocodedev
Didn't work for me, with mobile data still no data present

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nocodedev

With mobile data still no images present

Posted by

nocodedev

Even with mobile data, it still seems to have issues. Has anyone solved this problem?

Posted by

modamu

I am getting the same issue. Rejected for App Completeness because app is loading (fetching data from Firebase which is ~200kb) takes forever. Firebase storage without even auth needed. Literally, anyone can access firebase storage data (Another security thing but not the point).

The point is that every testflight tester within/outside Australia (Even ones in the US) are getting the data just fine, whilst only the apple team gets a problem with their network.

It does not even crash, so no logs are being detected on our analytics. It's hard to reproduce as well if only Apple testers are getting this problem whilst the rest of the world are fine.

I am really stuck here as I have sent them videos showing that it works.

Posted by

themobilecoder

Were you able to solve this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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rb33zy

I’m having the same exact issue and it’s indeed Cloud Storage and most probably something in Apple’s network. I am in contact with Firebase support for the second time and asking them if they shouldn’t contact Apple about this, as this has huge impact. Will post if I find out something new.

Posted by

loolooii

I’m also having the same issue. Could this be an issue with a specific bucket location? We are using europe-west3

Posted by

ntorring

@ntorring that is an interesting thought, it might be that it's indeed only with specific bucket locations, as otherwise, the impact would be much bigger. I have europe-west1. A Firebase support representative told me that he let the engineering team at Firebase know and they might contact Apple about this. I think they are starting to realize this might be a big issue.

Posted by

loolooii

Mine is australia-southeast1 and it does not work for apple reviewers. So apple network does not connect to firebase storage outside US? Can anyone confirm using firebase servers within the US?

Posted by

themobilecoder

I had a similar problems and i figured it out that the reviewer might have turned off / doesnt have internet connection (as network indicator in the app bar was not shown on the screenshots) or has network configuration issues. The way how firebase sdk mitigates these network outages when using firestore database and storage can result in this “resources stalling” kind of user experience. At least thats how we could reproduce the problem. Anyhow its because the device its tested on doesn’t have proper network connection as opposed to the hundreds of testers who did not report any problems with our application.

Posted by

Adam108

I finally got my two apps approved, they both required an initial fetch from Firebase Storage. I don't know if Apple has resolved the issue, or they actually tested on a cellular connection, as i requested they do, if they encountered any issue. I also referred to this thread in the reviewer notes.

Posted by

nikolajt