App review process

Question

Patrick79305 OP

Created Jan ’24

Replies 3

Boosts 0

Participants 2

Hi Guys,

I've submitted my first app to the app store. Submitted it halfway November 2023. It went into review but needed "additional review". And then it went silent..... I contacted app review and they told me to "be patient and they would contact me if there were any issues". Then it became silent again.

I've finally rejected the review myself as I have build the next version of the app with more features and uploaded it for review. It now stays in the state "waiting for review", both the TestFlight version and the "official" version stay in this state.

Am I doing something wrong or is this "normal"? Because it's becoming quite a frustrating experience. The same app is published in the Google Play store (it's build using flutter, so cross platform). That submission only took a day and updates to it take a few hours.

Patrick

Answered by endecotp in 775904022

We don't know what they are doing. I suspect it may be some sort of background check on you or your business, or maybe a more forensic analysis of the app to look for malware / backdoors - but that's just my speculation. The fact that it's your first submission may make a difference. It may be random, or it may be due to the particular nature of your app.

I've been doing this for more than a decade, and review times have gone up and down. I did once get the "additional time needed" message, and I think it was resolved in a couple of weeks - with no clue what they had actually been doing for that time, except that my server logs indicated that they had not actually used the app in any significant way, IIRC.

Others may have other experience / opinions. You could try searching the forum for "additional time" or some other phrase from the email - but the forum search is so crap you may not find anything.

Boost

Answer 1

endecotp OP

Jan ’24

It’s always best to just do what they say:

be patient

is this "normal"?

It’s not unusual.

0

Answer 2

Patrick79305 OP

Jan ’24

Ok, and what's the timeframe I should take into account? Because taking more than a month to review a very simple app was not exactly what I was expecting.

And the other build will then probably stay in the "Waiting for review" until the "additional review" of the first build is done?

0

Answer 3

endecotp OP

Jan ’24

Accepted Answer

We don't know what they are doing. I suspect it may be some sort of background check on you or your business, or maybe a more forensic analysis of the app to look for malware / backdoors - but that's just my speculation. The fact that it's your first submission may make a difference. It may be random, or it may be due to the particular nature of your app.

I've been doing this for more than a decade, and review times have gone up and down. I did once get the "additional time needed" message, and I think it was resolved in a couple of weeks - with no clue what they had actually been doing for that time, except that my server logs indicated that they had not actually used the app in any significant way, IIRC.

Others may have other experience / opinions. You could try searching the forum for "additional time" or some other phrase from the email - but the forum search is so crap you may not find anything.

0