MacOS App Reviews taking a long time

Question

Created May ’26

Replies 2

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I assume it's not just me... MacOS app reviews are taking a really long time now. The "24-48h" estimate no longer seems to be accurate.

On Monday morning, I submitted both iOS and MacOS versions of our app (1137297689). The iOS version was reviewed and approved in a few hours. The MacOS versions is still waiting for review 50+ hours later. This is the second time this month this has happened. Versions released early in May had the same issue. iOS is quick, MacOS is days later (and only after I gave up and filed an expedited request). Release in April was also slow. Releases last year were normally under 24h so it's fairly recent that the release process has been super slow.

It's very frustrating for our users that rely on the App Store distributions. We've had to start offering out-of-app store distribution paths due to how slow the review process is which is frustrating for us as that's more we have to maintain.

Is Apple doing ANYTHING to rectify the situation?

Answer 1

maxik OP

May ’26

I confirm everything you wrote. The wait for a review is now significantly longer.

And I can tell you that no, they aren't doing anything about it. The quality of Apple's services is going down drastically. They don't fix reported critical bugs, and they introduce new ones with every update. Reviews are just another step in lowering quality.

Not to mention that the review process is not a charity work, we pay the annual subscription and 15-30% in fees from sales... And that's what we get in exchange - making dev lives miserable by rejecting apps for every tiny thing and waiting for days for a review.

I also observed a significant drop in installations since April, so they also changed something in algorithms.

I will be adding a direct distribution in the near future too. The review process and wait time is unacceptable.

Answer 2

dkulp OP

May ’26

To follow up... Our app was FINALLY reviewed after 89 hours. Almost double the 48h that is advertised as expected.

Total time between "In Review" and complete: 4 minutes. I don't know if that is more or less than normal. I never really paid attention.