App Stuck in Pending Review for Almost a Month – Unable to Get a Response from Apple

App Store Distribution & Marketing App Review
lugitemu OP
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Hello everyone,

I'm reaching out to see if anyone else has experienced a similar situation or can point us in the right direction.

Our app has been stuck in Pending Review for almost a month, and we haven't received any updates from Apple regarding its review status.

We've tried multiple times to contact Apple Developer Support and the App Review team, but unfortunately, we haven't been able to get a response.

We've also been trying to find a way to schedule a phone call with an Apple representative, but the available support channels seem to be busy or unavailable.

We completely understand that the App Review process can take time, and we respect that. However, waiting almost a month without any communication or explanation is extremely frustrating, especially when this directly impacts our launch plans.

I'd really appreciate some advice on the following:

Has anyone experienced an app being stuck in Pending Review for this long?

Is there a specific way to escalate a review that has been pending for several weeks?

Is there any way to directly contact or schedule a call with someone from the App Review team?

We're not looking for special treatment. We simply want to understand what's happening and get some communication from Apple so we can move forward.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

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spencereholtaway OP

This is very common right now. My guess is that

  1. The iPhone Duo launch means Apple is prioritizing high profile applications submitting Duo support. Secondarily they are prioritizing apps that support the iPhone Duo.
  2. I've seen it reported that AI has caused a huge increase in submissions over the last 2 years. To exacerbate the iPhone Duo prioritization, my experience with Claude Code has gone from "Claude understands how iOS works" to "Claude has no idea how the Duo works and how it interacts with "regular phones", because the context just isn't there, and Apple's documentation for the Duo is helpful for a human but Claude is not making the same inferences I do as a human. So there's probably a lot of messy Duo stuff getting into the prioritizes queue (if my assumption is right).

I am submitting at a relatively high rate. Discovering Claude Code in Xcode after 15 years as a designer in tech has unlocked my ability to make my ideas real, working apps with high quality user experiences. However between using an LLM as my coding partner and submitting frequently, my apps are getting rejected on 4.3 and 4.2.6 grounds automatically, often after long waiting periods.