The Tail of Two App Developers:
The GOOD Developer:
He had been checking his app on all iOS 11 beta releases for the last 3 months.
Then on Sept 12, as soon as the iOS 11 GM seed was released and iTunes Connect started to accept updates built with iOS 11, he submitted new updates.
He wanted to get the apps through the review process and available for his users, before the general release of iOS 11 on Sept 19.
He released his iOS 11 updates in plenty of time on Sept 17.
On Sept 19 All his app ratings disappear, accept for the few he had managed to get for his new update he release 2 days ago.
He lost potential customers from downloading his app because the new App Store showed hardly any ratings for his app.
Not happy.
The BAD Developer:
He did nothing…. for months.
Then on Sept 20 he started to get emails and reports that his app did not work properly on iOS 11. So at that point he updated his Xcode, fixed the issues and submitted new updates.
There was a new option he noticed in iTunes Connect, “Rest All Ratings”, well he certainly did not want to do that, so he did not switch that on.
His updates were released and he got to keep all his ratings from his previous app version and all his new app ratings were then added to that total.
He lived happy ever after, since his ratings looked so much better than his competitor app built by the Good developer.
The Moral for Apple:
Developers that submitted new updates, built with iOS 11, after Sept 12, were effectively submitting updates for the New App Store.
They included meta data, some of which was now required, with those updates (App Subtitles, Promotional Text, Screenshots adjusted for the new App Store, App Previews since now they would play automatically) specifically for the New App Store.
These were iOS 11 updates submitted for the New App Store and not the old app store.
The Default behaviour of the New App Store is that App Ratings are not wiped. Unless the developer turns ON the options to wipe ratings with the new release.
Well until Sept 19 the option was not even displayed in iTunes Connect, so the default behaviour should have happened and the ratings not wiped.
What should have happened is the reset ratings option in iTunes should have appeared on Sept 12 (for developers submitting updates built with iOS 11 and designed for the New App Store).
The fact that the option did not appear in iTunes connect until Sept 19, the lack of the display of the option, should mean the default behaviour should happen.
For all the above reasons I would suggest that the ratings in the new App Store (for updates submitted after Sept 12) should show a total of the previous version AND the new version just like the Bad developer's does. Not just the new version.
Unless the moral pot the story is that we should all be lazy Bad developers!
Please sort this out Apple.
