We are planning to submit our iPhone app for certification, but a friend of my suggested that if the application needs the user to login every-time to use the features, then the people at Apple would not certify the application. Can some one please guide me on this.
Its not true, you just need to provide a working username and password during the app submission so that apple can test the features.
You are definitely allowed to require a login for the app to function (I've submitted an app with multiple updates that presents a login screen as the initial dialog and locks the rest of the app until the user logs in).
You need to ensure you create a test account for the reviewer to log in with though, so make sure you provide them with a valid test Username/Password combo when you submit the app for review.
While submitting to appstore there will be option for demo account like Username/password credentials there you can give your credentials to test your application
My app was rejected for requiring a registration by the user before using any features once. I asked for a clarification on the same from the App Review team, stating that my app was based on user data, and cannot proceed without authentication. Also, I updated my review Notes in the itunesConnect to mention the same. And it was accepted. :)
For safe side, You can mention this in the review notes and do not forget to give them a sample username and password!
Good Luck!
Dontwory Your app will not be rejected by Apple. There is no restriction in apple guidelines for this. I have many live apps in app store with same scenario. So you can upload your app with worrying about app rejection.
Hope it helps you.
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For last few days this cat and mouse game is going on between me and App Store Reviewers. And despite searching everywhere, I have not been able to find an answer to this question, so seeking help here.
I have submitted an app with auto-renewable subscriptions in it.
My app requires that users sign-in in order to see additional options, which includes subscription option as well.
App Store Reviewers keep rejecting my app citing this same text every time:
Regarding 5.1.1, we continue to notice that your app requires users to register with personal information to purchase non account-based in-app purchase products, which does not comply with the App Store Review Guidelines.
To resolve this issue, it would be appropriate to make it clear to the user that registering will enable them to access the content from any of their iOS devices and provide them a way to register at any time, if they wish to later extend access to additional iOS devices.
We look forward to reviewing your resubmitted app.
Best regards,
App Store Review
What is non account-based in-app purchase products by the way?
I have also made it clear in my app what App Reviewer have asked above, i.e. make clear to the users that registering will enable them to access the content from any of their iOS devices. I didn't say iOS devices specifically, but said other devices since I'll have the same app on Android devices as well.
While I appreciate App Store Reviewers to help me improve my app, but I am totally lost here. I have submitted two updates to my app but every time it got rejected with the same reason.
Over this period I have also read their guidelines, read many similar cases online, but am still not clear what is required of me here.
Do they want the users to be able to purchase subscriptions even if they are not signed in? If so then technically how does this work? First it'll break the core functionality of the app since without registration I don't have user's info to create an account for them. Secondly how will I know which user purchased the subscription? I have to tie the subscription to the user's account on my backend. This means first I need to create an account for the user before user can purchase a subscription.
Please help me to get this right.
Currently I am waiting App Store's reply and my screens looks like these, with all other options removed when not signed in, and added text bottom of the Sign-In option, and help icon on top right of the screen where there is more information available for the user; and the one when user is signed-in.
If I would be a user of your app, I think I would find this behavior quite odd.
I would expect a login/registration screen when starting your app. If I decide to create an account, the Subscription button would always be visible within the settings.
However, there would also be an option "Continue without registration". If you do not create an account, the settings page could show some info text like "Some features are only available for registered members. Please tap here to create an account". Tapping the corresponding cell would show the registration page that is also shown when starting your app for the first time.
Maybe some users created an account in the past but forgot their passwort? Then they would not be able to restore their purchases, right?
Your login/registration form should also contain a "Forgot Password" option.
My app was eventually approved last year. The change I made was to remove the Subscriptions button from the Settings menu. And move it inside the user profile page. This means that user can see the Subscription option only after signing in and by going to their profile page. While this doesn't make sense to me, but that's how probably Apple wanted it. Subsequent updates to my app were also approved without any problem.
I have a live Facebook app that is currently used in a production website. This app has not been submitted for approval as it does not need any extended permissions.
With the upcoming feature, the app will require access to an extended permission (manage_pages). Thus I will have to submit the app to Facebook for review.
As I understand the steps to recreate the user experience has to be mentioned when submitting for review. My problem is that the new feature is not available in production until the Facebook review is complete. How will the app approval process happen as I need to list out the steps to test the app when submitting?
As an alternative I could put the app back to sandbox mode and send the review, but that would disrupt the already exiting feature (which requires the app to be live).
Is there an alternate way that I could get the app approved without having to disable any existing features?
Thanks.
As far as I found out, there is currently no way, that Facebook helps you with this.
Have you found out something?
I opened an issue in the facebook-bug-tracker:
https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/1594700337461753/
Edit:
As Facebook mentions in this bug-report, the best way for this is to mention the app-id and domain of the pre-production app to the reviewer.
We're about to deliver an application to the app store.
To enjoy the app, the user have to enter a Facebook login info (Using Facebook-connect API for iPhone).
Now, to deliver the app to Apple's app store, they (Apple) ask us to provide a username+password (account info) for testing issues.
That's great, but, since our app based on Facebook account info and not our own database, do we have to provide a Facebook account info?? because if the answer is YES, it means that we have to open a fake account in Facebook.
So, does anyone know the answer?
Do we have to provide a Facebook account info in the Apple's application upload form?
I had a similar thought when delivering an app that interacted with Twitter. In the user account box on iTunesConnect I wrote something like "Enter the details of any Twitter account" and it passed the app store validation process fine.
We submitted several apps to the store that required a Facebook account and we supplied Apple with an account that we just created. However, from our logs, the Apple reviewers logged in with their own accounts :)
To be on the safe side, I would suggest that you create a fake Facebook account and add in the reviewer's notes textfield, better safe than sorry.
Simple question - can I put an app in Apple's AppStore which is only functional for those who have a username & password? This is for a client who wants to distribute their app only to a select number of people. The Enterprise license is not an option, and while ad-hoc distribution is, I'd prefer to go through the store.
As the material is semi-sensitive, I'd need to keep the description to a minimum (eg. this app is only for XYZ users, and requires a password), and screenshot to just a single screen of the login page.
Does anyone know of any apps in the store like this?
These apps are more readily rejected, but Apple doesn't explicitly disallow this. You will have to provide them a test login during the application approval process.
I'm building an iPhone app for a restaurant and would like to implement also an administration area that should only be accessible/viewable to approved users (users will be approved on a server).
Will Apple accept an App which has functionalities hidden to the majority of its users?
Thanks,
Miguel
There is a "Review Notes" field when you submit your app to the app store. From iTunes Connect Developer Guide, "Use this field to give demo account information with full access
to Apple for purposes of reviewing your application." You need to provide detail information here. If you don't do this and Apple finds out later the hidden things, then they will remove the app from the app store. You can safely provide information here, as this information is only available to the review team. User won't see that.
They don't like this, and you could get pulled if they found out. When you submit your app you are able to provide information only visible to testers, which could be used to provide a login to your admin service.