Finally, thanks to most of you, I got my first app approved by Apple. The problem is that I'm only able to find it on the app store if I click on the link provided on iTunesConnect.
If I try to search with any of the keywords I inserted in the metadata I don't find my app.
One more thing the link is like this:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gearup/id441500177?mt=8&ls=1
does the "/us/" mean that it is only on the american app store. I didn't select any specific country (they are all selected).
thanks
You can remove the /US/ from the link. You're just seeing that error because the US store is not your default.
The link works for me and shows your app on itunes.com before launching the iTunes application
Your searches may not work until your app has been propagated to all the various stores. Sometimes that can take a while.
Immediately after going live and having been accepted, there will always be a small amount of time while the app propagates across the Apple servers.
Your link works as koregan stated, and yes the /us/ is the country code. For example, if you replace it with fr then you see the web page in French - if you localized the app then you will see the app information with the text you would have supplied; else you will see it in English.
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A few days ago my iPhone game has been approved for sale. When searching its name in the search bar of the App Store, it showed my App. Now when I try to search my game, it doesn't show any result. The direct link still works, however.
Any suggestion?
Check which country's App Store you are viewing currently. Probably it's not the same as the country your app is live now.
The issue fixed by itself with time. I don't know why, but my application is appeared back in the search results of the App Store.
I suspect it was because of an internal trouble that Apple was having with the App Store servers at that time, maybe it erroneously removed my app record from the search database, and now they managed to restore it.
I'm getting ready to submit an App that relies on the user being at specific locations to watch a video. (Kind of a mashup of geocaching and youtube.) Needless to say none of these videos are anyway near Apples headquarters. So how will the App store review people be able to properly review the App? Do I have to provide test data in their vicinity or can I instruct them to fake their geolocation to a location that works?
I guess the best way is to just submit it once, wait ~7 days and see what they have to say,
but since they have special toolchains to test apps, it shouldn't be a problem.
Just make sure to mention it in the review notes.
I've submitted an update to an app once that requires an user and password to login, and gave them a test user. When I checked the server logs, they never logged in once - but the app was still approved.
The iOS Simulator can 'fake' its location :) Though I doubt what they DO review in their process, because once they accepted one of my Apps' update which crashed upon launch...
Recently had to deal with this myself... submitted a location specific app without any extra review notes, and the app got rejected. In the rejection notice I was given the instruction to create a video of the app in action and then provide a link in the review notes.
So I used another iPhone to take the video, put some basic explanation text in the video using iMovie, uploaded to YouTube, put the link in the reviewers notes, re-submitted the app and then 5 or so days later it was approved.
As I understand, they review team does NOT test the usability nor stability of your app during app reviewing. All you need to do, is to provide an testing account, and some sample data, screenshots to them helping understand how your app works. If the app does not show any data because of a reasonable circumstance, it's not the problem of your app quality nor user usage, but data coverage. So you won't have problem with it.
Just trying to make a button that links in ratings tab in app store but have some problems doing so, found lot of links with itms:// and http:// as prefix but non of them work in simulator could anyone help me?
The simulator has no app store; none of them will work.
You want a link like this:
http://www.itunes.com/app/[appname]
That'll work on the device, but not the simulator. There's another variation that lets you specify the company name, too. The link will go to Safari first, which will a moment later open App Store without the user needing to do anything.
Source: Technical Q&A QA1633 Creating easy-to-read links to the App Store for your applications and company
You can try using a itms+apps style link, like this:
itms+apps://www.itunes.com/app/[appname]
This will skip launching Safari first, and just go straight to App Store. While this currently works, I'm not sure it's documented anywhere. I plan on trying this, and I'll update this answer later if I'm approved.
If what you want is a link directly to the Reviews section for your app's App Store page, you want something like this (replace the id parameter with your own):
itms-apps://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewContentsUserReviews?id=393783219&onlyLatestVersion=true&pageNumber=0&sortOrdering=1&type=Purple+Software
For the main App Store page, use:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id393783219
And like Steven Fisher said, it won't work on the Simulator.
When the user selects "Reject" on my Terms and Conditions page, I'm able to display an alert, but I can't figure out how to exit from the application completely. Is there a way to do that?
Apple discourages apps from quitting themselves—it gives the user the impression that the app has crashed—and based on the fact that I've never seen an app display terms-and-conditions nonsense when it starts up, I'd guess that that's a surefire way to get your app rejected from the Store in any case. iTunes Connect allows you to provide custom license text when you're submitting the app; I'd recommend just using that.
I just faced this challenge and thanks to #Noah Witherspoon I found how to set a custom license in order to be shown before downloading the app from AppStore. Please refer page 52 of the iTunes Connect Developer Guide in order to see what would happen when you do that.
I want my application to be unsearchable from the App Store. I would like that only those users who sign in to my web site and then click the link of my iPhone application on app store, can install and use my application.
Is there any way to do that?
To hide your application you have to remove all the App Store countries in iTunes Connect:
Go in Manage your Applications > [Your Application Name] > Rights and Pricing
Click on "Deselect All" App Stores and "Save". The Application will change state to "Developer Removed".
To get it back on the App Store, choose the countries where you want it publish.
PS: it might take more than some hours for changes to be reflected on the App Stores.
Your application will be found when they search for the name of the app or your name. There's no special option in iTunes Connect to hide your app.
While your application will be found when searched for, as long as it's not installed in large numbers, it won't show up in the top 50 lists. Which kind of is the same.
Tip: don't specify any keywords when registering your app, as these will improve the "searchability".
Edit: you might want to implement some kind of authentication in your app, so users who do have installed your app need to register first, before they can actually use it. Relying on your app not being found, isn't very "clean".
I think, without meaningful keywords your app should vanish amongst the 99.999 other apps.
As an alternative you could let everyone (search and) download the app and disable it until the user signed in.
You can also use in-house-distribution with the enterprise program (see here).
Apple sells special developer licenses if you want to control the installation. They are meant for Enterprises to develop and deploy applications for only their use. Here's an article about it:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/platforms/new-iphone-enterprise-developer-program-299-musings-about-iphone-app-licensing-648
Since iTunes Connect has been redesigned a bit, go to My Apps > Select your app > Pricing and Availability > Availability (2nd section) > Select Remove from sale.
The best bet is to use obscure keywords on submission along with an obscure app name.
Not sure if this is going to work, but it may be worth a try:
You can set the release date of the application to the future. This removes the app from the catalog, which is a common way to remove an app temporarily (e.g. when it has problems) until an update appears.
However (this is possibly the catch) I don't know if the app will then be still available for sale via link or if the link will become unusable too.
if i were you i'd implement a "key generator", which will produce a serial that will be used to activate your application. this key generator would be free to access on your site, so whoever downloads your application through your site, would know what to do.
for those who access the application through itunes, i would also place a small text which basically says that you need to visit your site to generate a key. this way, you'd ensure that anyone who has access to your site has access to your app, and whoever finds your app will access your site.
this is i think hack proof by definition as well because noone would bother hacking it, would they? you basically give away your own serial generator for free, so it defeats the whole purpose of hacking. im assuming your concern is site traffic though.