I was hoping someone can answer a simple question for me...
If you create an iphone app and get it approved for sale, what happens if you add updates to it? Do you have to submit this for approval too?
How does the whole process of updating existing apps work?
Assistance would be very much appreciated, thanks
Yes, every update requires a new round of approval. Once your first app is live, the management page for your app offers an "Add Version" button, which takes you through a similar process to the original app, but with options to document changes.
You do indeed need to have updates approved. So once your initial application is created in iTunes Connect, uploaded and approved by apple and available through the store, you can easily submit new versions.
You log into iTunes Connect and click Manage my Applications.
Select the application and click the Add Version button.
Fill out details of the update (such as the new version number, what's changed, any new screenshots, etc).
Upload your new binary via the application loader.
Wait for review.
The process of update is almost exactly like the process of creating and pushing out the first release. It's really quite simple, tbh.
The update process is nearly identical to the original submission, except that you don't have to reenter all the metadata (but you can modify almost all of it, except for the app ID, during update submission).
Update review times have historically varied by large amounts, either slower or faster than the original app's approval time, on the order of 1 day to 1 month. Don't count on it being any less.
Related
I'm working on a group project and we are trying to upload our flutter app to the Google Play Console. The other day, I finished all the processes for submitting the app and now we are waiting for the app approved. However, the app we submitted as the app bundle before doesn't have much functionality. But, one of our MVP was uploading to Google Play, so we just submitted the app having a simple frontend with no functionality to the "internal test", because I thought our app doesn't have enough functionality to release as a closed or open test.
My first question is if it says "pending publication", does it mean they are in the reviewing process and I should just wait for a few days? Another question is is it ok to update our app bundle while they are reviewing our app (since the current app bundle doesn't have much functionality)? And when is the better time to update app bundle next and and how to update? Is it just hit remove in the picture below and drop a new file??
"Pending publication" indeed means that your app is under review. These days, it can take as much as a week to have it reviewed.
You can indeed choose to create another release even while the first one is under review and upload a new App Bundle. In this case, the first release will be aborted in favour of the new one (assuming the two releases are in the same track). As someone pointed out, it is possible that it resets the waiting time for the review.
Regarding your screenshot, the fact that you can see a "Remove" button means that you probably already have created a new release (since existing published release are immutable). Maybe you created a new release in a different track?
Clicking "Remove" and uploading another version of the App Bundle should do it.
I wanna know if it is okay to submit an update to an app that is different from the first release. For example, my first release would be a game, but on my next release, I want to remove the game but instead make a couple of web views and table views, etc. Will Apple stop me from updating the app?
The Mailbox is one example. When I first downloaded it, it doesn't really do anything but countdown on the number of people getting the app. Honestly, I lost patience and didn't bother trying it out. But I don't think it's an entirely different app, just that the countdown was a layer on top of a fully functioning Mailbox app, correct?
Every time you update new version, apple review team will review your new ipa, so what have updated write in new version.
So if your new updated app is valid means follow all guidelines than there is no problem.
I have been looking around for an answer for a specific question but just got hints for it here and there. I want to know when i submit an app for review for the AppStore:
First, how long does the review process usually take? I know that it may vary but just want to have rough estimate if possible
Second, when an app is accepted does it go automatically to the app store or the developer has the control over when to release it there?
Cheers
AF
check out details, which is my recent app on appstore,
It take 1 week for approval , As I remember, it was taken 3 days too once.
Time taken to publish is all in their hand.
App will be publish directly to appstore.
But you can remember the option for publish by you or apple :) at the time of submitting app
From my experience review takes about 2 weeks recently, but it varied from 2 days to about a month in the past.
When you submit an application you have an option - whether to make application available on appstore immediately after it was approved by Apple, or hold it before developer does that manually, so if you did not select that option then Application should be published on Appstore by default. (See pages 75-76 in iTunesConnect Guide (warning - large pdf file here))
I have an iPhone application in the App Store. I submitted 1.1 to the app store a few days ago, and selected to "Hold for Developer Release." I found out that there is a very serious bug in the approved version. I need to pull this binary.
From what I can tell, Apple doesn't support this. I have sent them an email, but there's another bug in the current version that needs to be fixed also, so time is of the essence.
I've heard that you can release the update in some random country (where I would have no sales) and then release the next (fixed) update in all countries. If I only release 1.1 in, say, Luxembourg, is the old version (1.0) pulled from the other stores? Are the chart ratings reset? I'm relatively high in the charts, and I don't want to lose the momentum the app currently has.
Until Apple supports rejecting approved binaries, I'm looking for the quickest alternative.
Craig. Let me answer some of your questions. First, if you release an update, regardless of what country it is released in, it will replace the old binary for every country. Thus, if you only select Luxembourg, you are not only releasing the update to all countries, but also removing the app entirely from every app store except Luxembourg.
Second, it would appear that even Apple has no say over the iTunes Connect website in terms of altering the process for one person. I believe you should be able to reject an approved update, I don't see why they would want to disallow this. However, since they do not right now, it's best to forget about it.
You basically have 2 options. One, you can release this new version to the world, which keeps your standing in the App Store and warn users of the bug and promise them a fix. At that point, you can appeal to the Review Board for an expidited review, which they may not give you. Remember, if you release the update, I would upload another update immediately after.
You're not going to avoid your problem but there are things you can do to minimize the impact of your mistake.
Second, you can remove the App from Sale, accept the new update, and upload a new one for review, and put the app back up for sale again once approved. The problem here is that you will most likely lose your store ranking and the app will be unavailable for about a week. Not what I would do. I would go with the first solution.
From my experience, customers are ok if you need to issue a fix and they're fairly understanding. Make sure you tell them exactly what's going on in the app description AND the "What's New" section. Make sure they see it. They'll be ok with a few days of inconvenience in return for your honesty and reassurance that the issue has been fixed in a near-future update.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
You can reject an app that is on "Hold for developer release". You need to click "Binary Details", and there you should find the reject button.
I've submitted my application to the app store and had it approved. I'd set the release date to a few months in the future, but in the meantime have added a lot of extra functionality to the product.
I still want my app to be listed as a 'new release' when it comes out (the release data hasn't been reached yet) so should I replace the binary, or do I have to remove the old app completely and start a new app?
Obviously, the previously approved app hasn't been released so I don't want the new code to be counted as an update.
Cheers,
Bryn
I asked the question here mainly because there is much more active iPhone community here, coupled with the huge amount of questions regarding iStore submission/code signing etc.
For anyone still wanting an answer to this:
If the application has not ever been released, reject the binary and create a new application altogether. If you want to keep the same name as the app you'll have problems since Apple won't allow you to completely remove the old application and you can't have two with the same name. In this case, email them directly explaining the situation and they should rename the old application to an arbitrary name, freeing up the name for the new app