A guideline number, a short note and a launch date that slips. A rejection is frustrating, but it is rarely the end: most of the time it names exactly what Apple wants to see changed.
What I do with a rejection
Four steps, in this order:
- Read the rejection, including any screenshots and follow-up messages from App Review in App Store Connect.
- Check the app against the guideline it cites, and against the related rules that are likely to come up next time.
- Fix the app, or the store listing, whichever the problem sits in.
- Prepare the resubmission with a clear note to App Review that explains what changed and, where needed, a demo login.
Nobody but Apple can promise approval. What you get from me is a fix that addresses what was flagged, and a straight answer if more is needed.
Common reasons for a rejection
Most rejections fall into a handful of groups:
- Incomplete app or information (guidelines 2.1 and 2.3): placeholder content, links that do not work, or a description, screenshots or settings in App Store Connect do not match what the app does.
- Crashes and bugs: the app fails on the device the reviewer uses.
- No demo access: the reviewer cannot get past the sign-in and therefore cannot test the app.
- Privacy details: a missing privacy policy, data use information that does not match the app, or no way to delete an account.
- In-app purchases: digital content or subscriptions sold outside Apple's purchase system where Apple's rules require it.
- Minimum functionality (guideline 4.2): the app offers too little beyond a website.
- Spam (guideline 4.3): several near-identical apps from one account, or an app that looks like many already in the store.
The wording of every rule is in Apple's App Review Guidelines, last updated by Apple on June 8, 2026.
When the app is a wrapped website
Then I tell you honestly. Guideline 4.2 expects an app to be more than a website in a frame, and guideline 4.2.6 covers apps created from templates or app generation services. Resubmitting the same thing rarely helps. The realistic options are:
- add what makes it a real app for your users, for example offline use, notifications or device features that matter to them
- rebuild it as a real app, with the website as the blueprint: a First Version (MVP) from $27,800
- stay on the web, if an app adds nothing your customers need
If your app was built with an AI tool, the page on taking an AI prototype to production covers the other gaps such apps tend to have.
Why I know App Review
I run my own apps in the App Store and deal with App Review for them myself, from the first submission to every update. You can download them and judge them yourself: see my apps in the App Store.
If you think App Review got it wrong
Reply first, appeal second. Apple's guidelines name two routes: questions and extra information go to App Review as a reply in App Store Connect, and if you disagree with the outcome you can submit an appeal. For an app that is already live, Apple says bug fix updates are not held back over guideline issues, except those about legal or safety matters; you ask for this in App Store Connect and fix the issue in the next submission.
Google Play too
A rejection or policy notice from Google Play is handled the same way: read it, check the app against the cited policy, fix it and prepare the update. The decision there lies with Google. If Play Console refuses an update because of its Android target, see the Google Play target API level deadlines.
What it costs
You can start in two ways:
- With the App Check at $2,000, if you also want to know who controls which account and what else could block the next update.
- With a free call, if the rejection is the only open question.
The fix itself runs at a fixed price, agreed in writing before work starts: as part of an App Takeover from $10,500 or an App Rescue from $27,800, depending on how much has to change. All prices are net; the tax treatment is clarified before contract and stated in the offer.
The code sits in your repository from day one; with each paid milestone, the rights to everything delivered up to that point pass to you.
Confidential from the first call: we are happy to sign an NDA before we talk.
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