What App Store review actually rejects
After years of submissions the same handful of rejection reasons keep coming back. Here is what genuinely gets flagged, and how to avoid each one.
Every developer has a story about a baffling App Store rejection. In practice, though, the rejections that actually happen cluster into a small number of causes — and almost all of them are avoidable before you ever hit submit.
Incomplete information
By far the most common rejection is also the most boring: the reviewer could not use your app. A demo account that expired, a login wall with no credentials, a feature behind a paywall the reviewer cannot reach.
Fill in the review notes properly. Give a working account. If part of your app needs hardware or a specific region, say so explicitly and explain how to reach it.
Sign in with Apple
If you offer any third-party social login — Google, Facebook, X — you must also offer Sign in with Apple. This one catches teams repeatedly because the requirement is easy to forget when social login gets added months after launch.
Privacy labels that do not match reality
Your privacy nutrition label is checked against what your app actually does. If you declare that you collect nothing but ship an analytics SDK that sends device identifiers, that is a mismatch, and it is caught more often than people expect.
Audit your third-party SDKs. They collect data on your behalf, and it is your label.
Placeholder content
Lorem ipsum, obviously fake data, or screenshots that do not represent the app get rejected. This is common in first submissions where a section is not finished yet.
If a feature is not ready, remove it from the build rather than shipping it empty.
Minimum functionality
An app that is a thin wrapper around a website, or that does substantially less than a mobile browser would, gets rejected under the minimum functionality guideline. If your app is mostly a web view, expect scrutiny.
What to do when you are rejected
Do not immediately resubmit the same build with a note. Read the specific guideline cited — the rejection always names one. If you genuinely believe it does not apply, reply in Resolution Center and make the argument. Reviewers do reverse decisions.
If the rejection is correct, fix it properly. A second rejection for the same reason slows down every future review you submit.