"In Review" Time

Question

Level 1

1 points

"In Review" Time

Hello all,

I completed and uploaded my iPhone/iPod app to iTunesConnect on July 5th (second time - I had code signing issues with the first attempt like many of you). For the past week it has had a status of "In Review" I thought that by getting in two days early I would be in time for the launch, but as of this submission it is still in the same state.

So the question is, given that it is a pretty simple app, how long should the process take? The first time I submitted it the app was kicked back in 5 hours. I fixed the signature problems and resubmitted. So I am assuming the digital signature issues are resolved, but have no clue why it is taking more than a week to get approved.

Is there any way to ask Apple what gives?

Thanks for any insight / experiences you can share.

iMac / MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 11, 2008 7:40 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

jdheard

Level 1

10 points

Jul 11, 2008 8:16 PM in response to MobileLogic

From everything I have been reading my company has been very lucky. We submitted a total of 16 applications, all but 2 of them have been approved for sale. The 2 that are still in review one was submitted on July 2 and the other one was submitted on July 4, some of the applications were submitted after these 2 and got accepted. In our case the 2 applications that are still in review may be considered controversial by Apple, we certainly see no problem with them, but Apple might.

Of the applications that we got approved most were approved in a day or less, we had 4 that were rejected with we think code signing problems although we are not really sure since we were very careful and double checked everything, they were accepted on the 2nd try.

I do not think anyone except maybe Apple could give you any idea how much longer your applications are going to be in review.

Reply

Answer 2

MobileLogic Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 11, 2008 9:15 PM in response to jdheard

Thanks for the response. My concern is that my app is stuck somewhere in the review process and the reviewers have moved on to other apps. It's frustrating because I have no way of resubmitting my app once the binary is uploaded (even if I was able to find a code problem and corrected it).

Oh, well. I guess I will just wait some more.

Reply

Answer 3

jdheard

Level 1

10 points

Jul 11, 2008 9:28 PM in response to MobileLogic

I have the same concern that my 2 apps may have fallen thru the cracks somewhere, but then I see so many other developers that still have their apps in review, surely all these apps have not fallen thru the cracks. You could try emailing devprograms@apple.com but I suspect that email address is overwhelmed right now and it might take a long time to get a response. And I suspect that "In Review" times are just going to increase since Apple seems to have finally opened the flood gates to all developers, just imagine how many apps must already be developed but could not be submitted since the developers were not yet admitted to the program.

Reply

Answer 4

nexus66

Level 1

0 points

Jul 18, 2008 11:16 AM in response to MobileLogic

Same here - I posted 4 updates Monday. Today they are still in the "review" process state even after Apple ran them two times out of Cupertino CA. How do I know that?

-> The updates in my apps include some cleaver code to track APPS usage and download count, etc. I used pinch media library.

I suspect APPLE review team is overwhelmed or I got into the longest line (like customs at the airport)

The bad is that we cannot do anything from the in Review state.

I will happy to get some of your experience as well like the longest time waited until FINALLY approval came?

Reply

Answer 5

thebyte

Level 1

10 points

Jul 18, 2008 12:31 PM in response to nexus66

very interesting.. so either they're going through multiple steps to review apps

ie.
1. run once to make sure it runs at all
2. run again and test more thoroughly
3. test once more with instruments looking for memory leaks, ect

.. or they're intentionally holding back apps from being approved.

It's strange to me that your app was ran twice and is still not approved.
Please let us know if they run it again and / or you get approved.

Reply

Answer 6

Jul 18, 2008 1:28 PM in response to nexus66

Maybe the delay in review is because of your 'clever code'. They might not be excited about approving apps that phone home for no obvious reason.

I put a big clear button saying "Help Website" which does an openURL on my opening screen. I figure that's obvious enough not to **** people off,and useful enough for me to track until Apple gets going on better stats.

Plus, hey, I have a page I can update with information / news. Win win win! 🙂

Reply

Answer 7

nexus66

Level 1

0 points

Jul 18, 2008 2:22 PM in response to blazespinnaker

My cleaver code doesnt not call home but rather works like google analytics, it send through the web. Anyway, if there is an issue they will have rejected it in the first place an will not have passed my first upload. This time around it is just an update. What I would like to know is people experience in term of what is the maximum time someone waited to get the "Ready for sale" - Last time it tooks 24h - this time I am at 4 days so....any feedback on you guy experience will raise my patience level

Reply

Answer 8

Jul 18, 2008 2:41 PM in response to nexus66

I submitted my app on July 6th and it was approved on the 8th. I then posted an update to fix a small problem on the 12th. I'm still waiting for approval. The lack of information from Apple on this process is alarming. I have customers reporting the problem and I'm forced to tell them I have no idea when it will be fixed even though I've already submitted the update. At least some peep of information on this process that I could share with customers would be nice.

Reply

Answer 9

Jul 18, 2008 2:52 PM in response to DavidHouse

The other possibility is that they are trying to say - don't make your users your QA.

By delaying updates, it forces people to test hugely before releasing.

Which I have, given what I've read on these forums.

Reply

Answer 10

thebyte

Level 1

10 points

Jul 18, 2008 3:18 PM in response to nexus66

I have been paying close attention to the release notes when apps do get updated. Many times they'll say something along the lines of.. 'feature X added in response to customer feedback' To me this implies that the update was submitted earlier this week.

Reply

Answer 11

johne-dm

Level 1

25 points

Jul 18, 2008 3:34 PM in response to blazespinnaker

well... until there is a practical way to get the apps out there to a beta community, there is no way to test some of our apps.

i have yet to hear of anyone who has been able to get the ad hoc distribution working.

Reply

Answer 12

Jul 18, 2008 4:12 PM in response to thebyte

We submitted updates for two of our applications on JUNE 30, that's coming up to three weeks ago. One update was approved two days ago (but we already had another update for that same app waiting to submit). The other update HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED YET, THREE WEEKS LATER. Our third app has an update that was submitted on July 5, also not yet approved.

Reply

Answer 13

Jul 18, 2008 5:29 PM in response to Steve Patt

The most likely explanation ... SNAFU. Systems Normal, all futzed up.

Reply

Answer 14

MobileLogic Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 21, 2008 9:36 PM in response to MobileLogic

Just for the purpose of closure, and with the thought that this may give some of you still waiting some hope, I wanted to report that Apple has just approved my app. Time "In Review": 16 days.

Reply

Answer 15

rarunach

Level 1

0 points

Jul 21, 2008 9:48 PM in response to MobileLogic

Apple is going to screw up its chance of making iphone the most popular mobile platform ever, if it wants to boss around and approve every single update of the app. They could just scrutinize 1.0 version and believe in the developer/company. Ofcourse, user reviews will expose any unexpected behavior in the updates. If they keep delaying things like this, Android is going to take over!

Reply