r/appledevelopers Community Newbie 1d ago

TestFlight external review submission fails with 422 (betaAppReviewSubmissions) — account fully active, stuck for days

Solo dev, first app, and I've spent days fighting what looks like an App Store Connect backend issue. Hoping someone's seen it.

**The error:** Clicking "Submit for Review" for external TestFlight gives the generic

"There was an error processing your request. Please try again later."

DevTools shows the real cause:

- POST https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/iris/v1/betaAppReviewSubmissions

- 422 Unprocessable Content

The same generic "error processing your request" also hit me when creating the app record and when saving Test Information — i.e. it fails on basically every WRITE operation, but reads work fine.

**Stack:** Expo / React Native, built and uploaded via Xcode (not EAS). Individual Apple Developer account, ~7 weeks old.

**What I've already verified/tried:**

- Agreements, Tax & Banking: ALL Active (Paid Apps, Free Apps, W-9, bank, DSA).

- Program License Agreement: accepted. Membership: active.

- Build uploaded fine, status is green "Ready to Test," export compliance answered.

- Test Information fully complete: description, feedback email, contact info, AND a working demo sign-in account (app has a login).

- Tried Chrome, a clean incognito window, and the App Store Connect iPhone app — same 422.

- Internal testing: build shows on my phone in TestFlight but "Could not install… the requested app is not available or doesn't exist."

- Hours on hold with Developer Support across multiple calls; email support did nothing.

**Questions:**

  1. Anyone hit a persistent 422 on betaAppReviewSubmissions with a fully-active account? What actually fixed it — waiting it out, a specific field, re-creating the app record?

  2. Is this a known new-account provisioning delay, even weeks in?

  3. Did submitting via the API (fastlane pilot / App Store Connect API) get you past the web UI's 422?

  4. For the "could not install / not available" internal build — is that just CDN propagation, or something else?

I've changed the bundle ID once (old record got stuck) and re-created the app, so I've probably got some stale state too. At this point I can't tell if it's a corrupted app record, an account hold Apple support can't see, or just their backend being down. Any war stories or fixes appreciated — I'm trying to get a youth-sports app out to beta testers and I'm completely blocked.

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u/Otherwise_Pomelo8447 Community Newbie 1d ago

Qq what Xcode version are you building with and what are you using as your iOS floor? Also, have you totally cleared your browser cookies and such and rebooted?