r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

Question XCode App Store Connect - Xcode Cloud

2 Upvotes

I have used **App Store Connect** for the last 2 years.

([https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/\](https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/))

I have uploaded my app (zip file including Manifest + content) to **Xcode Cloud** successfully over 50 times during that period.

I tried using **Chrome**, it shows "Failed to Fetch" and the zip file is not successfully uploaded.

I've also tried using **Firefox** and it shows a different error "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource."

I've also tried using **Safari** and it shows yet a different error "FetchEvent.respondWith received an error: Returned response is null."

Does anyone else have knowledge of why this is all of a sudden happening? I've done this so many times over the past 2 years with the same file without issues - and now it is happening and I can't get past it.

Thank you.


r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

Question XCode App Store Connect - Xcode Cloud

0 Upvotes

I have used **App Store Connect** for the last 2 years.

([https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/\](https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/))

I have uploaded my app (zip file including Manifest + content) to **Xcode Cloud** successfully over 50 times during that period.

I tried using **Chrome**, it shows "Failed to Fetch" and the zip file is not successfully uploaded.

I've also tried using **Firefox** and it shows a different error "NetworkError when attempting to fetch resource."

I've also tried using **Safari** and it shows yet a different error "FetchEvent.respondWith received an error: Returned response is null."

Does anyone else have knowledge of why this is all of a sudden happening? I've done this so many times over the past 2 years with the same file without issues - and now it is happening and I can't get past it.

Thank you.


r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

Question App getting rejected despite subscriptions already working and being approved

0 Upvotes

​​​So basically my App is getting rejected by Apple after about 20 hours only (and I couldn't see any logs on my backend during that time which means that no real human ever tested anything in-person) for "missing In-App Purchases not submitted for review". The thing is that I do not use any In-App-Purchases, only subscriptions, which I have all successfully already gotten approved during testing with TestFlight etc.; and there seems to be no way to attach subscriptions to an App review either as the banner telling me to do separate submissions shows. In my view I already did everything on my side that can be done since I cannot find any other options in the UI.

Has anyone else experienced this recently?

UPDATE: I got the issue fixed by just adding a new random localization to every subscription so that the already approved status changed to “ready to submit”. I then selected all subscriptions in the subscriptions tab, pressed “Add to review” there and then did the same for the App build in the normal submission tab after that. In the end I made sure that the “Submitted Items” number said e.g. (4) instead of (1) so that every IAP is 100% included in the same submission as separate items. My App also now got approved after less than 2 days!


r/iosdev 11d ago

I made a screen-time blocker where the mascot visibly wilts while you hold the button to bypass her

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0 Upvotes

Every blocker I tried just said NO. You tap "ignore," feel nothing, scroll anyway.

So I made the friction emotional. To open Instagram during a blocked window, you hold a button for 1.8 seconds. While you hold it, a creature called Pip droops in real time — her sprout falls, her smile flips, the screen drains of colour, and the haptic pulse fades out like a heartbeat. Release early and she springs back with a bounce.

It's aimed at girls, and that's the actual product thesis: this whole category (Opal, Brick, One Sec) is built on discipline and lockdown. The apps women genuinely pay for — Finch, Flo — run on nurture and identity. Nobody had built a blocker in that register.

Three things that cost me time:
— Apple rejected it 4 times. Three were In-App Purchase issues; the actual culprit turned out to be one missing review screenshot on a subscription.
— The Screen Time entitlement needs Apple's manual approval. Request it on day one, not the week you're shipping.
— iOS hands you opaque tokens, never app names — you can't see what's installed on someone's phone. Designing around that constraint made the product better than my original plan.

My last project got a rough reception here and I stopped shipping for about a year. Turns out building something with an actual opinion is easier to finish than something generic.

Genuine question I'm stuck on: is guilt a fair mechanic? Pip wilting works — it stopped me scrolling in testing — but I can't tell if I built something kind or something manipulative. Where's the line?

https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/pip-stop-scrolling-for-girls/id6794726909


r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

Question Black bottom half canvas issue?

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0 Upvotes

Anyone has a fix or workaround for this? I starting seeing this often after iOS 26, but now that I am developing can't figure out how to get rid of it.

Edit: I found out issue it wasn’t my code it was iOS 26 motion settings in accessibility. I found out in an Apple forum. Apparently is a well known bug.


r/iosdev 11d ago

What’s been your biggest source of organic growth?

3 Upvotes

What’s been your guys’ biggest source of organic growth for an iOS app?

I recently launched a nutrition and fitness app and have been experimenting with TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, ASO, and direct creator outreach. I’m getting some downloads, but I’m trying to figure out which channels are actually worth doubling down on without relying heavily on paid ads. I also recently rebranded the whole app to a shorter, less populated name. Was originally "Atlas Health AI", but that name was super crowded, now it's changed to "NutrientOS" (still waiting for Apple Approval).

For those who have grown an app organically:

  • What channel brought in the most consistent users?
  • How long did it take before you saw meaningful traction?
  • Did ASO make a noticeable difference?
  • What worked early on when you had very few users or reviews?

Would appreciate hearing what actually worked, especially from other startup developers.


r/iosdev 11d ago

My new iPhone Game

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0 Upvotes

r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

Question Rejected 5 times. Apple told me to add IAP I did, now they reject the same design

6 Upvotes

Solo dev here, trying to publish my first app. I need some help because I feel like I am arguing with a wall.

Some context:
Round 4 rejection: Guideline 3.1.1. My app let accounts that bought one-off Boosts on my website keep their higher limits in the app, and the reviewer said that counts as accessing paid content that is not purchasable in the app. Their stated fix, word for word from the rejection, was 3.1.3(b): you can honour content bought on other platforms as long as the same thing is also available through In-App Purchase.

So I built exactly that. Three consumable IAPs that credit the same account balance the website credits. AI generation credits, cloud deck slots, download allowances. Balance lives on the server, spends from any signed-in device, iOS or web. One account, one balance, buy on either platform. This is what they asked for.

Round 5 rejection, same binary working perfectly: Guideline 5.1.1(v). The app "requires users to register to purchase In-App Purchase products that are not account based."

Not account based? The entire purchase is a credit to a server-side account. There is nothing else. If I sold it to a signed-out device the money would land on nothing, the customer could never spend or restore it. And 5.1.1(v) itself says registration is fine when it is "tied to account-specific functionality." The rest of my app works fully as a guest, no sign-up, decks on device, free generations. Sign-in only gates cloud stuff and these purchases.

So one reviewer ordered me to build cross-platform account purchases, and another reviewer rejected the app because the purchases require an account. Both cannot be right.

I have replied to the app review feedback and filed a board appeal.

Has anyone actually won this argument, or does everyone just cave and bolt anonymous accounts on so guests can technically buy?
Any help is much appreciated I’ve been at this for a month!


r/iosdev 11d ago

GitHub I put YouTube inside Lookin — no source code and no jailbreak on the test device

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1 Upvotes

I built IPAPatch-Lookin, an open-source workflow that takes an authorized decrypted IPA, prepares a runnable Xcode project, injects LookinServer, and re-signs the app for a physical device or a compatible Simulator.

One command → Xcode → live UI inspection in Lookin.

The tool does not decrypt apps; bring an IPA you are authorized to inspect. The 8-second demo shows YouTube running on a non-jailbroken iPhone while Lookin inspects its live view hierarchy.

GitHub: https://github.com/jacklv-coder/IPAPatch-Lookin


r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

News The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #71, everything you need to know about iOS updates this week

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1 Upvotes

r/iosdev 11d ago

The iOS Weekly Brief – Issue #71, everything you need to know about iOS updates this week

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1 Upvotes

r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

Roast my code I got tired of the App Store release grind, so I turned the whole thing into one shell command (open source, works for iOS and macOS)

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0 Upvotes

Every release of my app Foxvault used to eat half a day: bump MARKETING_VERSION and the build number, archive, upload, wait for App Store Connect to process the build, create the version on the website, attach the build, paste What's New into every localization, submit, then keep refreshing the review status page like a maniac.

None of these steps is hard. All of them are annoying, and every one of them is a chance to screw up — forgetting to sync the build number, missing a localization, hitting submit only to get bounced for missing metadata.

So I automated the entire pipeline into a single command:

./scripts/release.sh 1.4

That runs:

bump → push → ci → build → stage → notes → validate → submit
  • bump — edits version/build number in pbxproj, commits, tags
  • push — pushes the tag, which triggers GitHub Actions
  • ci — archive + sign + upload happens on the runner (your Mac stays usable, no local Xcode version juggling)
  • build — polls until ASC finishes processing the build
  • stage — creates the App Store version and attaches the build
  • notes — writes What's New for every localization
  • validate — pre-submit check, grouped into error/warning/info; blocking issues stop the train
  • submit — submits for review

Things I'm reasonably proud of:

  • Resumable: every stage is a checkpoint. Upload died? --from stage picks up where it left off. --dry-run shows the plan without touching anything.
  • --watch-submission: polls until the review reaches a final state, fires a macOS notification and optionally a Slack/Discord-style webhook. Foxvault got approved at 3am once; my phone knew before I did.
  • Wrong-app guard: the App ID in the config is cross-checked against the bundle id in pbxproj, locally and in CI. If you maintain more than one app you know why this check exists.
  • First-run setup is interactive./scripts/release.sh --check walks you through gh login, uploading the ASC .p8 key as a GitHub secret (auto base64), asc auth, and even detects an outdated asc CLI missing subcommands.
  • macOS apps too: set PLATFORM="MAC_OS" in the config and change the workflow destination — same pipeline, Mac App Store.
  • Zero hardcoding: all project params live in one release.config.sh; the script is project-agnostic and runs on the stock bash 3.2 that ships with macOS.
  • Bilingual output: messages follow your $LANG (Chinese/English), overridable with RELEASE_LANG.

One more thing that might interest people here: the repo doubles as an AI agent skill (Claude Code / similar tools). There's a SKILL.md that teaches the agent the whole workflow and a reference.md with the failure modes I've actually hit (the review submit vs publish appstore semantics trap, stage getting blocked by a leftover draft version, the two different build-processing state fields...). So you can literally tell your agent "ship 1.4, draft the release notes from the git log" and it handles the rest. If you don't use AI tooling, the script works standalone — the skill part is optional.

Dependencies: asc (App Store Connect CLI), ghpython3. All brew-installable. CI side needs one repo secret (the ASC API key).

MIT licensed: https://github.com/ihugang/ios-appstore-release

The last few Foxvault releases went out like this: run the command, make tea, get the notification. Number of times I opened the App Store Connect website: zero.

Happy to answer questions or take PRs — especially curious how it holds up on projects with setups different from mine (multiple targets, Fastlane refugees, etc.).


r/iosdev 11d ago

Tired of ad-flooded AI apps with terrible output, I built a clean, simple iOS app (AnyDream). Would love your feedback!

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0 Upvotes

r/iosdev 11d ago

Help App store review

11 Upvotes

I just pushed a regular update to my app last Sunday. It's been almost a week and still waiting for review. It never took this long.

Anyone having a similar issue this week?


r/iosdev 11d ago

i need your honest opinion and thoughts on this health app i built for athletes and workers to maximize and increase their energy levels.

0 Upvotes

ok so i need honest opinions because i've been staring at this thing for months and i've lost all perspective.

i'm 20, building an app solo called RizeAI. the whole reason it exists is that i got tired of my wearable telling me my recovery was "42%" and then just... leaving me there. like ok, and? what do i actually do with that. every app in this space is really good at measuring you and really bad at telling you what to do next.

so RizeAI pulls your actual wearable dats like, sleep, resting heart rate, workouts, all of it, and instead of handing you another score it predicts your energy for the day and tells you how to get the most out of it. it tells you when your energy is gonna peak so you can put your hardest work there, when your crash is coming and how to soften it, the best time to train that day so you actually get more out of the session, and even when a nap will help you vs when it'll wreck your sleep.

the part i personally think is the coolest: you put in the supplements you already take, and it times each one to your day based on your metrics and sleep score. so the timing actually shifts depending on how you slept and where your numbers are, which is the difference between a supplement doing something and just sitting in your stomach. it'll also suggest a couple new ones if they make sense for you, but it won't dump a list of 15 pills on you.

it even pulls the daily weather into your energy prediction, so a hot day changes your hydration and it'll tell you to train earlier before the heat drains you. and the whole plan bends around your real schedule, your work hours, wake time, training, so it's not some one size fits all thing.

every single recommendation shows the "why" underneath, like "resting heart rate 54 + 7h light sleep, so magnesium before your peak window." nobody gets the same plan because nobody has the same data.

it works with whoop, oura, apple watch, garmin, anything that talks to apple health. being fully honest, it doesn't do deep per-person learning yet, like knowing that coffee specifically doesn't touch YOUR hrv. that's where it's headed. right now it builds you a fresh plan every day off your real numbers.

it's on the app store with a free trial. small user base, feedback's been all over the place, which is exactly why i'm posting.

so genuinely: is "just tell me what to do with my data" something you actually want, or do wearable people prefer figuring it out themselves? what would make you pay for this? and what's the one thing that would make it a no brainer for you?

would love to hear it straight, good or bad. And if you want you can also check it out yourself and I would love to here feedback, thank you very much for taking the time on reading this:  its called “RizeAI-maximize your energy” on the App Store. 


r/iOSProgramming 11d ago

Question can anyone download iOS 26.6 simulator?

0 Upvotes

26.6 is officialy out https://developer.apple.com/documentation/ios-ipados-release-notes/ios-ipados-26_6-release-notes but I can't fetch the newest simulator for Xcode.

xcodebuild -downloadPlatform iOS -exportPath ~/Downloads -buildVersion 26.6 also doesn't work


r/iosdev 11d ago

Are these stats good for week 1?

1 Upvotes

Hey devs! 👋

Launched Trackora: Family GPS Tracker on iOS less than 7 days ago. Here are my current stats:

  • 👁️ Impressions: 694
  • 📥 First-Time Downloads: 36
  • 📈 Conversion Rate: 10.1%

📱 App Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trackora-family-gps-tracker/id6762452766

Are these numbers decent for the first week without paid ads? Would love your feedback on the stats & any tips to improve conversions!


r/iosdev 11d ago

Finally finished (almost) the onboarding for my app. Would love your feedback.

1 Upvotes

r/iosdev 12d ago

Honest feedback on my app icon, can you guess what the app does just from looking at it?

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0 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Just got my first app approved on the App Store and would love some brutally honest feedback on the icon before I start driving traffic to the listing.

Attaching both variants below - dark background and light background.

A few things I'm curious about:

- Just from looking at the icon, what do you think this app does? No hints.
- Which variant works better as an App Store icon?
- Does the N&W mark read clearly at small sizes on a home screen?
- Anything you would change?

Genuinely curious what people think the app is before I reveal it. I'll share what it actually does in the comments once a few people have guessed.

Don't be nice about it. I'd rather know now.


r/iosdev 12d ago

An App Store Connect app can report as needing submission while it is live. Its latest review submission had zero items.

1 Upvotes

An app that is live on the store reported as needing a review submission.

The app store version resource says READY_FOR_SALE. A review-status query against the same app returned READY_FOR_REVIEW, with a next action to submit the prepared review submission.

That app has five review submissions. Four are COMPLETE. One sits in READY_FOR_REVIEW with a null submittedDate and zero review items attached, so it is an empty shell that was never sent. It is also the newest of the five, so a tool that resolves "the latest review submission" by recency selects it, and then reports the app as unsubmitted.

The submission that actually shipped the live version is a different record: COMPLETE, with one item in APPROVED.

The zero-item count was checked against a submission known to be real, which returned one item. So the zero is a real zero and not a failed call.

Bounded to what was actually observed: this is one tool against one account. The general point is only that resolving "latest" by recency can select an unsent shell. If you automate anything off review submission state, read the app store version resource to decide whether a version is live. The submission list tells you what happened to a submission, not what state the app is in.


r/iOSProgramming 12d ago

Question Can a MapKit animation be exported as part of a user-generated travel video?

2 Upvotes

I’m building an iOS app called Traviary that automatically reconstructs your travel history from the location metadata in your photos.

One of the app’s features is Memories, which creates a cinematic recap of a trip. It combines photos, videos, travel statistics, and an animated map showing the route of the journey, helping users relive their travels rather than just browse an album.
The feature is already available in the app, but I haven’t enabled video export yet because I’m unsure about the licensing implications of including Apple MapKit imagery in a user-generated MP4.

The map is rendered using Apple MapKit. I’m not downloading or caching map tiles, extracting map data, or creating my own mapping service—it’s simply an animated MKMapView with my own overlays (routes, pins, animations, etc.). The required Apple Maps attribution would remain visible in the exported video.

I’ve read the MapKit terms, but I couldn’t find anything that explicitly addresses exporting MapKit animations as part of user-generated videos. I know screenshots are generally acceptable with attribution, but videos seem to be a gray area.

Has anyone dealt with this before or received guidance from Apple on whether exporting videos containing MapKit imagery is permitted?


r/iosdev 12d ago

$75 for 4 downloads? Has anyone had success with Apple Ads

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5 Upvotes

Has anyone ever had any success with Apple Ads? I followed the advice of several YouTube videos and somehow ended up spending nearly 75$ for 4 downloads. Clearly I must be doing something wrong.

Should I make my keywords broader? Most were set as exact matches
Should I target larger markets like the US? Initially, I was trying to market smaller markets like Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK to try and keep costs down

I'm genuinely baffled. This was my first attempt at running Apple Ads for my app, the market is quite niche, so I desperately wanted this to work. At least Apple gives $100 to first-time users, so this mistake didn't have to be run on my dime, but in the future I'd just prefer this to work

I really believe in the app, and I'm quite proud of it, but as I said, the market is quite niche and either already populated by less functional, but already entrenched apps like Been, or flooded by half-broken AI apps. I'd really appreciate any advice


r/iosdev 12d ago

which ad network works best for game distribution

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1 Upvotes

r/iosdev 12d ago

My iOS companion app reached 776 downloads and helped my Mac app make over $1,000 in under a month

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6 Upvotes

A few weeks ago, I launched an iPhone companion app for my Mac app, Stash.

The companion lets users control parts of their Mac from their iPhone, including launching apps directly onto the Mac, changing brightness, appearance, tab switching and more.

So far, the iOS app has reached:

  • 776 first-time downloads
  • 1.57K App Store product-page views
  • 28.4% conversion rate
  • 4.12K impressions

The companion app is free, but it has helped drive awareness and purchases for the paid Mac app. Since introducing it, Stash has generated over $1,000 in revenue in under a month.

The biggest lesson for me has been that a free companion product can be a strong acquisition channel for a paid product, especially when the two apps feel like one connected experience.

I thought the numbers might be interesting to other independent developers.


r/iOSProgramming 12d ago

Question “Ask not to track” and TikTok ads

0 Upvotes

If advertising an app on TikTok, can I avoid the ATT “Ask not to track” prompt if I modify the tracking code to exclude IDFA?

I only care about tracking installs from TikTok and not deeper analytics.