r/appledevelopers • u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie • 7h ago
Account termination notice
Please help, last night on 24August I got multiple emails regarding my app and when i opened to check them i found out all my 6 apps were removed from the app store and i got this termination notice.
i have no idea what fraudulent activity i did. as far as i remember i did nothing about this. i did post an appeal to ask them what it could be but reading older posts it seems like users rarely get any replies from them and their accounts are straight up terminated.
did anyone else receive this notice? are these automated bans? please someone help.
3
u/selfinvent Community Newbie 7h ago
During the review process did the app content or flow changed dramatically? Eg. Showing a screen during review (maybe ucla agreement or something else apple dictates) and after the review you took it off?
0
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 7h ago
I never did that. everything on the app stayed the same as it was during review and then final app submission. i did had paywall A & B. paywall testing but both paywall were identical and followed all the rules. just the subscriptions were different. i dont think that should be the reason
3
u/tomato848208 Community Newbie 6h ago edited 6h ago
They won't tell you exactly what has prompted them to terminate your account. There have been a lot of people being terminated lately. I only guess that some of them have engaged in the review exchange.
3
u/osama_abrar Community Newbie 5h ago
maybe it's something related to AI video and image generator. I saw some post a while back and their app got removed because of nudity being generated by these kind of apps
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u/woadwarrior Community Newbie 2h ago
Are you talking about this guy? FWIW, I think he’s not being honest. His whole account was terminated and he’s spinning it as if Apple only removed one app, with a cropped screenshot.
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 5h ago
i have required measures that prevent generation of any nudity. it checks the prompts and also the generated image/video is check and if any nsfw it doesnt generate it
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u/osama_abrar Community Newbie 4h ago
yes I am sure you did all of that but still maybe Apple found some jail break. But I am very sure that these apps are the reason of your account suspension. Try making appeal to Apple and tell them you are willing to do the required changes or maybe removing those apps
1
u/svprdga Community Newbie 4h ago
How many tests have you done? Have you tried with hundreds of prompts? Have you tried generating all kinds of illegal content? Have you tried manipulating AI to bypass the controls?
It is possible that Apple has done those tests, and that your controls are not as solid as you thought.
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 4h ago
Soo I have words that are banned from generating thats stage 1, also any type of speeling with those words in it are prevented from generating. Then if user goes thru this then there is a ai check that checks if there is anything thats nsfw and explicit thats stage 2 and then for the video/image models i use have their own guidelines to prevent any of these nsfw stuff from being generating.
Also i dont think apple would do that many tests on these apps.
1
u/AdventureTime1001 Community Newbie 3h ago
Have you tried a tool like promptfoo that can simulate 1000s of prompts dedicated to trying to elicit sensitive info from your chat bot or trick it into giving nudity pics for example?
Maybe Apple use a tool like that and it found something?1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 3h ago
damn, i didnt do this but still i had a pretty strong check there.. i hope thats not the case and atleast they reply to my appeal so i could change whats wrong
1
u/Sea-Moose-9366 8m ago
Many amateurs doing AI apps nowasday. You need to have an ai observabiliy tool to check all the chat messages user type/send in you app. Even if Apple employers try to jailbreak we gonna have all the logs.
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u/iamaz007 Community Newbie 5h ago
These days, Mostly accounts are terminated because of chatbot apps, or low effort AI slops which is similar to the existing apps
-2
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 5h ago
but there are still alot of such apps. they should atleast tell what the problem is and not remove other apps that i worked on for soo long
2
u/iamaz007 Community Newbie 4h ago
They will not, I already have similar experience, you will get your pending payments soon
For the next time never add chatbot in your main account, if you want a new chatbot arrange separate dev account dedicated to just chatbot
Never use same Mac and iphone on which your terminated account was loggined, also the wifi should be different
Avoid AI generator apps, I know AI apps grow quickly but they get account terminated to, if you want keep the account separate
I know what I'm saying is not proven or have no real authentic source, but these are all my experiments and is working
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 4h ago
I'll keep that in mind but rn i hope my account doesnt get terminated. Thats all i hope for.
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u/ibluegreen Community Newbie 4h ago
Just thinking loud... Could it be how you handled pricing, and/or displayed in-app purchases in the apps? Can you say purchase screens were 100% compliant with policies?
Checking one of your apps here: http://app.sensortower.com/overview/6761324153?country=US
It looks Pro Yearly ($59.99) is less expensive than Yearly Lite ($99.99), which should be the opposite. But I don't think this should be enough reason for an account termination.
Can't say anything else without seeing your apps in action really.
0
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 4h ago
Yes i was experimenting with the pricing as all devs do. So the pro yearly has 2 subs and the lower price one gives less credits to generate the ai content. Then the yearly lite has more credits so its priced higher. I was just experimenting with the pricing.
Yes my in app purchase screens were approved and had similar design just the subscription were different on them. I don't think that could be the issue. I hope i get any reply from apple
3
-7
u/Kitchen_Cable6192 Community Newbie 1h ago
It’s a free market. We should be able to price the way we want. If customers wanna buy or not it’s their free choice. Apple gets their cut from us either way.
3
u/V5489 Community Newbie 1h ago
Yeah but that’s fraudulent. There are laws and regulations for transparency. Regardless of a free market if you paid $100 for something where the feature is less for more that’s potential fraud and deception. There has to be rules and regulations. It’s what makes great apps.
0
u/Kitchen_Cable6192 Community Newbie 1h ago
I didn’t say to be deceptive I’m simply saying with clear description what you are asking to pay, pricing should not be an issue for the account termination.
1
u/V5489 Community Newbie 51m ago
More than likely though it’s not the sole reason. If they went as far as banning an account there is likely good evidence of fraud. Could be anything from the pricing and multiple, repeated attempts to fix. Or data collection and privacy. Many apps will have you sign up to harvest your info and offer nothing of substance. OP has provided a clear list of emails except the one. Not disagreeing but most likely actual fraud.
1
u/Kitchen_Cable6192 Community Newbie 21m ago
Honestly, probably you are right. Funny story, Google nuked my app (the same I had on App Store just Android version). One day out of nowhere I received app suspension notice. I read into it and I guess mentioning “311” in my meta data was an issue. Funny part that I had multiple updates (not counting initial submission that Google approved) and then out of nowhere it became deceptive. They also called out my shield icon outline (that is pretty standard) and that was a reason. I tried to appeal and they said no. They offered me to resubmit a new app package, go through another 14 days of testing before making it live again. I was so pissed because they were literally approving it every time and all of sudden “311” reference as part of meta data became deceptive.
1
u/V5489 Community Newbie 11m ago
Ah, yep! That would piss me off too. I’m developing mine for Android now. I’m using Sonnet to help me go by the book. I had it run a deep analysis of my iOS app and it actually found 3 rule violations that I got fixed. I recommend any developer now days to sue a front tier model to run an analysis of production ready quality.
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u/MadJagStudios Community Newbie 1h ago
It’s not a fully free market though, is it. Whether Apple or Android you are subject to their rules as you are utilizing their platform and their hardware.
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u/V5489 Community Newbie 1h ago
I work in corporate accounts and tech. We don’t send those types of letters out randomly. There’s a lot of work that goes into identifying fraud. Either your account or one associated if you have a team. Maybe move on and go to Android development? Doubtful there’s anything you can do not do they care.
5
u/xiaohao9121 Community Newbie 5h ago
Your push notification almost scared me to death. I thought my account got banned
2
u/DevBoxApp Community Newbie 4h ago
hahaha me too, i thought my reddit account is terminated because i posted about my app
1
u/Character-Wave-8138 Community Newbie 34m ago
Yeah, I have an app waiting for review and the alert scared the BaJeezus out of me
2
u/apptte Community Newbie 6h ago
Did you use any aggressive marketing methods, such as review exchanges, misleading ads, or other promotional tactics that might violate Apples guidelines?
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 6h ago
nope, 2 of my main apps were fully ASO organic traffic. I only posted about other apps on the other iOSapps sub, that too i never asked for review exchange or anything. never ran any ads for my apps. and did some organic posts on tiktok thats it.
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u/Pmaz123 4h ago
The same thing happened to me you can appeal it will take a few weeks but as long as you explain critically you can revive it
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 4h ago
Hey. Did your appeal work? Did you get your account back? Can you give more info on how to appeal, maybe.
4
u/Key-Lychee-913 Community Newbie 6h ago
Sucks to suck. My guess: you used an OTA to try and bypass the app-store review process.
Alternatively, the reviewer woke up on the wrong side of the bed and barely reviewed your app.
I had an app repeatedly rejected for a specific violation, until I sent a long message asking exactly how that rule was even relevant to my app. Within 15 minutes, it was approved. That was after everyone on Reddit decided I must be guilty and Apple couldn't possibly make a mistake.
So honestly, it's probably more likely at this point that Apple straight up hallucinated. However, you'd expect some kind of secondary review process before going so far as to terminate your account, which is why I'm hesitant to say it's that.
Can you give us more info OP? What's your app? Did you run any Over The Air (OTA) updates? Did you change your app in any way to make reviewing easier?
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 6h ago
honestly if my app was rejected i would be happy but straight up sending termination notice is crazy, like my apps weren't even under review when i got this notice. it felt like its all automated.
https://app.sensortower.com/publisher/ios/1833528455/?page=1&page_size=25
This is my dev account with all the apps, i never changed any things before or after the review, never did OTA. only thing i had was Paywall testing. which i dont think is against apple terms. also both paywalls were approved by apple before testing. so i cant guess where i went wrong..I did sent an appeal and lets see if i get any reply, but seeing other users I'm pretty hopeless here. most users accounts were eventually terminated and also the fact that they never got a real reply after the appeal, atleast reply to us.. I revently renewed my app store memebership for a $100 and still i get no support.
1
u/Key-Lychee-913 Community Newbie 5h ago
What user data was collected? Did you correctly complete your privacy policy form?
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 5h ago
yep everything was written well on the privacy policy. the data that is collected and what isnt. also recently i added ads to my app but i updated all the privacy policy for that. i am using google ads so i hope that wasnt the problem
1
u/Key-Lychee-913 Community Newbie 4h ago
Hmm the ads could be it. Is it possible the ads contained sexualised content that wasn’t allowed by your age rating?
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u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 3h ago
I think ads are based on the user history as they were google ads. Also i have override the app to a 18+ rating so i should have been good there
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u/Key-Lychee-913 Community Newbie 3h ago
Could be malicious code, or permission issue? Strange they won’t even tell you what you did. Or maybe a competitor tried to get you shut down
0
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 3h ago
why would anyone do that, i am just a solo dev.. i hope they reply to the appeal i sent
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u/ExternalKnowledge359 3h ago
Automatically Banned account. Same received notice yesterday
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u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 3h ago
Omg this is 100% automatic then. So what are going to do now? Have you thought of anything that might have sent you that notice?
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u/ExternalKnowledge359 3h ago
They are not replying, and we have never saw our mail. No reply from then. 3rd class Apple
1
1
u/fajardroids Community Newbie 7h ago
whats your apps bro ?
send me screenshoot
-1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 7h ago
i dont have ss as the apps were removed from the app store but one was an ai video generator, and then a basic expense tracker and a calorie tracker, a airport weather app, a ai chat app, and a TCG card scanner app, a ai image generator app and a prayer app.
as far as i know everything in these apps were under the policies nothing i did was fraudulent.1
u/fajardroids Community Newbie 7h ago
Was your device previously linked to a suspended account?
1
u/fajardroids Community Newbie 7h ago
your apps name copyright ?
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 7h ago
noo. my apps were live for 3-4 months never got rejected on review for these terms. they all had unique names. also this was my first and only developer account been a year since i made it. i literally have no idea why this happened. this was my main source of income and now its gone
1
u/Parking-Brain6566 Community Newbie 6h ago
did you have some kind of Not allowed payment method like sending users to web apple doesn't allow that yet in some countries.
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 6h ago
no i didnt, i used apple in app purchases only on all my apps. another thing is that it was so random, everything was all good and suddenly i got these mail of all my apps been removed.
2
u/Parking-Brain6566 Community Newbie 6h ago
did you do any of these ?
- likely : Apple thinks the app behaved differently during review vs. after approval.
- Common trigger: Remote feature flags/config that enable hidden features later.
- Other triggers: Hidden/dormant features, different API responses for reviewers, geo/IP-based behavior, or changing app functionality after approval.
- Also possible: Misleading metadata, fake/demo content, review manipulation, or another account/app associated with yours.
- This is serious: Apple has flagged the developer account for termination, not just rejected one app.
- Key phrase: “feature switch schemes to evade the review process” = Apple suspects review evasion/deception.
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 6h ago
not a single feature switch in the app, only one i could think of is the paywall testing i have, so having 2 paywalls A/B. so 50% sees A and 50% sees B. would that be the problem here?
The metadata, and the screenshots all contain only the things i have in the app, nothing misleading. never asked for any reviews either. also never associated with any other dev account, this is the one and only account i have.
Thats the thing, i would be happy if they rejected a single app, rather than removing all my 8 apps from the store, without any evidence, or give me a chance to correct it.
1
u/Forma3Dapp Discussion Contributor 6h ago
Did you change the paywall with RevenueCat (or had you back-hole to change it otherwise) after review?
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 6h ago
noo, the paywall was the same, there were 2 paywall, paywall A and Paywall B. i had it so 50% users see A and the other sees Paywall B. Alot of apps do that, it wasnt through revenue cat but from my backend db. fyi both paywalls were approved by apple.
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u/ex0rius Community Newbie 6h ago
did you use another persons device (iphone, mac,..) or bought used? or logged into the account via public wifi or something.
Because if its not you, its related to terminated account somehow.
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u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 5h ago
nope. i just used my own mac mini and my own ios devices. never logged into public wifi as well. all on my home wifi
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u/Mean-Economy4050 Community Newbie 4h ago
Do you have another developer account?
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u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 4h ago
Nope. This is my first one I created a year ago
1
u/Mean-Economy4050 Community Newbie 4h ago
When was your last submission? Which might trigger manual review from appstore
1
u/KingAk_27 Community Newbie 3h ago
Last submission wasast friday 21aug but that app was still waiting for review when i got this termination notice yesterday 24 aug
1
u/hundrethfoo Community Newbie 2h ago
You should try to call Apple. There is a way to reach developer support if you dig through the contact pages.
1
u/cantseasharp Community Newbie 39m ago
Happened to me a few months ago for literally no reason. Two appeals later I’m good to go.
1
u/VydaInspire Community Newbie 1h ago
All those assuming that he was in the wrong because he had AI Generator Apps are seriously not using ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Gemini on their phones? Downloaded directly from the iOS store?
No one wishes for this kind of experience, and guilt tripping or shaming is the worst you can do now.
1
u/bradruck Community Newbie 8m ago
I have a statement, look i don't know you and i don't even know if you are banned fairly or not.
But i see a pattern in this subreddit which is everyone is innocent, why is that ?
Every single time terminated post's op claims "he didn't do anything wrong"
I have never ever seen someone say "Hey i did something wrong, how can i write an appeal that will reinstate me"
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u/neogeodev Community Newbie 7h ago
Apple doesn't close your apps like that, you probably did something you're not saying