Extended Developer Center Outage May Be Causing App Review Delays [Updated]

MacRumors · Jul 30, 2013

As Apple continues to bring its Developer Center back online after a week-long outage, the company is sending out emails to developers noting a potential delay for app reviews. ReadWrite has posted one of the letters being received by developers:

"We are currently reviewing an app that you submitted for inclusion on the App Store, and want to let you know that the review process will require additional time. We apologize for the delay and will provide you with an update on the status of your app as soon as possible."

Such letters are not uncommon, of course, but given the amount of time that the Developer Center was offline, it makes sense that Apple would have a backlog of reviews to work through. While app updates were available, new apps were not able to be submitted to Apple during the outage.

According to one developer, he received the email after waiting six days for a review and after waiting another five days, his app has yet to be approved. It is unknown, however, whether or not there is a secondary issue with his app, as other developers have had apps approved at a more rapid pace.

Apple's Developer Center first went offline on Thursday, July 18, and several days later, Apple announced that the outage was the result of a security breach. While a security researcher suggested that he might be the reason behind the outage, it remains unclear what caused the extended downtime.

Late last week, Apple outlined a plan for bringing the site back online, and began restoring systems on Friday. While the majority of Developer Center functions are now up and running, the Member Center, Forums, Videos, and Technical Support remain offline.

Update: According to the forums, many developers are currently seeing no delays at all with the app review process, especially for app updates.

Article Link: Extended Developer Center Outage May Be Causing App Review Delays [Updated]

dubis07 · Jul 30, 2013

Might be intermittent. I submitted a version of my app last night and it was approved in five hours (for me, shortest time ever for a non-expedited review)

anderkh · Jul 30, 2013

Same here... approved in 3 days, and went into the store on Sunday!

justit · Jul 30, 2013

New applications for iOS dev program still down... can't get clients to get added to test my apps

ka-spot · Jul 30, 2013

No problems! I'm not submitting apps. I'm just waiting for the new Haswell rMBP

ERIC273 · Jul 30, 2013

I just submitted my app today. I wonder how they'll handle the fact that by the time they get to review it my dev license will be expired (unless they get it before 5 days).

theheadguy · Jul 30, 2013

Can you imagine the mob mentality here if an outage like this had gone on for this length of time at the Google Play store?

atteligibility · Jul 30, 2013

MacRumors said:
[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]

As Apple continues to bring its Developer Center back online after a week-long outage, the company is sending out emails to developers noting a potential delay for app reviews. ReadWrite has posted one of the letters being received by developers:Such letters are not uncommon, of course, but given the amount of time that the Developer Center was offline, it makes sense that Apple would have a backlog of reviews to work through. For the majority of the outage, developers were unable to access the tools necessary to submit new apps and app updates.

According to one developer, he received the email after waiting six days for a review and after waiting another five days, his app has yet to be approved.

Image
Apple's Developer Center first went offline on Thursday, July 18, and several days later, Apple announced that the outage was the result of a security breach. While a security researcher suggested that he might be the reason behind the outage, it remains unclear what caused the extended downtime.

Late last week, Apple outlined a plan for bringing the site back online, and began restoring systems on Friday. While the majority of Developer Center functions are now up and running, the Member Center, Forums, Videos, and Technical Support remain offline.

Article Link: Extended Developer Center Outage May Be Causing App Review Delays

That email could be completely unrelated to the outage.
This message usually means that the app is going to be rejected, the additional time required is most likely for another reviewer to confirm the rejection.

I have received this email a few times in the past, prior an update being rejected, nothing new here..

invalidname · Jul 30, 2013

Shiny' app review time tracker isn't showing a big uptick since the outage: http://reviewtimes.shinydevelopment.com. The review times have been pretty constant during the outage: 6-7 days for iOS, 4 for Mac.

The form letter cited in the article is typical Apple-speak for gray area cases, where the app is using some feature (in-app purchase, core location, etc.) that kicks off privacy, payment, or other user concerns, and apparently requires further scrutiny or consideration on Apple's end.

KdParker · Jul 30, 2013

Any news on what they are doing with the dev accounts that expire during the outage?

JohnBarnett · Jul 30, 2013

We've had multiple updates reviewed during the outage. All review times were between 1 day and 6 days.

acctman · Jul 30, 2013

theheadguy said:
Can you imagine the mob mentality here if an outage like this had gone on for this length of time at the Google Play store?

The Apple Store was never down though. The Developer Center was down, updates and new apps that were in the cue prior to the outage still got approved and pushed through. The general public/consumer was not affect by this outage.

----------

KdParker said:
Any news on what they are doing with the dev accounts that expire during the outage?

The posted and email all developers regarding this, multiple times... Any dev account expiring during the outage will be extended and apps will remain.

TouchMint.com · Jul 30, 2013

During this outage (when devs couldn't submit new apps) I submitted an update to an app and it went through in like 3 days (so fast I had not updated screenshots yet). Yesterday I just updated the app again so I could include the correct screenshots. Here's hoping this update is less than 7 days but I doubt it.

dzwilkerson · Jul 30, 2013

I submitted an app update last Friday around 5PM PDT (7/26) and it was approved on Sunday (7/28) evening which is abnormally fast for my updates. Being approved on a Sunday was a first as well.

theheadguy · Jul 30, 2013

acctman said:
The Apple Store was never down though. The Developer Center was down, updates and new apps that were in the cue prior to the outage still got approved and pushed through. The general public/consumer was not affect by this outage.

Good point. I still can't think of any Google service, no matter what it is, that has been down this long.

sesnir · Jul 30, 2013

MacRumors said:
Extended Developer Center Outage May Be Causing App Review Delays

Nope.

JDee · Jul 30, 2013

I know you guys at MacRumors are all for getting stories but at least take a bit of time and don't make a premature story with no research.

Ryan Burgess · Jul 30, 2013

I had 3 apps be reviewed each in 3 days over the weekend.

scottsjack · Jul 30, 2013

theheadguy said:
Can you imagine the mob mentality here if an outage like this had gone on for this length of time at the Google Play store?

Totally. There seems to be some poor devils whose only claim to fame is that they own an Apple product or two, "Apple goooooooooood, everybody else baaaaaaaad".

newagemac · Jul 30, 2013

theheadguy said:
Good point. I still can't think of any Google service, no matter what it is, that has been down this long.

Google Reader has been down for a mighty long time so far.

theheadguy · Jul 30, 2013

newagemac said:
Google Reader has been down for a mighty long time so far.

I believe .mac has it beat

Yebubbleman · Jul 30, 2013

Still cannot access the iOS Dev Center or the Mac Dev Center. Still can't access the iOS Beta 4 downloads.

troop231 · Jul 30, 2013

I would love for Xcode automatic configuration to be working again, as my Organizer is littered right now.

TouchMint.com · Jul 30, 2013

I just had an update go through in about 30 hours. Fastest I've ever seen.

AnthonyDu · Aug 1, 2013

Is outage causing phone provisioning issues too ?

I had a very frustrating experience yesterday, spending hours trying to provision my iPhone 3GS as a developer phone using my Apple Developer account. Nothing seemed to work. What is a trivial task with Android - transferring an app I've developed to my phone - was totally impossible to achieve with Xcode on a Mac and my iPhone. Not at all happy! :-(

Extended Developer Center Outage May Be Causing App Review Delays [Updated]

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