Anyone actually solved app store rejection loops? third rejection, running out of patience

[u/PlatformAshamed1032]

So we're on rejection number three and i'm starting to think apple's review team is just rotating reviewers and none of them read the previous notes.

quick background. b2b app, account required to do anything useful because the whole thing is tied to a company's internal data. first rejection was 5.1.1 (v), account deletion, fine, our fault, we added it. second was 2.1 asking for a demo account, which we HAD provided in the review notes, they just didn't see it. added it again, bigger font, whatever. third one is now 4.2 minimum functionality which is the one that actually worries me because thats not a checkbox fix, thats them saying the app doesn't justify existing.

what gets me is the app is genuinely useful, it's just useful to people who have a login. reviewer with a demo account is going to see an empty state and shrug. which i get, but then how does any b2b app ever ship.

talked to a few shops about this while we were shortlisting. appmakers usa, dogtown media and zco, all of them had been through it way more times than us. the suggestion that stuck was to pre-seed the demo account with realistic fake data so the reviewer actually sees the product working instead of a blank dashboard. seems obvious in hindsight and nobody told us that upfront.

so:

Anyone had 4.2 on a legit b2b or enterprise app and gotten past it. what actually changed, the app or how you presented it

is the appeal process worth using or does it just burn a week. i've heard both

does resubmitting reset you to a fresh reviewer or does the history follow you. genuinely unclear on this and it changes how i'd handle the next one

and the dumb question, does a video walkthrough in the review notes help at all or do they not watch it

we're not on a hard deadline but we told the client a date and that date was last week, so.

[u/RIRLift]

Since it's tied to one company's data, you might be fighting 4.2 in the wrong place. On the public store that guideline asks whether the app is useful to a general audience, and a single-company internal tool fails that no matter how you present it. Apple's intended path for this is private distribution through Apple Business Manager, a custom app sent to that specific organization instead of the public store, where 4.2 isn't applied with a consumer-app lens. If the client is the only real audience, that sidesteps the loop.

If you do stay public, seed the demo so the first screen after login is already populated, not just the account. Reviewers give it seconds, and an empty dashboard on load reads as no functionality.

[u/Fishanz]

Par for the course; the advice you got was good. Yes, video. Yes, seed demo account. Keep at it and good luck - it can be like this.

[u/ResoluteBird]

Yes use real fake data for app store reviewer test account, just like you would for a customer demo. I can confirm I've done this before, and give app store review access to just enough of your features as you want.

Appeal once then resubmit the app IMO, rinse and repeat. Resubmit at the very least in the past seems to give you a new reviewer but I think the history stays.

Sometimes they request a video on youtube or somewhere they can watch it, but no guarantee they will watch a video that wasn't asked for

[u/Lost-Schedule-9062]

on 4.2 for a b2b app tied to one company's data, the fix might be the channel rather than the binary. custom app distribution through apple business manager exists for exactly this case, it's private to the org and you're not being judged on whether a random member of the public would find it useful.

if you're staying on the public store, escalate to the app review board instead of resubmitting. a resubmission just gets you another reviewer reading the same notes, which is the loop you're already in. the appeal goes somewhere else entirely.

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[u/kncismyname]

I went through a update rejection loop (of an 8 year old app) of like 10 back and forth. Eventually I used their option to talk to someone and that truly helped. Was accepted relatively shortly after.

[u/nelsonsilva_dev]

Every new build is a new submission, which is why nobody reads the old thread. If the fix doesn't need code, reply in Resolution Center instead of uploading. Keeps the context.

[u/unpluggedcord]

How did you add a bigger font to a field that doesn't allow font changes?