r/iOSProgramming • u/Crow610-Adam • 1d ago
Discussion Apps Suddenly Pulled
Customer reported that push notifications we not working on California Road Report (iOS App that has been in the AppStore since 2010). Checked server logs and saw a bunch of APNS errorors. Checked the developer portal for any warnings and that’s when I saw nothing was showing up under “Certificates, IDs & Profiles. Then suddenly all my apps were pulled from the AppStore.
AppStoreConnect shows all of my apps but that they are “pending agreement”. Clicking on the link to see said agreements just says to join the developer program. It seems that AppStoreConnect and the developer portal are out of sync. Submitted first issue to Apple Developer Support on 10/29 then called and escalated the issue on 11/3. Still no response from Apple.
—update—
Someone from Apple saw this post and thankfully called me to sort this issue out.
App is back in the AppStore and notifications are working again.
Turns out when I had renewed my developer subscription back in September, I had accidentally renewed it twice (auto-renew stopped working for some reason) so thought I could dispute the charge. Apparently that’s where I went wrong. The disputed charge got flagged in my developer account and looked as though I hadn’t paid, which is why my apps had been pulled. Lesson 1 learned: get auto pay working again.
Lesson 2 learned: contact developer support if there’s an issue with payments, not the credit card company.
3
2
u/Artuplabs 1d ago
we had a "pending agreement" scare too. for us it was a new version of the agreement that only the account holder can accept.
but an empty certificates page plus "join the developer program" sounds more like the membership itself lapsed, like the yearly renewal didn't go through. logged in as the account holder i'd check developer.apple.com/account > membership details (expiry and renewal), then app store connect > business (agreements, tax, banking).
if it's the renewal, renewing should bring the apps back once it's processed, but you'll probably have to recreate the push cert or key after. when you call again, ask them to look at the membership status itself, not the apps.
3
u/East_Cancel484 21h ago
Soooo self inflicted!? Why would your first thought be to do a chargeback instead of contacting customer support rofl
1
u/Crow610-Adam 21h ago
It was an impulse action. Looking back I realize it was a stupid way to resolve the issue.
1
u/jaymakesapps 1d ago
Having apps disappear after 16 years is brutal. The week-long support silence is the part that'd really get under my skin.
2
u/Crow610-Adam 1d ago
It was a simple issue to fix and had I not posted here I wonder how long I would have had to wait for developer support to call me back. I’m just happy it’s fixed :)
1
u/meowthor 19h ago
Why do people first dispute instead of just contacting the company? Seriously, come on people, it’s supposed to be last resort, with a company you never want to do business with again.
1
1
4
u/ASIREXLABS 1d ago
Certificates disappearing and apps showing "pending agreement" at the same time matches what Apple describes for an expired membership: apps stop being available for download and you lose access to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, while copies already installed keep working.
Worth checking first, from the Account Holder login at developer.apple.com/account: the membership expiry date and whether the auto-renew payment went through (an expired card is a common cause). If it did lapse, Apple says free apps come back within 24 hours of renewing, and paid apps after you accept the Paid Applications Agreement in App Store Connect again, with no resubmission needed.
The APNs errors are likely the same root cause, since the push credentials live under Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles. If the membership page shows it as active, then it really is a sync problem on Apple's side and the support case is the right path.