App rejection due to firewall?

Question

WMI iOS OP

Created Nov ’19

Replies 7

Boosts 0

Views 3.2k

Participants 6

Good afternoon,

My application was rejected by Apple stating that they are unable to establish a connection to my online testing database in order to perform the review. Below is the accompanying rejection message.:

"We discovered one or more bugs in your app when reviewed on iPad running iOS 13.2.3 on Wi-Fi.

Specifically, we when we entered the provided settings and attempted to save them, an error message occurred.

Next Steps

To resolve this issue, please run your app on a device to identify any issues, then revise and resubmit your app for review.

If we misunderstood the intended behavior of your app, please reply to this message in Resolution Center to provide information on how these features were intended to work.

For new apps, uninstall all previous versions of your app from a device,...."

Unfortunately this is not the first time I have received this reply from apple's review team.

In the past I've submitted the same unchanged binary with additional instructions to please make sure that a firewall is not prohibiting the application from connecting to the database. Afterwards my application would be approved.

More puzzling is that I have submitted the exact same build to be reviewed for Apple's (B2B) program roughly a week ago and was rejected once before I mentioned to please check their firewall - After which it was approved.

This time around when submitting to the app store, I've made sure to again ask if the application can get through their firewall.

I have received no direct answer or acknowledgement to my question.

I've researched this extensively online before coming here, with having only found one SO reference which outlines a similar experience.

In the end they too were unsure of what resolved their problem.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58148387/errors-on-apple-app-reviewers-device-during-the-app-review-when-trying-to-conne

My application does create a direct connection to a database server as well, and I will attempt to point out that port 1433 (typical port used by SQL Server) is required for my application to run.

Solutions I've Tried:

-> Made sure to upload the correct, latest, and working build to app store connect every time I've submitted for review.

-> Verified my server is running and reachable with every build I upload.

-> Tested my application on multiple devices/ simulators with the latest non-beta iOS firmwares.

-> Tested my application in a DNS64/NAT64 test network. (As outlined in Apple's 'Networking Overview')

Is there a reliable procedure for noting that this application requires firewall access /port 1433 in order to skip weeks of back and forth messaging?

Any help regarding this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Boost

Answer 1

john daniel OP

Nov ’19

I think Apple is doing you a favour here. I expect you would get swamped with support requests from people complaining that your app doesn't work. To minimize your problems, connect to port 80 or 443. Ideally, do that via a REST service and convert your data to JSON or similar. In some networks, even port 80 is blocked unless it is actually Safari or another authorized browser making the connection.

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Answer 2

WMI iOS OP

Nov ’19

Thanks for the reply, this applicaiton is a companion app to our desktop erp software. So unfortunately the scheme of our network is past easily supporting http/ ssl. This will be implemented in the future, however for now our customers are aware of the technical requirements needed for our companion application to run without any issues.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Answer 3

john daniel OP

Nov ’19

My only remaining advice is to remember that Apple, and the App Store, are consumer-focused. App Store reviewers are trained to look a the kinds of apps that are generally in the App Store. Usually these are games, gambling apps, and multi-level marketing scams. Chances are, your reviewer has no idea what you are talking about with respect to firewalls and proxies. They probably think you are trying something sneaky and just reject it. That's easier than asking their supervisor to deal with it. Those kinds of out-of-band reviews probably hurt their performance metrics.

Maybe review what other types of distribution methods are available. I don't know anything about "B2B" apps. I think there is a whole infrastructure to that. You might get a different type of review in that context.

Another option is to go ahead and stand up a basic REST server for demo data and give App Review access to that server. Make sure to note this behaviour in your comments so they don't think you are trying anything sneaky. But it lets them run your app and review it with test data. Real users will be able to make successful connections on the direct ports so hopefully they will never see the test data.

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Answer 4

ddyer OP

Aug ’20

Starting about 2 weeks ago, this problem has become an epidemic for me. Every app update is
initially rejected with a screen shot of my "can't contact site" message. At first resubmiting
the same binary with a note about the firewall, got the app through. Now, the problem has
gotten worse (or my luck has changed) I've currently resubmitted the same app 5 times with
the same dance from their reviewers.

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Answer 5

MudassirAsghar_iOS OP

Jan ’21

I am also having the same issue, Apple rejecting the app saying "We discovered one or more bugs in your app. Specifically, the app continued to display a connection error despite our review device being connected to a stable connection. "
I couldn't reproduce the issue at all my end, can anyone please help here?

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Answer 6

Loktor OP

Feb ’21

Apple actually has a problem with UDP connections, i guess it has to do with reviewers being in home office via a VPN und UDP connections are blocked by their internal firewall there, but we are also facing the same problem again and again with every new version that we have to run through multiple loops in order to actually get the app through the review.

It is quite sad that apple didn't resolve this problem on their end in the last year since it is happening.

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Answer 7

samueldeschamps OP

Aug ’22

I'm facing the same issue here with AppStore Connect. "We discovered one or more bugs in your app. Specifically, the app loaded indefinitely upon login attempt." All of my tests work. On Apple side, kind of 25% passes and 75% is rejected. It seems to be random, but it's getting worse in the last days.

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