App store claims that my app is linked to pre-release iPadOS 16

Same here. I've had 12 messages between us and every build is rejected but they don't give you any help or guidance. They just paste something from the agreement.

My next step is to install Xcode 13.4.1 and build and archive it in there.

If that's the fix then Apple and the App Review team need to get their act together. Xcode 14 should tell us we can't submit such a build at the validation stage and tell us why not. Instead, they let us go as far as App Review and get all this hassle and waste of time.

So, install 13.4.1 and see if that works.

Just FYI if you didn't already realise, iPadOS 16 is not yet released so you can't build and reply for that version yet. Read my reply below. If Xcode 13.4.1 works then App Review should be telling us that's the fix, not stringing us along and not giving us any info.

Apple get a bunch of things right, but these days they're getting more than 50% of things utterly wrong.

Same here... I think this is Xcode14 bug.

Me Too!

I can confirm that reverting to Xcode 13.4.1 does the trick. Xcode 14 and 14.0.1 are simply broken in that those use a pre-release version of iPadOS 16 and you cannot easily force it to go down to 15.7 or anything else that has been officially released. The problem will hopefully go away once iPadOS 16 is officially out and a corresponding Xcode is available. It would be nice for Apple to acknowledge the issue though; could have saved many people a lot of time.

We are having the same issue. We can't release iPad apps anymore. We also have several replies with them where they just copy paste the same thing regardless of our message. Sometimes they add a little "If you have any questions, we are here to help" to add insult to injury.

I can confirm downloading the older xcode, 13.4.1, seems to resolve the issue. Tonight after my update was finally approved an hour or two earlier, I submitted an app update (2nd one today) at 7:57pm, it went "in review" at 8:15, by 8:18 it was approved, and by 8:20pm I got the 'accepted' messages. So, at least two updates today got through with the older xcode.

downloading the older xcode, 13.4.1 and re-archiving did not resolve the issue for us.

Me too, the same questions. Rejected by today. is there any workaround except to download the older Xcode 13.4.1 ?

The rejection is actually correct. They accept iOS 16, iPadOS 15.7, and universal apps at this time. If your app is targeting only iPad devices and you compile it with Xcode 14 (latest official release is 14.0.1), then your app is compiled with iPadOS 16 and it is not universal app, therefore it gets rejected. The solution (it is not a workaround, because there is actually nothing broken) is to download latest Xcode 13 version (13.4.1) and compile your iPad-only app.

Apple's mistake, according to me, was to choose separate release dates for iOS and iPadOS. Because of this, they should provide an official way of compiling iOS 16 apps, but still reject pre-release iPadOS 16.

I tried countless methods. Later, I downloaded version 13.4.1 of xcode directly on Apple's official website and repackaged it to solve the problem