In December 2022 we published an app. Since then, we published countless updates, never had any problem with the app. We have hundreds of new users daily, got far more than 100k downloads in total, have paying/subscribed users.
The beginning of December 2024 in app update that shoudl fix a crucial bug, we suddenly received this rejection:
_"Guideline 4.3(a) - Design - Spam:
We continue to notice that your app shares a similar binary, metadata, and/or concept as apps submitted to the App Store by other developers, with only minor differences.
Submitting similar or repackaged apps is a form of spam that creates clutter and makes it difficult for users to discover new apps."_
What makes it even worse is: In our latest update that we published is a very crucial bug. Literally just days after we noticed this bug we fixed it and sent another version for review. Since then the rejections happened.
I do not understand why Apple, out of nowhere, suddenly, prevents us to update/fix our application.
It caused us to work more than 10+ hours per day during the christmas holidays. We made so many changes to our app, rebranded our entire app, improved UI/UX, added unique features, languages, and so on to our app.
But whatever we send for review simply gets rejected again, and again with the same reason.
What is happening? Why would they even prevent an app that has a 100k+ downloads, paying/subscribed users, was released two years ago, etc. from updating? We have responsibilities towards our users (especially paying users!)
It is incredibly frustrating and demotivating to have an incognito person (who knows who the app reviewer is?!) above you and your product and to literally decide over YOUR faith. We already sent it to appeal but no reply at all.
As we write this, we already have lost thousands of dollars in the past few weeks. Not only have we lost so much money, but we have worked 80+ hours to fix this problem, simply to get the same old rejection without real explanation.
Did I already mention that we published the app in December 2022? We have no control over that someone copies our product our our features. Why would they punish us? Why was it totally fine to publish the app and to have 20+ (or even far more) updates published without any problem, but when we try to fix a crucial bug, suddenly we get rejected like this?
After spending such a long time to add unique features, updating the app, and so on, to simply get rejected again, after we tried so hard to solve this problem, we get rejected just with the same reason.
I asked them: What do you exactly want us to change? No answer. Just the same copy and paste reply.
It is incredibly frustrating. I am even thinking to take legal actions. They are literally preventing us to update our product. We are the ones who get emails every single day from customers. We have a huge monetary loss as well. I feel so disappointed and angry at the same time.
