Why are my App Store reviews being deleted, I know they are not fake reviews, they were posted by my friends and supporters.

I'm having the same problem. I have had three positive reviews, and one negative. All the positive reviews have been removed, leaving the one negative. I am confused as to why this is happening. Granted one positive review was from my mother, so I can understand that. However, the other two reviews were from unknown individuals. As it is now, my star rating, which was showing 4 stars, is now down to 1, and people can only go off that one negative review. Please help Apple.

Did you find out what was happening here? I have just launched an app and some people are unable to leave reviews on my app and others aren't showing the reviews?

We have had the problem of disappearing reviews for well over a year with our apps. I have spoken extensively to Apple support and did get as far as speaking to someone in California but at the end of the whole process she simply said that she had no idea why it was happening and to just see if it continued. It has continued and I tried reporting it again. I was given a case number but was never contacted.

Reviews for our own apps disappear. And as well as this, if I leave revews for other, unrelated, apps they usually disappear too, so I know that it is not just my apps that are affected. I have asked family and friends to watch out for this, and they also have disappearing reviews. It is happening over and over again. It is a huge problem.

This is a serious problem because Apple appear to use the number of reviews as one of the factors in determining ranking. I believe that the problem will only be addressed if enough developers complain about it, so I urge everyone to watch their reviews very carefully. I use LaunchKit's Review Monitor so I have a record of all reviews that are left.

I am having the same problem , App reviews are getting deleted and dont know the reason why this is happening ?

mine too. Could Apple be responsible for its platform

Have the same problem. Two 5-stars reviews disappeared last week after one day being visible on the App Store. Please restore them!

I have the same issue, I was point out a constructive criticism about live auto streaming and praised their app 5/5 stars. Later today I was to edit my reviews and was gone without any reason. Devs can't accept have flaws in their apps? and request App Store Staff erased them? or this is just a really annoying bug Apple has to fix asap. Sad indeed.

Having the same issue here, had over 150 5 star reviews just disappear all of a sudden..

>are posted by my friends and supporters

Reviews are assumed to be unbiased and provided voluntarily by the public at large, without dev solicitation, prodding, encouragement, wink/wink/nod, etc. Not by 'friends and supporters', but by unbiased users/strangers without connection to the author.

Just because they weren't bought using money, doesn't mean they were earned by app store standards, a process you seem to be openly mocking, and one Apple seems keen to enforce. That's a good thing.

That said, something about those reviews triggered a closer look on the backend. Your admission that you know the users involved personally just works to confirm Apple's reaction.

If the removed reviews were valid, the app will eventually attract other genuine positive reviews without you having to lobby on it's behalf, so just relax and be patient. You'll appreciate the process when those appear. If you can't get reviews any other way, you may want to check your expectations and work harder on your app's content, etc.

Just keep in mind that your account may have been flagged for abuse, so...

Good luck.

I’m also experiencing a similar problem (Feb 2019), 7 reviews have been removed and I only have 20ish reviews. I’ve encouraged family, friends, and coworkers to use Kintsugi when stressed, and I know these are real reviews being deleted by Apple.

Then they aren't real reviews, then are they?

I can provide an update on my review situation. When I first released my app, I had a number of crazy, one-star reviews. I responded to each one, trying to diplomatically point out what was false and turn it into an ad for my product. I had a few real 5-star reviews that are more typical of the direct feedback that I get. A couple of those were removed. There may be some kind of AI-based filtering going on. On the surface, a bunch of 1-star, hateful reviews and then a few 5-star reviews is suspicious.

Here is how I solved it:

1) I carefully added [SKStoreReviewController requestReview] to popup a request for review for customers who have already made in-app purchases (meaning they liked it well enough to vote with their wallet) and, based on the logic being executed, seem to be getting good value from the app.

2) I also added a fallback for older system that son't support SKStoreReviewController

3) I reset my ratings

Now I have 174 ratings with an average of 4.4/5.0

My last hateful 1-star review was in December. I did get a 1-star in January actually praising the app itself, but complaing about being asked to give a rating or else the app store wouldn't launch. Is this an Apple bug? I asked for follow up and received nothing, as expected. Such is life.

My swallowed review led me here. Just in these two days. A positive review from someone I don't know at all. The review has been there for like one or two months. Overnight it just disappears.

I don't even ask for reviews from friends so there are only few. I treasure each review from my genuine users. But I am not sure whether I should persist if those genuine reviews can even be removed.

At the same time, my own review to some other really badly designed app of a global brand never shows up in store.

My app had 155 reviews just two days ago (and 177 on Google Play). I kindly asked my users if they could leave a review for us. On Google Play, rating count increased by 8 as expected, while on AppStore, in actually decreased by 7! This definitely must be a bug.