I’ve officially given up trying to release my app on iOS.
Apple’s latest rejection quotes: • Guideline 5.1.5 – Location Services “The app uses location data for features that are not relevant to a user’s location. Specifically, the app is not functional when Location Services are disabled. To resolve this issue, please revise the app so that the app is fully functional without requiring the user to enable Location Services.” • Guideline 5.1.1 – Data Collection and Storage Complaining that the app “encourages or directs” users to go to Settings to enable location.
My app is literally built around live location. The entire point is: you walk the circuit, see telemetry synced with where you are. No location, no app. That is the product. Apple wants the app to be “fully functional” without the one thing it needs to exist. That’s like rejecting a camera app because it doesn’t “fully function” with no camera permission.
What makes this worse is the complete lack of consistency. Every time I fix what they ask, the next review comes back with a different problem, instead of a clear list of issues to solve in one go. No stable checklist, no coherent interpretation, just moving goalposts and copy-paste template replies that ignore reviewer notes and how the app actually works.
They don’t seem to understand how incapable this process is for serious, niche apps. It’s not about quality or privacy at this point, it’s about box-ticking and cover-your-back behaviour. Meanwhile, small devs are supposed to burn weeks rewriting core flows just to satisfy someone who clearly hasn’t even tried to use the app properly.
I’ve decided to keep the app Android-only. iOS simply isn’t worth fighting with a review system that can’t even be consistent with its own guidelines.
Has anyone else had similar problems with Apple inventing a new issue every review instead of giving you one clear, stable set of requirements to fix?
