I'm posting here after 8 months of back-and-forth with Developer Support (case 102685152651) because I've exhausted that channel and need to know if others have experienced this or if any Apple engineers can advise.
The issue: When a user types "Dabah" — the exact name of my app — the App Store autocorrects/redirects to "Sabah." My app does not appear in those results. It only appears when the user searches "Dabah recipes." This means users who know the app by name cannot find it unless they add a secondary keyword.
What makes this clearly a system-level bug, not a ranking issue:
-
The same behavior occurs inside Apple's own Developer Marketing Tools portal. Searching "Dabah" returns only Sabah-related apps. Searching "Dabah recipes" finds my app immediately. This is not a user-facing algorithm issue — it's happening in an internal Apple tool.
-
"Dabah" is a unique, uncommon word with no major competing apps. There is no legitimate reason an exact-name search should be overridden.
-
The app has been live on the App Store since mid-2024, is properly indexed (it surfaces on keyword searches), and has "Dabah" listed as a keyword. The problem is specifically in the autocorrect/normalization layer treating "Dabah" as a misspelling of "Sabah."
I've submitted screen recordings demonstrating both behaviors. Developer Support has confirmed my ticket is with the engineering team, but I've received no resolution or timeline in 8 months.
Has anyone else encountered autocorrect overriding an exact app name match? Is there a known path to escalate search indexing bugs beyond the standard Developer Support channel?
App: Dabah (id6745241806) Category: Food & Drink
