Our app — a screen-time / focus app — has had no App Review activity for two weeks, and we believe the trigger was an automated Guideline 2.5.1 check that froze an otherwise actively progressing review. (This forum account is linked to the developer account in question; we can provide the App ID, bundle IDs, submission IDs, and support case numbers through any private channel on request.) Context:
- Jul 2–5: Our first submission (Version 1.0.0) was under active review. We went through several ordinary metadata / paywall-related iterations, and the reviewer responded within roughly 24 hours each time. Nothing related to Screen Time was raised in these human reviews of builds 9 and 10.
- Jul 8: After we submitted build 11 — which addressed the remaining human-review feedback — we received an automated Guideline 2.5.1 (Performance: Software Requirements) message stating that the app uses the Screen Time API but has not been submitted with the Family Controls entitlement, and that review of the submission cannot proceed.
- All reviewer activity stopped at that point, and there has been none since.
What we verified:
- The Family Controls (Distribution) entitlement is granted to our account and assigned to all four bundle IDs (the main app plus its DeviceActivityMonitor, ShieldAction, and ShieldConfiguration extensions). We verified with codesign that com.apple.developer.family-controls = true is present in the code signature and embedded provisioning profile of every one of the four executables in the submitted IPA — so the entitlement named in the automated message is present in the flagged build.
- For context: builds 9 and 10, with an identical Screen Time API surface and identical entitlements (verified at the binary level with nm against the submitted artifacts), had been human-reviewed on Jul 2–5 with no Screen Time-related objection. We recognize those builds may simply not have reached the automated analysis stage before being superseded, so we do not draw firm conclusions from that.
What we did anyway (build 12, submitted Jul 9):
- In case the automated check actually concerns the separate com.apple.developer.family-controls.app-and-website-usage entitlement (which we do not request and do not need), we removed every reference from our main app to the APIs associated with it: AuthorizationStatus.approvedWithDataAccess, ManagedSettings.Application.bundleIdentifier, ManagedSettings.Application.localizedDisplayName, ManagedSettings.ActivityCategory.localizedDisplayName, and ManagedSettings.WebDomain.domain. We verified with nm that none of the four executables in the build 12 IPA reference these APIs.
- The app does not use FamilyActivityData, DeviceActivityReport, app usage events, web usage events, or App and Website Usage data access.
- No automated message has appeared for build 12.
What has happened since:
- Jul 9–14: No reviewer activity on build 12. We filed an expedited review request and opened two Developer Support cases (Jul 8 and Jul 14). No response to any of them.
- Around Jul 15: Hoping to clear the frozen state, we cancelled and resubmitted the same Version 1.0.0 / build 12.
- Around Jul 17: Filed a second expedited review request for the new submission.
- Jul 22 (today): The new submission has been in "Waiting for Review" since Jul 15, with no reviewer activity and no reply to either support case or either expedite request.
What we are asking:
- Could someone check whether the Jul 8 automated flag is still attached to the app record and blocking reviewer assignment, and help get the current submission assigned to a reviewer?
- If the automated check flags build 12 again, could the message specify which entitlement and which binary / API references triggered it, so we can address it precisely? We can provide codesign output, entitlement plists, provisioning profile dumps, and nm symbol listings on request.
Thank you.