Two submissions of the same update stuck in "Waiting for Review" — 10 weeks total, resubmission clean and untouched, no reviewer pickup

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Hi App Review,

I have an update to a live app that has now spent roughly 10 weeks unable to get through review, across two separate submissions, and I'd appreciate someone checking whether it's genuinely queued or whether something is holding it.

Timeline:

16 June 2026 — v1.1.0 submitted. Sat in "Waiting for Review" for 5+ weeks, never moved to In Review. No Resolution Center message, nothing action-required. 23 July 2026 — after that submission showed no movement, I removed it and submitted a fresh build of the same version. It has now been in "Waiting for Review" for 38 days, again with no reviewer pickup and no Resolution Center message. v1.0.0 reviewed and approved normally on 8 June 2026, so the app and account have a clean prior review.

The resubmission has been left completely untouched — no edits, no cancellations — so this is not a case of repeated changes resetting the queue. Two clean submissions of the same update have now stalled identically.

What I've already checked on my side: no Resolution Center messages, no action-required banners, build shows valid and correctly attached to the version, export compliance answered, and Agreements/Tax/Banking all current.

I've also raised support case 102923511308 and submitted an expedited review request, neither of which has changed the status.

Could someone confirm whether this submission is proceeding normally, or flag if anything is required from me or if it needs to be looked at manually? Happy to provide the submission ID or any other detail. @Apple

Answer 1

notbetting OP

8h

23 July 2026 — after that submission showed no movement, I removed it and submitted a fresh build of the same version.

That is the part I would flag first, because it is not neutral. Apple's own help page for removing a submission says the status becomes Developer Rejected and "if you resubmit the review process will start over."

So this is not two clean submissions stalling identically. The second one started from zero on 23 July. Your real queue time is the 38 days; the five weeks before it were spent and then discarded. Whatever else you do, do not remove this one.

One thing worth checking that is not on your list: how many items your submission contains.

A review submission is not just the app version. In-app purchases, subscriptions, in-app events and asset packs ride in the same submission, and App Review has to accept all of them for it to complete. An incomplete subscription will hold the entire submission without ever producing a Resolution Center message — which matches your symptoms exactly: no message, no action-required banner, no pickup.

You can look without touching anything:

GET /v1/apps/{APP_ID}/reviewSubmissions?filter[state]=WAITING_FOR_REVIEW&include=items

If items comes back with anything besides the app version, that is your first suspect. We hit the mirror image of this recently — an incomplete subscription blocking a group submission, no message anywhere, just silence.

For context on the queue itself: there are several threads this month reporting 6 to 10 days since mid-August, so the backlog is real. 38 days is well past it, though.

Two smaller things.

@Apple does not route anywhere from here. This is a peer forum and App Review does not read it. The DTS engineers do, but they cannot move a submission.

And on the case you opened: the pattern people report is that a reply from Developer Support correlates with movement, and that the web form is slow to produce one. The one channel with actual reports of shifting a stuck submission is requesting a phone callback during business hours and asking them to look at that submission specifically. Plenty of people report the opposite, so no promises — but it is the only route I have seen work more than once.