Escaping iTunes Connect App Submission Rejected-Ready-Waiting Loop

Question

I've read many similar scenarios in StackOverflow, but none that addresses this situation:

I submitted my first app version that also includes in-app purchase (IAP). I attached the in-app purchase product to a new version of the app. Then I submitted the whole kit-n-kaboodle (app and in-app product) per Apple's instructions. Both the in-app purchase product and the new app version went compliantly into the "Waiting for Review" state, and all was well with the world.

Then I found a dreadful bug in the app binary that I had just submitted. I promptly eradicated the bug, rejected the binary, and resubmitted an updated app. All was once again well with the world.

Then I received this message from Apple:

"We have returned your IAP product/s to you, since you’ve rejected the associated binary from the review process. When you are ready to re-submit the binary, please resubmit the IAPs with the binary."

Fine, I thought. I'll just put my app back into the "Prepare for Upload" state, re-attach the IAP product, resubmit, and the world will be bright and beautiful once more. But no. There appears to be no possible way to get back to the "Prepare for Upload" state. My app is in an endless loop: "Developer Rejected" -> "Ready for Upload" -> "Waiting for Review" -> "Developer Rejected" ... And there seems to be no way to re-attach the in-app purchase product to the app without somehow reaching that elusive "Prepare for Upload" state.

Does anyone know a way to set an app back to "Prepare for Upload" state without waiting a week for Apple personnel to respond to a help request? Or know of some other creative way to get out of this quandary?

Answer 1

More than two weeks passed, and I did not receive a reply to the request for help I sent to Apple. But I did eventually discover some things that let me work around the issue.

What I discovered was that the original message I received from Apple regarding the IAP was misleading. Instead of "We have returned your IAP product/s to you, since you’ve rejected the associated binary from the review process. When you are ready to re-submit the binary, please resubmit the IAPs with the binary." it should have said the following:

Since you rejected the binary associated with this IAP product, and our brittle and arcane Apple processes do not give us a reasonable way to address this situation, this is what you should do:

1. When you decide to resubmit the app binary for review, simply do so. That will put your app into the "Waiting for Review" state. YOUR IAP SUBMISSION WILL STILL BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEW BINARY AND THERE IS NO NEED TO PUT YOUR APP INTO "Prepare for Upload" STATE OR RE-ATTACH THE IAP TO YOUR BINARY SUBMISSION!

2. After re-submitting your app binary, return to your IAP submission which we have put into a semi-rejected state. Simply open a Language item and make a trivial change to the text (which will enable the "Save" button) then save your unneeded changes. This will put the IAP back into a "Waiting for Review" state.

3. Be patient. Your app and IAP will be put back into the bottom of the review queue.

Yup. Those seem to be the required steps. The app has now entered review, and the jury is still out on whether it and the IAP will eventually get approved. But at least it is no longer stuck in an endless loop without possibility of being reviewed.

I hope this helps someone else.

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UPDATE 1

The app and the IAP have now passed Apple review and are available for sale. But there was an additional snafu that IAP developers should be aware of.

I specified that my app should not be released by Apple immediately after it was approved. Instead I specified that I would release the app myself after Apple had approved it. That all worked fine. Apple approved the app along with its first IAP product, and I made it available for sale.

What Apple didn't tell me was that the IAP was also awaiting my release. The IAP's state was set to "Developer Removed from Sale" by Apple immediately after they approved it. So the app was launched, but no one could purchase or install the IAP.

After receiving a number of customer complaints I was made aware of the problem, and eventually discovered the IAP's removed-from-sale status. But how to fix the problem when I had never removed the IAP from sale? It turns out, I just needed to follow Apple's instructions for setting the IAP state, found here: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnectInAppPurchase_Guide/Chapters/WorkingWithYourProductsStatus.html

The steps described there allowed me to set the IAP status to "Approved". But as of now I am still not able to access the IAP within the released app. So perhaps more snafu's await. I will update this answer if I find that additional steps are required.

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UPDATE 2

After about an hour, the IAP became available in the in-app store. This seems to be the end of the story... for now.