My app was just rejected for using the Ad support framework. Which library is responsible?

Question

This was simply an update that didn't change anything to do with the rejection reason. Here is the response from the resolution center:

Reasons Program License Agreement PLA 3.3.12

We found your app uses the iOS Advertising Identifier but does not include ad functionality. This does not comply with the terms of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement, as required by the App Store Review Guidelines.

Specifically, section 3.3.12 of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement states:

"You and Your Applications (and any third party with whom you have contracted to serve advertising) may use the Advertising Identifier, and any information obtained through the use of the Advertising Identifier, only for the purpose of serving advertising. If a user resets the Advertising Identifier, then You agree not to combine, correlate, link or otherwise associate, either directly or indirectly, the prior Advertising Identifier and any derived information with the reset Advertising Identifier."

Please check your code - including any third-party libraries - to remove any instances of:

class: ASIdentifierManager
selector: advertisingIdentifier
framework: AdSupport.framework

If you are planning to incorporate ads in a future version, please remove the Advertising Identifier from your app until you have included ad functionality.

To help locate the Advertising Identifier, use the “nm” tool. For information on the “nm” tool, open a terminal window and enter, “man nm.”

If you do not have access to the libraries source, you may be able to search the compiled binary using the "strings" or "otool" command line tools. The "strings" tool lists the methods that the library calls, and "otool -ov" will list the Objective-C class structures and their defined methods. These techniques can help you narrow down where the problematic code resides.

The third party libraries I'm using is the latest version of parse.com sdk, latest version of flurry analytics, and version 2.2 of test flight. Does anybody know which library is the issue? Thanks

Answer 1

In Terminal:

1. Go to the root folder of your project
2. Type: grep -r advertisingIdentifier . (the dot at the end is critical)

This will recursively check every file, and give you the name of the offending library.

(in my case, it was Flurry)

Answer 2

Update

Google released Google Analytics Services iOS SDK v3.03c which removes the AdSupport.framework dependency by default.

Full changelog entry for Release Version 3.03c (February 19, 2014): https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/ios/changelog

Old Awnser

My problem was with Google Analytics and TestFlight.

For TestFlight I just update the library to the version 2.2.1 (https://www.testflightapp.com/sdk/ios/release_notes/2.2.1/).

But for updating Google Analytics I had to remove the -ObjC flag. But as I use Cocoapods to manage some of third libraries, I couldn't just remove it. So I did the follow:

1 - started updating the libGoogleAnalytics.a to Version 3.03a (February 5, 2014)

2 - then a removed also the AdSupport.framework

3 - added "-force_load\ "${PROJECT_DIR}/Source/Library/GoogleAnalyticsServicesiOS_3.03a"" under "Target --> Build Settings --> Other Linker Flags" (Note that in my project the GoogleAnalytics is inside /Source/Library/ folder, and you have to configure your own)

But as I coudn't remove -ObjC flag I searched for how to use -force_load flag with Cocoapods, then I found two useful links:

1 - https://github.com/CocoaPods/CocoaPods/issues/712

2 - http://www.deanmao.com/2012/12/31/linker-error-using-cocoapods/

To summarize I changed the -ObjC flag for "-force_load $(TARGET_BUILD_DIR)/libPods.a" also under "Target --> Build Settings --> Other Linker Flags"

But again, when I tried to publish my app I got an error telling me that the compiler didn't find libPods.a, so I went to "Target --> Build Settings --> Other Linker Flags --> Release" and change this string $(TARGET_BUILD_DIR) to ${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}.

So my Other Linker Flags became like the image below.

Hope to help somebody.

Sorry for my english. =]

Answer 3

For me, Flurry Analytics and TestFlight were both the problem.

For TestFlight, it's as easy as updating it. The 2.2.1 version won't cause any problem (I checked using strings, as Apple suggest)

For Flurry, there is currently no fix apart from removing Flurry, and contrary to Lou Weed suggestion, even if AdSupport.framework is not linked, your app will be rejected.

Here is Flurry support answer :

"Thank you for reaching out to Flurry. We have recently learned that Apple has rejected some apps it believes are using the Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) without including ad functionality. Please note that Flurry does not collect the IDFA unless an app includes the AdSupport.framework for ad functionality. We are seeking clarification with Apple and we will update our affected customers as we learn more over the next several days."

Flurry just released the version 4.3.2 of their SDK, which specifically address that problem.

Answer 4

Turns out the Testflight v2.2.0 was the conflict. They have since fixed it according to their changelog: Consolidate both SDK versions into one which removes all access to ASIdentifierManager

Answer 5

Crashlytics was the problem. We had a few apps rejected because of it. But I already talked with Crashlytics and they released a new update today (version 2.1.6) which fix this issue.

Several libraries have the AdSupport.framework but they do not use it unless specifically called. Crashlytics was calling the framework because it had to check if the app had support for ads. And that change was implemented on version 2.1.5

So if you are using crashlytics, that's the most probable reason. To fix that, just re-archive your app so crashlytics can use the new version with this fix.

Response from Crashlytics Team: "We just pushed out an update for this- can you build and run your app again with the Mac app open so it can update your SDK? You'll be all good to go after that! Keep me posted after you resubmit :)"

PS: This is starting to happen because Apple seem to have changed their policy for ADSupport usage.