First app I have ever submitted. It is a local-only calculator for a niche trade - no accounts, no server, no network calls at all.
I left the demo account fields empty and wrote "no account required" in the notes.
Rejected: "we were unable to sign in with the demo account provided".
There is no sign in. There is nothing to sign in to. Am I misunderstanding the form or is this automated?
Write review notes even when there is genuinely nothing to explain. Three lines: what the app does, the exact flow to try, and "no account, no network, works in airplane mode". It is the cheapest insurance available against a reviewer with forty apps in the queue and ninety seconds for yours.
Also check that nothing in your app merely looks like a login. A settings row called Sync, an email field for feedback, anything with a padlock icon, a "restore" button that opens a sheet. Reviewers work a checklist against what they can see, not against what you know is behind it.
I had a rejection once for an "account" screen that was a contact form.
Same category: a "Pro" badge in the corner of mine, purely decorative, no purchase behind it. Got asked to explain the in-app purchase I did not have. Anything that hints at a gate gets treated as one.
First submissions do seem to get a rougher pass, and enough people have a strange first round that it gets treated as a rite of passage. It is not one, but do budget one round of back and forth into your launch date rather than assuming a clean run.
Twenty second unlisted video of the whole app in the notes. If your entire app fits in twenty seconds, that is a superpower, use it.
@kettlebell_ned · 5mo ago · 2 replies
It happens and you are not misunderstanding anything.
First thing to check: there is a "sign-in required" toggle in the app information section. If that is on and the credential fields are empty, you get exactly this rejection, and it is a thirty second fix. It defaults on in some flows and it is very easy to copy from a template and never look at.
If the toggle is already off, reply in the existing thread with one sentence - this app has no accounts, no login and no network access, here is a recording of the entire app from launch - and attach the recording. That closes it.
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@smalltalk_sol · 5mo ago
Went and checked mine after reading this and the toggle was on, inherited from a template I copied in 2024. No idea how long it had been sitting there.
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