How to Prevent App Store Rejections: The Pre-Launch Audit Checklist
Every rejection cycle costs you 3–7 days. Most are preventable. Here's how to catch the issues before Apple or Google does.
The Hidden Cost of App Store Rejections
You've spent months building your app. Your launch date is locked. Marketing campaigns are scheduled. Then Apple rejects your build for a missing "Restore Purchases" button.
That's not a hypothetical — it's the most common rejection reason for apps with in-app purchases. And it's just one of dozens of guidelines that trip up even experienced developers. Our comprehensive app audit checklist covers all the essentials to prevent these issues before they cost you launch delays.
⏱️ Anatomy of a Rejection Cycle
Two weeks lost. One pre-launch audit would have caught both issues in hours.
Top App Store Rejection Reasons (And How AI Catches Them)
App Completeness
Placeholder content, broken links, or features that don't work. Apple reviews every button.
How SquadOps catches it: Our UX agent navigates every screen and interaction path, flagging dead buttons, placeholder text, and incomplete flows.
Screenshots Don't Match
Your App Store screenshots show a UI that doesn't match what reviewers see.
How SquadOps catches it: Visual comparison between your current build and marketing assets. Drift gets flagged immediately.
In-App Purchase Issues
Missing 'Restore Purchases' button, unclear subscription terms, or broken purchase flows.
How SquadOps catches it: Compliance agent checks for Restore Purchases, subscription disclosure, and IAP flow completeness — the #1 rejection reason for paid apps.
Design Violations
Non-standard UI patterns, tiny touch targets, or accessibility failures that violate Apple's HIG.
How SquadOps catches it: UX agent validates touch targets (44x44pt minimum), accessibility labels, and HIG compliance across every interactive element.
Privacy — Data Collection
Missing or incorrect privacy policy, undisclosed data collection, or App Tracking Transparency issues.
How SquadOps catches it: Security agent audits data flows, checks privacy policy presence and accuracy, and validates ATT implementation.
Privacy — Data Use
Privacy Nutrition Labels don't match actual data collection in the binary.
How SquadOps catches it: Code analysis maps every data collection point and compares it against your declared Privacy Nutrition Labels.
Why Humans Miss These (And AI Agents Don't)
Human reviewers are great at big-picture feedback. But App Store compliance is about exhaustive detail — checking every screen, every button, every data flow against a constantly-updating set of guidelines. This is exactly why AI agent teams are replacing traditional manual code reviews for pre-launch audits.
❌ Human Review
- • Fatigues after 30 minutes
- • Checks what they remember
- • Misses edge cases
- • Takes days to schedule
- • Different reviewers, different results
✅ AI Agent Squad
- • Never fatigues
- • Checks every guideline, every time
- • Catches edge cases systematically
- • Results in under 24 hours
- • Consistent, reproducible scores
🛡️ The Pre-Launch Audit Checklist for App Store Approval
Stop guessing. Get a ShipScore.
Our free ShipScore tells you exactly how ready your app is for App Store review — in minutes, not days. Need deeper coverage? Deploy a full 13-agent audit squad.