Guides
App Store Submission Guides
These guides cover everything between a finished iOS app and a live App Store listing: the credential Apple requires before any automation can act for you, the listing fields and screenshots review checks, the privacy, age-rating and export-compliance questionnaires that block a submission when unanswered, what each App Store Connect status actually means while you wait, and what the EU's Digital Markets Act changed for apps that steer users outside In-App Purchase. The second half covers the other direction — what to do when Apple replies with a rejection instead of an approval, one guide per guideline, with the exact fix and how to resubmit. Start with the checklist if you haven't submitted before; jump straight to a guideline page if you are holding a rejection email right now.
Last updated: July 2026 · By the AscAuto team — engineers who automate App Store submissions and rejection fixes daily.
Before you submit
9 guides
Roughly in the order you hit them, from setting up credentials to watching the review queue.
Start here
The App Store Submission Checklist
Every requirement App Store review checks before approval, grouped in the order you encounter it: account and agreements, the build, listing metadata, screenshots, questionnaires, reviewer access, and submission. Also available as a free PDF.
Setup
Create an App Store Connect API key (.p8)
Where the key lives, which role to give it, the Issuer ID / Key ID / .p8 triple, and why the private key can only be downloaded once.
The mechanics
How to submit an app to App Store Connect
The six steps from creating the app record to moving a version into Waiting for Review — and how to hand the whole chain to a service instead.
No Mac
Publish an iOS app without a Mac
Only compiling, signing and uploading need macOS — and not yours. What that leaves you, and what still genuinely requires a Mac.
After the beta
From TestFlight to the App Store
A TestFlight build is not a submission. What App Store review still checks after a clean beta, and why apps get rejected right after one.
Questionnaires
App privacy labels and age rating
What counts as collection, the narrow definition of tracking that triggers the ATT prompt, why your SDKs are your declaration, and the age-rating deadline that blocks updates.
Questionnaires
Export compliance and the encryption question
Why a US export rule applies wherever you are, what ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption declares, and how to clear a build stuck on Missing Compliance.
While you wait
App Store Connect statuses explained
Waiting for Review, In Review, Metadata Rejected, Pending Developer Release and the rest — what each one means and what it wants you to do.
EU / DMA
The EU DMA and external purchase links
The entitlement, the rule that In-App Purchase and external offers can't share a storefront, mandatory reporting, and what review checks.
If Apple says no
9 guidelines
One page per guideline: what Apple's message means, why it fires, the step-by-step fix, and how to resubmit so the fix is reviewed quickly.
Not sure which guideline you were rejected under? Apple names it in the rejection message; the rejection guides hub lists all nine.
Or connect a repo and skip most of this
AscAuto builds in the cloud, checks the version against everything on this page, submits with your one-click approval, and handles whatever Apple sends back. Free for your first app.
Get started free