All AppMachine users have access to the Manual Apple Publishing process. If you're receiving an error message stating otherwise, please contact support@appmachine.com. Provide the following information in your request:


  • App name.
  • App number.
  • Email address of your AppMachine account.


Known issues: 


  • Apple Developer accounts that have special characters in the password cannot pass the first step of the process. To resolve this issue, please change your account password on https://appleid.apple.com/. This issue will be resolved in an upcoming update.

  • Apps published without App Store screenshots will fail on the step 'Creating deployment'. This issue is caused by the fact that the automated screenshot service is currently not available in the Manual Apple Publishing process. In order to resolve this issue, please make sure to upload the iPhone screenshots for your app prior to starting the publishing process.

  • Apps with a tvOS version will not be able to be submitted into review. This issue can be resolved by deleting the tvOS version from your app submission in App Store Connect (https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/).

  • Alternative verification methods are not supported if the primary source of authentication is unavailable. Enabling and using two-factor authentication (2FA) on your Apple developer account is required to successfully publish.




 

This article provides additional information on the Manual Apple Publishing process. This process allows users to publish iOS apps on Apple developer accounts which have two-factor authentication enabled.


The process consists of three phases:


  1. Pre-publishing: Making sure your account is ready to use for publishing.
  2. Publishing: Submitting the app to the App Store.
  3. Post-publishing: Enabling updates for your application.


Pre-publishing: Making sure your account is ready to use for publishing.


If you’re publishing an app on your clients account, access to your clients account and access to a device receiving the two-factor authentication codes for this account is required.


Due to the manual publishing process still being in a beta-state, error handling is not yet optimised. This means that we ask you to check your accounts validity manually prior to publishing your app via the manual publishing process.


To make sure your account can be used to publish an app via the manual publishing process, please verify the requirements below are met. These requirements must be met in both the Apple Developer Portal (https://developer.apple.com/account/) and the App Store Connect Portal (https://appstoreconnect.apple.com/). 

  • The account is able to login to the Apple Developer Portal as well as the App Store Connect Portal.
  • The account has admin rights in the Apple Developer Portal.
  • The account has at least app manager rights in the App Store Connect Portal.
  • All pending license agreements have been accepted.



Publishing: Submitting the app to the App Store.


The publishing process is executed live from start to end. The entire process may take anywhere between 15-30 minutes. During this time, multiple verification codes will be required. Due to the sub-optimised error handling in the beta it is very important that you take your time and provide the correct information. 


If you run into any issues during this process, please contact support@appmachine.com. Any additional information like screenshots and/or screencasts will be very helpful.


Post-publishing: Enabling updates for your application.


When your app is submitted through our system, it is placed in a Waiting for Review state with Apple. After review, Apple will accept/reject the app based on whether or not it complies with their review guidelines.


Due to the two-factor authentication, we are unable to login on your account to check the status of your app. If your app is accepted, please notify us via support@appmachine.com. In this notification please include the following information:

  • App name.
  • App number.
  • App version number.


We will turn on updates for the accepted app version. This is done via a state change in our back-end. If you do not contact us when your app is accepted, updates will not be received by this version of your application.


In case your app is rejected, please contact us via support@appmachine.com. In this notification please include the following information:

  • App name.
  • App number.
  • Apple’s reason for rejection.


You will be able to find the rejection reason in the Resolution Center within the App Store Connect Portal.