iOS App rejection due to "Sign Up" button in auth login page.

Question

Our iOS app "Files Pro" (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/files-pro/id285578660) includes support for SkyDrive using the official Live SDK.

A few days ago our last update was rejected by the Apple review team because of the presence of the "Sign Up" button in the Live login authorisation page. According to Apple the presence of this button violates their guideline that:

"Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, such as a “buy” button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected"

You may be aware that apps which use the Dropbox SDK were rejected a few months ago for the same reason. Dropbox resolved the problem by removing the "Sign Up" button from their login page for iOS clients.

We have temporarily worked around the problem ourselves. But we would like to know if Microsoft plan to address this by removing the "Sign Up" button for iOS clients? Otherwise other iOS developers using the Live SDK are going to find their apps being rejected by Apple.

Answer 1

Our iOS app "Files Pro" (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/files-pro/id285578660) includes support for SkyDrive using the official Live SDK.

A few days ago our last update was rejected by the Apple review team because of the presence of the "Sign Up" button in the Live login authorisation page. According to Apple the presence of this button violates their guideline that:

"Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, such as a “buy” button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected"

You may be aware that apps which use the Dropbox SDK were rejected a few months ago for the same reason. Dropbox resolved the problem by removing the "Sign Up" button from their login page for iOS clients.

We have temporarily worked around the problem ourselves. But we would like to know if Microsoft plan to address this by removing the "Sign Up" button for iOS clients? Otherwise other iOS developers using the Live SDK are going to find their apps being rejected by Apple.

Thanks for reporting this issue. We have started looking at ways to address this internally. 

Answer 2

Hello Olive Toast, 

  We recently removed some links to upgrading your SkyDrive from the "sign up" experience. Can you share when you submitted your app and it was rejected as well as any communication with Apple that you are able to share? 

Thanks. 

Answer 3

Hi Dare,

Many thanks for your quick response on this.

Our app update was rejected by Apple on Aug 7th 2012.

Below is the relevant text provided by Apple describing the reason for the rejection. Our own "quick-fix" solution was to hide the Sign-Up button entirely, however re-reading the rejection text it seems to suggest that completely removing upgrade links from the sign-up experience may be sufficient. Someone will have to be the guinea pig to confirm this though.

"11.13

We found that your app provides access to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.

The app enables users to create accounts for Sky Drive, which may enable users to access their external purchase mechanisms for additional storage capacity.

To be in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines, it would be appropriate to remove the access to these mechanisms - including fully qualified links to your site that could indirectly provide access to these mechanisms, such as links to web pages for support, FAQ, product or program details, etc.

It may be appropriate to revise your app to use the In App Purchase API to provide content purchasing functionality."

Answer 4

Hello,

Today, Apple rejected my updated version because of 'Sign Up' Link.

Is there any way to solve this issue?

Thanks.

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11.14

We found that your app includes a mechanism, e.g., a button or external link, to purchase or subscribe to content outside of the app. This is not in compliance with the App Store Review

Guidelines.

The app allows the user to register for a Microsoft account.

Please see the attached screenshot for reference to the issue.

It would be appropriate to remove the mechanism that facilitates purchasing or subscribing to content outside of the app and resubmit your app for review.

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