How to Submit and Publish Your iOS App to the Apple Store?

A lot of time, effort, and investment goes into iOS app development. While it does give a sigh of relief when all the work from design and development to testing gets done, the job doesn’t end there. The ultimate goal is to successfully upload and publish the app on the app store and acquire downloads.

Submitting an app to the Apple store isn’t going to be a cakewalk, however, it’s not that challenging either. This blog post covers a step-by-step guide on how to submit and publish your iOS app to the app store successfully. We are assuming that you are already enrolled in the Apple Developer Program and your app adheres to the Apple’s app store guidelines.

Related: How to Prevent Your App from getting rejected by Apple?

Here’s what you need to do to submit your app for beta testing or publish it on the Apple store.

1. Set up an iOS distribution provisioning profile and distribution certificate

To distribute your iOS app to beta testers, you will require a distribution provisioning profile and distribution certificate. This needs to be created separately as the one that you have been using is limited to some specific devices. One of the easiest ways to create it is through XCode. XCode will do your job of creating and managing certificates, signing identities, and handling device registration provided that the automatic sign-in is enabled. In case the automatic signing is not enabled or you want to sign-in manually, follow the below-mentioned steps-

Step-1: Add your Apple Developer Program to XCode. Head over to the top menu and select ‘XCode’ followed by ‘Preferences.’

Step-2: Click on ‘Accounts’ and then press the ‘+’ sign on the bottom-left corner. Proceed to ‘Add Apple ID’.

Step-3: Put your Apple ID and password to sign-in.

Step-4: Enable Automatic Signing. Pick a target from the Project Editor and select ‘General.’

Step-5: Scroll down to the ‘signing’ segment where you will notice a triangle icon. Click on it to expand it.

Step-6: Tick-mark the ‘Automatically manage signing option’ and select team.

XCode will automatically detect when you connect a new device to your Mac and sign up to your team provisioning profile.

Note: To launch your app on a device, it must be registered on your team provisioning profile.

2. Set up an App Store Connect account

The next step in the process to publish your iOS app to the app store is creating an App Store Connect account which you can get either by creating your own App Store Connect organization with you being the team agent (Login with the Apple ID and password you used to enroll in the Apple Developer Program) or you get invited by an existing organization as a user with the role of an Admin or App Manager.

Submitting a Paid App

To submit a paid app to the app store, you will be asked to sign a contract that comprises the terms of payment. On the ‘App Store Connect’ dashboard, head over to ‘Agreements, Tax, and Banking.’ Then under ‘Request Contracts’, click on ‘Request.’

Read the agreement, and once you have reviewed, agree to the terms and conditions and click on ‘Submit.’

Under ‘Contacts in Process”, you will notice an option in the ‘Contact Info’ column that reads Set Up. Click on Set Up. The next window that follows will ask you to add a new contact. Click on ‘Add New Contact’ and submit your information.

Right next to the Contact Info column is ‘Bank Info’. Click on ‘Set Up’, followed by ‘Add Bank Account’, and enter the required information. Follow the same steps for the ‘Tax Info’ column. Once this gets completed, the status will now change to “Processing” and post verification, it will change to “Contracts in Effect”.

Adding a New App

In order to upload and publish a new app to the app store, go to ‘My Apps’ in the App Store Connect dashboard. Click on the ‘+’ option followed by ‘New App’. A window will appear asking you to specify the platform, app name, primary language, Bundle ID, SKU, and User Access. Enter the details carefully as you can’t modify them later. Use the right keywords to optimize your iOS app and boost its discoverability. Also, ensure that the Bundle ID is the same as the bundle identifier in your XCode project.

3. Upload Your App Using XCode

Before you submit your app through App Store Connect for its review, you must upload the build through XCode. Follow the steps below for the same.

Step-1: In Xcode, choose ‘Generic iOS Device’ as the deployment target.

Step-2: From the top menu, select ‘Product’ and click on ‘Archive’. Doing so will launch the XCode Organizer where you can view the archives created in the past.

Step-3: Select the current build and click on ‘Upload to App Store.’

Step-4: Pick your credentials and then click on ‘Choose.’

Step-5: Click on ‘Upload’ in the next window that is displayed.

A success message will appear showing “Upload Successful”. Click ‘Done.’

4. Configure App Details

Moving ahead in the guide to upload and publish your app to the app store is configuring app details. Head over to App Store Connect followed by ‘App Store’ and then ‘App Information.’ Start filling in the information about your app that comprises app name, subtitle (description), privacy policy URL, app’s category, primary language, and more. Hover to “?” if you want more clarity on what information to enter. If the app is social media-based and requires login, provide the demo credentials for the reviewer.

Next under ‘Pricing and Availability’, fix the price of your app. You will also be provided with the App release options where you can choose how the app should be released once it passes the certification process. The options available are- Manually, Immediately, and On a date.

Right next to the App Store is the ‘Features’ tab where you can make configurations regarding In-app purchases, Game Center, Encryption, and Promo Codes.

Now is the time to upload your app screenshots. Go to the App Store listing and select the build you want to configure. Up until this moment, your app remains marked as “Prepare for submission” with a yellow dot. Now, simply upload your app screenshots and click on ‘Save.’ The screenshots must be in JPEG or PNG format and shouldn’t include the status bar.

Scroll down. On the right-hand side, you will be asked to provide the Keywords, Support URL, and Marketing URL. As mentioned earlier, keywords are extremely important as far as the app’s discovery is concerned. So make sure you use them effectively. The Support URL can be a landing page with a contact form. The Marketing URL is optional, here you can put your app’s website URL.

Scroll down further to “General App Information”. Upload your app icon (1024px x 1024px), specify its version, and copyright and contact information.

Once done, move to ‘Ratings’ and click on ‘Edit.’ Choose the options that best describe your iOS app. Try to be brutally honest else your app may get rejected if it doesn’t match the ratings defined.

Proceed to the ‘App Review Information’ section and specify your contact details, leave any notes if you have for the review team, and set the version release date. Once done, click save (on the top right corner). You are now almost set to submit your app for review.

5. Submit App for Review

Go to the “build” section under the App Store column. Click on “Select a build before you submit your app” on the right side. Select the build that you uploaded earlier through XCode. Click Done, then Save, and finally click on “Submit for Review”. On the next window, you will be presented with a few Advertising Identifier questions. Tick the relevant options and you are done. Your app’s status would turn into “Waiting for Review”.

Check Your App’s Status

To check the status of your app, head over to the ‘Activity’ tab and click on ‘App Store Versions.’ It usually takes about 1 to 3 days for an app to get approved and around 24 hours for the app to reflect in the Apple store post-approval. The Apple team will notify you at each stage via email about the app’s status.

If the app gets rejected, make the necessary changes, and submit it again for review. The team will share what went wrong that compelled them to reject your app. If you want to raise an appeal against the rejection or have any questions to ask the Apple team, you can take help of the “Resolution Center” in the App Store Connect to have a one-to-one interaction.

If your app is approved, Congratulations. That’s what you came here for. Do let us know if this information helped you publish your iOS app on the Apple store.