How to do updates the right way (to avoid App dissapear)?

Unity Engine
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1

Hi guys,

i’m about to do my very first update, and i want to avoid my game dissapear from the AppStore.

So for the Update process, is it the same way as when i release the game for the first time :

  1. Set Availability Date 1 month in the future
  2. Once Apple send approval, quickly change Availability Date to the same date (as approval)

is that still the right way to do updates ?

Thanks a lot in advance.

2

No…setting the date a month ahead makes your app disappear until that date. Don’t change it until the update is approved.

–Eric

3

Ok, thanks a lot Eric,
so should i do this instead:

To release NEW App:

  1. Set Availability dates 1 month in the future
  2. Once Apple send approval, quickly change to the same date as the approval.

and

To do App UPDATES:

  1. Leave the Availability Date alone.
  2. Once Apple send approval, quickly change to the same date as the approval.

so the difference is on the 1st step right ?
just want to make sure :smile:

4

Actually the steps are the same for both: leave date alone, change to current day upon approval. There isn’t much point setting the date a month ahead.

–Eric1

5

There is. Without it setting into the future it will never appear in the new app section actually as its release date will commonly be in the past and the store at least last I heard from someone not setting the date to the future, was incapable to handle “newly appeared but in the past date” correctly.

6

upon the release or update of an app, it will show up on the app store (date wise) based on the earliest of the following two dates: release date (you set) or approval date. If the release date is in the future, it won’t show up at all, where as if the release date is in the past, it will show up several pages back. Either way it won’t jump back to the front page until you change the date after it’s been approved.

Also, in my experience when I set the release date out 10 days into the future appon submission, (this is back when approval was typically 10 days) that app didn’t get approved for 20 days, where apps I submitted just a few days later without changing the date got approved in 10 days. It makes me think that if you set the date in the future you somehow get put further back in the queue because they think they have time to get to you later or something.

7

I’ve actually started the practice of waiting for 9 days, then logging in every morning and updating my submission to the current date. That way if it gets approved that day it will already be set right and jump immediately to the front page.

8

Thats a lot of work but likely the “optimal way”.

It would be great if apple just would add the possibility to set the release date in relation to the approval date.

9

That’s what happens if you don’t change the date at all. If you change the date to the current day when the app goes live, it gets a release date of that day. You can only do this once per release/update however, and it normally takes some hours to go into effect–it’s not instantaneous, which may lead to some people getting the wrong idea.

I also do the “logging in every morning and updating my submission to the current date” thing, and yes it’s a bit of a pain but it’s the only way to be sure (aside from constantly checking the store which is even more of a pain) since Apple isn’t 100% reliable about sending approval emails.

–Eric

10

I’m not really sure if i get this correct, but from all above discussion, If i conclude:

To release NEW App :

  1. Set Availability Date to somewhere on the future (1 month is good enough)
  2. Optional Step: Every morning, change the Availability Date to today’s date.
  3. Once Apple send approval, quickly change the Available Date to the same date as approval (this is not necessary if we do STEP 2 already)

To do App UPDATES :

  1. Don’t change Availability Date at all (to prevent your App missing from AppStore)
  2. Every morning, change the Availability Date to today’s date.
  3. Once Apple send approval, quickly change the Available Date to the same date as approval (this is not necessary if we do STEP 2 already)

thanks a lot, hopefully someone else can also learn from this thread.

I think i’m pretty much understand how to release a new app (since i’m doing the exact above step [without step 2] and it works).

However i just want to make sure about how to do an app Update, since i’m hoping that at least it will be listed as new updates to get some exposure :smile:

11

Not really…read what iCOOLgeeks posted above. Not sure if that’s true, but even if it’s not, there’s no particular reason to set the date in the future, like I said (dreamora is confused :wink: ).

Other than that, correct.

–Eric

12

Indeed it is very confusing, i wonder why Apple is using “Earlier” instead of “Later”, maybe they love it when all the developer actively waiting for them :stuck_out_tongue:

thanks again Eric, dreamora IcoolGeeks :smile:

13

checking each day and set it to today is nothing else than setting it in the future, just that you do it daily and not just when its approved …
gives you “same day release” but also more work

The optimal would be “expected approval min time” + 1, as thats the date where it most likely will happen anyway and it won’t make apple think that you are less important than others.

But yeah perhaps I’m confused a bit too, as “unknown practices” don’t help to optimize workflows

The approval practices as whole are questionable, from priorizing stuff to allow stuff for dev x which is disallowed for dev y (segas 0 performance emulator vs the officially licensed C64 emulator) … but thats something out of our hands, although I think apple will be watched much closer by the gov in the future on that end after the google talk related things in the past weeks / months.

14

That’s optional. What really matters is to set it to the current day when Apple approves it, that’s all. Would be nice if they’d let you set the release date yourself so it would actually appear in the lists on that day. (But then everybody would release their apps on Saturday and there would be nothing released on the other days, so I suppose it’s just as well…).

–Eric