My app, Bobblehead santa, was uploaded on Dec 10th and approved on Dec 15th. I uploaded a new version 4 days ago and it was just approved. It still have Dec 10th as the release date.
How are all these other apps pushing updates yet their release dates are today? What are I missing here?
I’ve been wondering too. maybe the version step wasn’t big enough. A step from 1.0 to 1.0.1 wasn’t enough to push my app back to the top. How big was yours?
I believe you have to update the release date separately, via the Edit Information button.
No place to edit the release date there. I believe release date is set when you first upload the file.
to change the release date, you have to change the Avaibility date in the pricing tag you can find in the infos of you app in itunes connect. It takes a few hours or even a day for the change to take place in the real appStore.
Hope it helps.
Thanks.
So are people changing the date to game the new releases list?
I just updated my release date to 12/20. iTunes Connect said changes take effect in a few hours. We’ll see if that changes anything and if it impacts sales.
Seems odd… does that mean everyone just updates their release date every few days?
you normally set the release date to a point in future that is likely past the approval point in time. that way you can time the special sales timeranges etc
if you set it to “now” or past, you are fully depending on apple and their reviewing speed.
When I first uploaded my app, I set it to the date I was uploading.
Does that mean my latest edit of the release date to today’s date will also need Apple’s review?
It’s a weird thing. I’m pretty sure you cannot set the availability date any later than the date of the last update on the store. So you can’t really game it so to speak. They should just go back to when they automatically set the date, because by now most devs know the deal and just update it, while some new devs don’t realize and completely miss out.
Their intentions were good, but the execution was bad… time to undo that change from the app store.
as the release already happened and the date will be in the past when apple reviews it, it shouldn’t have any affect at all.
The dates are to make the app store release “pending” after approval until a given date is met.
its a pretty common trick to set your release date far in the future and then go back and edit it after apple has oked your app. you learn more tricks the more apps you submit and maintain…
When we posted our first game to the App Store we had the release date the same as the day we uploaded. Apple approved 5 days later, however given our specified release date had already passed we didn’t appear on the “New” listing. We released a bug fix a week later and specified a new release date into the future to allow for Apples approval, unfortunately the original App also assumed this date and removed our 1.0 version from the store.
A quick edit of the release date got us back on the store in a few hours. It would not allow us to back date it however. The dot update was approved 7 days later and did appear on the “New” listing that day without us needing to specify a date.
So from our experience:
version 1.0 - specify a release date at least 7 days past the day you upload to allow for Apples approval time.
Updates - Don’t specify a date.
what was the update’s version number? does the update have to be of a certain step-size so it gets pushed to the top? 1.0 to 1.0.1 didn’t do it for me…
It was 1.0.1
Just submitted 1.1 yesterday, so will see what happens then.
Yes, please keep us posted on this. I’ve found that whenever I set my availability date to anything but the present, my product is made unavailable until that date - even when setting it on updates.
But I’m not convinced that they’ll kick it to the new release list just from an update.
any news? what makes it go to the top of the list?
If I release a new update, do I have to then change the date (and possibly even the price) manually after the update is available? Or what’s the magic?
the step from 1.0 to 1.0.1, didn’t change anything (as mentioned before). 1.1 will be out any day now, we’ll see if that changes anything…
The trick with the release dates with app updates is to push your release date always to one day behind the current day. And you have to do that each single day once your app is submitted until it gets approven. With that trick your app will show up in the top list as new. Other than that, you cannot modify the initial release to anything up in the future.
Sorry, I forgot to post back. Our game update didn’t appear on the new list at all.
Also the 4.9mb zip file we uploaded to App Store came out as 10.2mb once Apple placed it in the store.
EDIT: Posted at the same time as you Martin. Thanks for the trick/tip regarding updates.