60,000 apps removed from shelves in two days! How should CP respond to Apple’s App Store cleanup?

Dear Developers,

On September 1, 2016 (US), we announced that we would be implementing an ongoing process to evaluate apps and remove apps that no longer function as expected, do not comply with current review guidelines, or are outdated.

We noticed that your app has not been updated in a long time.

Next step

If you want your app to remain on the App Store, you need to submit an updated version for review and make sure it follows the latest App Review Guidelines. If you fail to submit an updated version within 30 days, your app will be removed from the App Store until you submit an updated version and it passes the review before it can be put back online.

 

App removed

For existing users, your app will still work normally. Their services will not be stopped, and in-app purchases will still be possible. At the same time, the software download can be restored through backups on iCloud or iTunes. However, to get it back into the App Store and ensure its functionality is meaningful and attractive to new and existing customers, we recommend that you update your app as soon as possible.

We haven't deleted your app from your account, so you can continue to use your existing app name.

Apple sent this email on September 23, exactly one month after the mass removal of products began yesterday. So we can basically be sure that the App Store has begun to clean up abandoned apps; in addition, although judging from the data of the past two days, apps that have not been updated for more than two years will be identified as abandoned apps, it is not ruled out that Apple will reduce the update interval to one year or less in the later stage of the cleanup.

2. Those old apps are also useful

Even if there are some apps under the account that have not been updated for a long time and are not very important, it does not mean that they have no value. Because the difficulty of App Store review varies, the update review of an already launched app has a higher pass rate than the online review of a new app. Developers can try to update these "temporarily unused" apps instead of launching new apps in the future to increase the approval rate of the review, so you might as well update these apps first as a reserve.

3. Xiaokaxiu sets an example for developers

Obviously, the reason why Xiaokaxiu was removed from the shelves was not because it had not been updated for a long time (the last update was on October 3 this year), but what Xiaokaxiu did after being removed from the shelves is worth learning for developers: