App Store Rejection

[Frankenxtein]

An update to my App got rejected today. Here's the message sent by Apple.

From Apple
5. 2.3 Legal: Intellectual Property - Audio/Video Downloading
Guideline 5.2.3 - Legal

Your app contains content or features that may violate the rights of one or more third parties. Specifically, your app provides potentially unauthorized access to third-party audio or video streaming, catalogs, and discovery services.

Your app and its contents should not infringe upon the rights of another party. In the event your app infringes another party’s rights, you are responsible for any liability to Apple because of a claim.

Next Steps

To resolve this issue, please attach documentary evidence in the App Review Information section in App Store Connect evidencing that you have all necessary rights or permissions to the third-party audio or video streaming, catalogs, and discovery services in your app.

Has anyone faced this issue lately? Is this because of the library? What solutions do anyone suggest?

[DmytroBrovkin]

Our app update was rejected with same response. We don’t use this library, but our app uses same mechanism of parsing YT streams. Looks like Apple has new validation guidelines for apps with Youtube content. We will have a call with review team in few days. I will post the results after.

[Frankenxtein]

Our app update was rejected with same response. We don’t use this library, but our app uses same mechanism of parsing YT streams. Looks like Apple has new validation guidelines for apps with Youtube content. We will have a call with review team in few days. I will post the results after.

@DmytroBrovkin did you manage to get a call with the app review team? Any specifics behind the rejection?

[DmytroBrovkin]

I still waiting for a call. They said in the message 3-5 business days, which ends this Friday. Will update as soon as have a call.

[oososo]

I still waiting for a call. They said in the message 3-5 business days, which ends this Friday. Will update as soon as have a call.

Hello , Did you receive that call?

[DmytroBrovkin]

just got a reply today

[mdfalcon104]

I had the same issue yesterday. Apparently, there is a new guideline about streaming services API

[oososo]

just got a reply today

What would apple say? I hope your app will pass the review.If not, I want to know what 's the problem.

[MhmdSalah]

Does anybody know how can they detect the presence of this lib in the app? is there a way to hide it? They did not even open my app udpate (i am sure because i made the app crash upon initial run and they rejected for this reason) so there is some kind of a scan software that detects this lib. I tried: change all files names and class names. delete all comments. remove all mentions of youtube.
If you guys can find something, please tell.

[darkForestCat]

There is an official way to present youtube video

What would apple say? I hope your app will pass the review.If not, I want to know what 's the problem.

It is not the official way of presenting YouTube videos.Hmmmmm what could be the problem?))

[DmytroBrovkin]

Just had a quick chat with owners of Musi app. They have exactly same situation and can’t bypass the Apple Review. I think it is the end :)

[MhmdSalah]

Guys i have a suggestion. Apple can't be scanning every app individually by reverse engineering. We have to scrap this lib to make it harder for them to find it.

My suggestion is a pull request with the following changes:

• delete all .plist files, they are not hidden in ipa files during compilation
• change all .h and .m file names and class names, e.g. find and replace XCDYouTube to xStreamLib or someing
• delete all comments
• delete any mention of youtube in strings inside the lib, and change it to string variable with setters so we can grab these values from a remote link and set them in runtime
• there could be more ways to help, maybe change some stuff in .h files to scrap their look after compilation

If anybody is able to make this change, maybe it will be very easy to test by someone and then we can find a solution for everybody.

[DmytroBrovkin]

Guys i have a suggestion. Apple can't be scanning every app individually by reverse engineering. We have to scrap this lib to make it harder for them to find it.

My suggestion is a pull request with the following changes:

• delete all .plist files, they are not hidden in ipa files during compilation
• change all .h and .m file names and class names, e.g. find and replace XCDYouTube to xStreamLib or someing
• delete all comments
• delete any mention of youtube in strings inside the lib, and change it to string variable with setters so we can grab these values from a remote link and set them in runtime
• there could be more ways to help, maybe change some stuff in .h files to scrap their look after compilation

If anybody is able to make this change, maybe it will be very easy to test by someone and then we can find a solution for everybody.

We don’t use this library, and still blocked. Renaming files won’t help.

[MhmdSalah]

We don’t use this library, and still blocked. Renaming files won’t help.

Then your code has something in common with this lib. Could you please check if your code mentions any of these links in a string:
-https://www.youtube.com/get_video_info
-https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/
-https://developers.google.com/youtube/

[darkForestCat]

Guys i have a suggestion. Apple can't be scanning every app individually by reverse engineering. We have to scrap this lib to make it harder for them to find it.
My suggestion is a pull request with the following changes:

• delete all .plist files, they are not hidden in ipa files during compilation
• change all .h and .m file names and class names, e.g. find and replace XCDYouTube to xStreamLib or someing
• delete all comments
• delete any mention of youtube in strings inside the lib, and change it to string variable with setters so we can grab these values from a remote link and set them in runtime
• there could be more ways to help, maybe change some stuff in .h files to scrap their look after compilation

If anybody is able to make this change, maybe it will be very easy to test by someone and then we can find a solution for everybody.

We don’t use this library, and still blocked. Renaming files won’t help.

do you use the official way of showing YouTube videos?

[Frankenxtein]

Just had a quick chat with owners of Musi app. They have exactly same situation and can’t bypass the Apple Review. I think it is the end :)

Did Apple call you? What did the Apple representative say?