{"id":37219,"date":"2022-10-05T16:09:38","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T20:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=37219"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T14:05:19","slug":"developer-account-in-limbo-due-to-popularity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/developer-account-in-limbo-due-to-popularity\/","title":{"rendered":"Developer Account In Limbo Due to Popularity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Felix Krause<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This is unacceptable: A seemingly automated system flags @sindresorhus Apple Dev Account, threatening to close his account if he won’t resolve “unspecified metric”<\/p>

I can’t believe it’s legal for (in this case a monopoly) to suspend accounts without providing a justification.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Sindre Sorhus<\/a> (via Felix Krause<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Basically, my two recent apps got popular and triggered some heuristic.<\/p>

She asked if I had done any paid promotion. I said no, just Twitter and Reddit. She said I should monitor App Store analytics for any suspicious activity (isn’t that their job and what’s is considered suspicious activity?).<\/p>

I tried to get a clearer answer, but just got “monitor analytics” answers.<\/p>

I asked whether my Apple account is safe. She said: for now, but continue monitoring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

The recent popularity was likely because his apps were featured<\/a> on the App Store, but apparently the heuristics don’t take that into account. The e-mail says to “Please address this issue promptly” without giving any indication of what he’s supposed to do.<\/p>\n\n

Zac Cohan<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I got this back in April. My working theory is that it’s an automatic warning sent after an app with a very high rating gets a few refund requests in a given period of time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Andrés Pizá Bückmann<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I got the same email. I replied to this email asking for more info. Two days later got a response from them saying they want a call. It has been a week and still haven’t heard anything. I also opened a case via Developer Support and haven’t heard anything from there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n