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Submitted a minor update for

after nearly two years on the App Store and

has decided out of nowhere that I have been engaging in "a pattern of manipulative or misleading behavior" and has permanently terminated my account. No evidence or specific reasons given.

12:23 AM · Aug 25, 2020Twitter Web App

Replying to

@_zacwood

UPDATE: Attics has been approved and my account will no longer be terminated -- apparently my app had been copied across the App Store many times and it wasn't caught that mine was the original. Thank you everyone for spreading this and helping me keep my account!

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and

The note says this was an appeal - do you know what started this process? When was that? If you didn’t appeal a prior decision and this was in error, I’m certain we can help you get attention to get it fixed pretty fast, even though it’s obviously not fair that it happened.

Zac Wood

@_zacwood

Aug 25, 2020

It started after a build got rejected without a reason last week. A couple of days after, I received a message very similar to the screenshot that my account is being terminated. I appealed, trying to get info on what exactly the problem is, and then got the last message

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Mike Cohen Vote Yes on J, No on I

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WTF?

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Not good

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and

Happened with me last year but they didn’t terminate my account but disabled it after one of my build got rejected. Even after numerous calls and emails, my account stayed disabled for 5 months. Then one fine day they sent me a mail saying they they made a mistake

Zac Wood

@_zacwood

Aug 25, 2020

Scary stuff. Crazy to think how many devs this happens to unnoticed. Glad it worked out in the end for you -- let's hope my fate is the same

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and

This seems crazy to me as someone who makes a small amount of money on app stores like this. You never know when the spigot well get shut off.

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that’s not right or fair, sorry to hear

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and

Great that they seem to be doing something about the plague of copycat apps, but they shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

fatalError(”Nico”)

@N1C0_MUC

Aug 25, 2020

I have one of the most downloaded NFC reader/writer apps on the store. I even was one of the first who uploaded it. But this doesn’t give me the right that no one else is allowed upload a similar app. Sometimes people have similar ideas. Deleting copy cats is dangerous I think.

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Replying to

and

This happened with

back in May. The app was only available in TestFlight and out of nowhere we receive almost exactly the same email after we asked why our account was going to be terminated. Of course they didn’t tell us at first what was the reason.

 Tom Angistalis

@boxy37

Aug 25, 2020

Its so frustrating to see in their response words like dishonest, fraud, manipulative or misleading behaviour, etc. It also seems to be their generic response for many issues. We’re trying to build a film/tv app, not spread malware or malicious software.

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and

Uh, point being that Apple has vast resources to put towards developer relations. A form letter is not good enough.

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Sounds like someone at Apple really hates The Grateful Dead

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and

I'm really happy that it turned out well for you. But I just wonder what happens to the cases who are not so lucky getting traction on social media and getting a different communication channel to get things solved? Are those just collateral damage that never gets known?

Zac Wood

@_zacwood

Aug 25, 2020

I guess so. I’ve heard from a couple of devs already who have received similar responses and have had no luck getting it fixed — I can only imagine there must be plenty that this happens to that go unheard. Something needs to change