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I submitted a brand new app to AppStore and it got rejected by the Lords ... (nothing new there). What I want to do is delete that app completely from my itunesconnect account. I don't know what apple recently changed but in the past once the app was rejected I use to see a "delete" button on the summary page. Now I don't see one anymore.

I even checked Apple official documentation HERE and that too says that I should be able to delete it from appstore using delete button as long as the app is in reject state but the delete button is no where to be found.

I already tried removing it from all territories under "rights & pricing" and availability date is in the past Jan 22nd, 2014 ... still no delete button is visible.

How can I remove it?

Note: there were no in-app purchases or game center.

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Ashish Kakkad
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Sam B
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  • Binary is already rejected by Apple. There is nothing for me to reject. The only button that I have is "ready to upload binary" – Sam B Jan 30 '14 at 16:23
  • Possible duplicate of [How to delete an app which is waiting for upload?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20114051/how-to-delete-an-app-which-is-waiting-for-upload) – King-Wizard Dec 12 '15 at 10:57
  • If i was designing a system like this, from Apple's perspective, i would never allow an app to be deleted either. Just like designing any good database system, you need an audit trail. But from our (developer's) perspective, my "delete" feature would only set a boolean flag that allows the main UI to hide the app listing, but never remove it. How else could they have the ability to backtrack and check things out, especially from a legal perspective? – drew.. May 31 '17 at 14:53
  • It is possible to remove the app by now. Select your app > General - App information (left menu) > scroll down to "Remove App". Please mark the answer below as correct so people don't need to scroll down that much :) – themenace Jan 29 '21 at 16:05
  • [Click here](https://stackoverflow.com/a/65658022/13102348) (or scroll down) for simple solution (as of 2021). – Eric Apr 28 '21 at 07:11

8 Answers8

151

Here's the answer to my question I got back from Apple support.

Hi XXX,

I am following up with you about the deletion of your app, “XXX”. Recent changes have been made to the App Delete feature. In order to delete your app from iTunes Connect, you must now have one approved version before the delete button becomes available. For more information on the recent changes, please see the "Deleting an App" section of the iTunes Connect Guide (page 96-97):

You can only delete an app from the App Store if it was previously approved (meaning has one approved version).

From iTunes Connect Developer Guide - Transferring and Deleting Apps:

Apps that have not been approved yet can’t be deleted; instead, reject the app.

As of 2016, new changes have been made to iTunes Connect. Here are the screenshots of deleting an approved app from your account.

Community
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Sam B
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    I got the same response when I sent a question in to Apple support. In addition they state, "Please feel free to provide feedback about this iTunes Connect feature by replying to this email, or by submitting through the "Contact Us" module in iTunes Connect. We appreciate your comments and suggestions, and we'll forward it to the proper Apple team for possible future enhancements." I asked that they allow a developer to delete the app at any stage in the life cycle. Send your feedback now! – Spidey Aug 19 '14 at 13:14
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    We are now onto the second rejection of our App because we have 'Duplicate entries', and absolutely no way to delete them. We have tried explaining the situation in Resolution Center, Notes etc. but it apparently doesn't get read. App Review team are robots. – Chris Hatton Oct 14 '14 at 23:22
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    Ok, I guess I *won't* release a valuable app name that I'm not going to use, then. – ICoffeeConsumer Nov 23 '14 at 16:55
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    Seriously? So I can't delete a crufty test app not submitted to the app store? – Tom Feb 22 '15 at 16:27
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    Seriously a year later and it's still the same? I have an app with the right name wrong bundle am I screwed? – Matt2012 Mar 23 '15 at 19:09
  • @Matt2012: what do you mean by "Right name wrong bundle"? Both can be changed at any given time. – Teddy Apr 16 '15 at 05:06
  • @Teddy apparently you cant change bundleID: `The bundle ID must match the one you used in Xcode. It can't be changed after you submit your first build.`. You can change the name though – user1244109 Jun 16 '15 at 11:20
  • @user1244109: after you submit you can delete the app (after approval). Before you submit you can change the name and the bundle id. Problem solved. – Teddy Jun 18 '15 at 07:26
  • This is ridiculous. I have the same problem. I left a beta in there that was later replaced with the official app that made it to the app store. Now I can't delete it. – Robert Gummesson Jun 23 '15 at 19:13
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    Same here... I was just messing around, and now it is there for all eternity apparently, – markdb314 Jul 06 '15 at 23:34
  • Video tutorial in french, on how to delete an app from the App Store with old iTunes Connect user interface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbgpXF52wZo&index=11&list=PLW5BIptnVzFPve6WDVlXNemzevKYlWMOo – King-Wizard Dec 12 '15 at 13:55
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    Wow, I just name the SKU wrong (not according to my other app's convention). I know it will not be shown anywhere but damn, it hurts when I see it. I am a kind of perfectionist, but now I have to choose between having new apps with perfect SKU but could not get rid of old junk or live with the flawed SKU. This is Apple's fault. – 5argon Sep 13 '16 at 04:49
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    It is July 2017, everything is still the same?? Even after the big update to itunes connect?? Will it ever be fixed.. Also how the heck am I suppose to bear this with testflight?? – LYu Jul 22 '17 at 20:11
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    It's April 2018 and test apps are not yet deletable from app store? – Lothre1 Apr 18 '18 at 16:33
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    In 2018 June, Apple still suxk.... cannot even remove unwanted app. Bad process flow design for the reason they called "Security" There is not 100% secure system in the world. Hope apple could wake up one day. Said the person who hate those marketing men playing IT Profs role... – Jacky Chong Jun 19 '18 at 01:11
  • August 2018, same? –  Aug 21 '18 at 03:04
  • Dec 2018, different! @DaniSpringer – Míng Dec 11 '18 at 07:36
  • @iwill yup! - [actually Oct 2018](https://stackoverflow.com/a/52682672/5306470) ;) –  Dec 11 '18 at 10:07
  • In my case, AppStoreConnect is showing invalid data, issues on their backend and the app shows different bundle-id which doesn't even exist in Bundle IDs, and it's not letting me use that bundle-id again because it has been used according to AppStoreConnect. Buggy interface, messy mechanism to upload, and thanks to their marketing, Clients don't understand how Apple can be buggy. – Lalit Fauzdar Sep 23 '22 at 12:59
  • Sadly another standard (at this point) cr-apple cr-appstore issue. App store connect auto-populated the SKU and auto-finished making the page when I had switched to another page to look at the SKU from another app. When went to simply and easily delete that..."wait...where is the delete button...what sort of IDIOTS would make an app submission auto-completion system without an easy way to delete those???!!! Oh right, apple has "affirmative action" hires. JetBrains doesn't. If want to see how high quality happens, have a look at a photo of the JetBrains team and notice the demographic. – 01GOD Sep 25 '22 at 17:25
133

Edit December 2018: Apple seem to have finally added a button for removing the app in certain situations, including apps that never went on sale (thanks to @iwill for pointing that out), basically making the below answer irrelevant.

Edit: turns out the deleted apps still appear in Xcode -> Organizer -> Archives and there is no way to delete them from there even if there are no archives! So more looks like a fake delete of sorts.

Currently (Edit: as of July 2016) there is no way of deleting your app if it never went on sale.

However, all information except for SKU can be edited and thus reused for a new app, including the app name, Bundle ID, icon, etc etc. Because SKU can be anything (some people say they use numbers 1, 2, 3 for example) then it shouldn't be a big deal to use something unrelated for your new app.

(Honestly though I'm hoping Apple will fix this soon. I almost hear some Apple devs finding excuses for not implementing it (you know, it will break the database and will kill innocent pandas) and some managers telling the devs to just frigging do it regardless.)

mojuba
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    What a shame Apple :( – Renato Carvalho Sep 17 '15 at 15:11
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    Right, the app must be submittet to app store at least once, otherwise it is not approved, and ONLY approved apps may be removed from app store and itunes connect. Such politics... – Bartłomiej Semańczyk Dec 03 '15 at 10:25
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    It seems that it's still not possible to delete an app (May 2016) in this case. However, does anyone has experience with contacting Apple's support-team to do so? – ixany May 06 '16 at 13:51
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    I just cannot understand why they don't let you delete them. – Adam Waite May 17 '16 at 09:33
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    I really can't wrap my head around why can not delete apps not in use. My OCD! – Alex Grant Sep 13 '16 at 14:28
  • same issue here. Created a new AppId in apple developer, then renamed the old one with a new one. Had to use a different bundle id. – Cmag Oct 26 '16 at 02:09
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    I am going to submit an app with one page that says that the purpose of the app is to be approved so I can delete it. Do I really need to have it got on sale, or can it just be approved for sale? – Be Kind To New Users Mar 23 '17 at 23:07
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    This is still the case in 2018. – Alex B Apr 16 '18 at 12:31
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    Bundle ID could not be changed if you have uploaded one build, So you can't EDIT or DELETE an app from itunesconnect if you upload one build from Xcode! What the heck? – Sepehr Behroozi Jun 30 '18 at 12:10
  • @SepehrBehroozi haven't tried myself but the Internet says it is possible if your app has never been approved and never went to Game Centre. So it seems for experimental apps that never went on sale it's possible to reuse the app for something completely different and unrelated. – mojuba Jun 30 '18 at 16:39
  • @mojuba I couldn't find this option. I wanted to change the app id of my unpublished application but the "edit" option was not there since i was upload 1 build to fire up internal Test Flight – Sepehr Behroozi Jul 01 '18 at 17:08
  • I found the way how to delete the App in case there is no button Delete App / App löschen: 1) Go to appstoreconntct 2) choose your App 3) click on the left side "pricing and availability / Preise und Verfügbarkeit" 3) click on radion button "Remove from sale" 4) that should convert your App into offline with red dot 5) go to App Information and voila the button Delete App is there. =) – Imeksbank Jul 10 '18 at 17:32
  • @Imeksbank tell me more –  Aug 21 '18 at 03:06
  • @Imeksbank I believe that radio button only exists if your app at some point has been submitted for sale. If it's an unsubmitted app, that button won't exist. – Rob Napier Sep 16 '18 at 15:19
  • The "Remove App" button is available now **even if it never went on sale**. – Míng Dec 11 '18 at 07:33
25

You Can Now Delete App.

On October 4, 2018, Apple released a new update of the appstoreconnect (previously iTunesConnect).

It's now easier to manage apps you no longer need in App Store Connect by removing them from your main view in My Apps, even if they haven't been submitted for approval. You must have the Legal or Admin role to remove apps.

From the homepage, click My Apps, then choose the app you want to remove. Scroll to the Additional Information section, then click Remove App. In the dialog that appears, click Remove. You can restore a removed app at any time, as long as the app name is not currently in use by another developer.

From the homepage, click My Apps. In the upper right-hand corner, click the arrow next to All Statuses. From the drop-down menu, choose Removed Apps. Choose the app you want to restore. Scroll to the Additional Information section, then click Restore App.

You can show the removed app by clicking on all Statuses on the top right of the screen and then select Removed Apps. Thank you @Daniel for the tips.

enter image description here

Please note:

you can only remove apps if all versions of that app are in one of the following states: Prepare for Submission, Invalid Binary, Developer Rejected, Rejected, Metadata Rejected, Developer, Removed from Sale.

Boken
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Ali Abbas
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    This doesn't really delete the app, it just moves it to another view. I.e when you try to delete an app id, it won't work and you'll get the error message: "The app id * appears to be in use by the App Store, so it can not be removed at this time." – Daniel Nov 06 '18 at 21:57
  • Hi @Daniel According to the documentation: you can only remove apps if all versions of that app are in one of the following states: Prepare for Submission, Invalid Binary, Developer Rejected, Rejected, Metadata Rejected, Developer, Removed from Sale. What the current status of your app ? Removed from Sale – Ali Abbas Nov 06 '18 at 22:04
  • It is "Prepare for Submission". I can remove it but that does not delete the app from iTunes Connect. You will be able to restore it. (It just gets moved to the removed apps section) – Daniel Nov 06 '18 at 22:08
  • Indeed, there is a removed app section. Answer updated. Thank you – Ali Abbas Nov 06 '18 at 22:31
20

Easy.

(as of 2021)

Click your app, click App Information in the left side menu, scroll all the way down to the Additional Information section, click Remove App.

Boom. done.

enter image description here

Boken
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Eric
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    Not really. It just moves it to the "Removed Apps" section. You still can't use the name, bundle id or sku. – Unknown Jun 22 '21 at 10:33
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As per 2018 in App Store Connect. We can delete/remove application with following stats.

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App Store Connect details for Remove an app

So, from now onwards we can delete our test applications too from app store connect.

enter image description here

Ashish Kakkad
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12

As the instructions state on the iTuneconnect Developer Guidelines you need to ensure that you are the "team agent" to delete apps. This is stated in the quote below from the developer guidelines.

If the Delete App button isn’t displayed, check that you’re the team agent and that the app is in one of the statuses that allow the app to be deleted.

I have just checked on my account by logging in as the main account holder and the delete button is there for an app that I have previously removed from sale but when I have looked in as another user they don't have this permission, only the main account holder seems to have it.

Popeye
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  • I have the admin and legal roles specified for my account in itunesconnect – Sam B Jan 30 '14 at 16:26
  • check my new screenshot, do you have another role specified besides admin, legal? Perhaps the delete button only shows up once the app is approved and you yourself remove it from appstore. Which would be weird. – Sam B Jan 30 '14 at 16:31
  • The account that was allowed to delete only had legal and admin. I would consider contacting Apple Support through itunesconnect. – Popeye Jan 30 '14 at 16:37
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I had the same problem with a dummy app that happened to have the same name as my final app and couldn't publish because the App Name is already in use

To fix it, instead of deleting it(which you can't) I just changed the name of the dummy app to something random and hit SAVE. Then I was able to add the new app with the proper name

dwkd
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Apps can’t be deleted if they are part of a Game Center group, in an app bundle, or currently displayed on a store. You’ll want to remove the app from sale or from the group if you want to delete it.

Source: iTunes Connect Developer Guide - Transferring and Deleting Apps

grg
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Bentoon
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