Apple took 166,899 apps off the App Store in 2025. Most were fraud or old apps nobody updated. Here is what triggers a removal, how much warning you get, and how to stay off the list.
The message turns up in App Store Connect, and it says one of two things: update this app within 90 days, or this app has been removed. Apple took 166,899 apps off the App Store in 2025, according to its 2025 App Store Transparency Report. Two reasons cover nearly all of them. Fraud under section 3.2(f) of the developer agreement accounts for 90,608, and Guideline 4.0, Design, accounts for 72,271, which Apple describes as its ongoing cleanup of outdated apps. If you run an honest app, the second one is your risk. It's also the easiest to avoid.
A removal isn't a rejection. A rejection stops a new build. A removal takes down a version that was already live, sometimes one nobody has touched in years. If your problem is a build that won't get through review in the first place, the common App Store rejection reasons and how to fix each are a separate subject.
What gets apps removed from the App Store?
Apple's report lists the ten rules it cited most often for removal in 2025. Here are the top eight. After the first two the numbers drop off a cliff.
| Rule cited | Apps removed in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Developer agreement 3.2(f), fraud | 90,608 |
| Guideline 4.0, Design (outdated apps) | 72,271 |
| Developer agreement 6.3, intellectual property | 1,177 |
| Guideline 4.3, Spam | 418 |
| Developer agreement 4.8, export control | 377 |
| Guideline 1.1.4, sexual and pornographic content | 360 |
| Guideline 4.1, Copycats | 279 |
| Guideline 1.2, User-generated content | 241 |
Another 2,045 apps came down because a government demanded it, 1,213 of them in Russia, and those only disappear in the country that asked. Set against the 2,172,472 apps the same report counts on the store, the year's removals come to a little under 8 percent.
The outdated-app sweep, and the 90-day clock
Apple has run this since 2016 under the name App Store Improvements. The test is narrow. An app is flagged when it hasn't been updated in three years and has been downloaded not at all, or extremely few times, over a rolling 12 months. Apple has never published the download figure. By April 2022 the process had removed almost 2.8 million apps.
Once flagged, you have 90 days to submit an update. Miss that and the app comes off the store until an update is approved. There's no deadline for coming back, provided your developer membership is still active. Existing users keep using the app in the meantime, which is how some owners only find out months later, when a new customer says they can't find it.
One case gets no grace period at all. An app that crashes on launch is removed straight away. An old build meeting a new iOS version it was never tested on is the classic way to get there.
Can an app be removed after it was approved?
Yes. Apple's help page on responding to an app removal lists the routes. A live app can be pulled when it has been changed after approval, for example by a server-side switch that turns on something the reviewer never saw. It can be pulled when users report problems that didn't show up in review. And it can be pulled when Apple gets a legal, intellectual property or government takedown request.
Guideline 2.5.19 is blunt about the first one. It bans hidden, dormant or undocumented features, and says trying to hide them in the binary is grounds for removing the app and terminating the developer account. A remote config flag that unlocks a payment screen skipping in-app purchase is exactly what it has in mind.
Rules that arrived after your approval count too. Guideline 5.1.1(v) says an app that lets people create an account must also let them delete it inside the app. An older app with no delete option is exposed the next time a user reports it or a reviewer looks at it again.
How much warning do you get?
That depends on how serious App Review thinks the problem is.
- Outdated and barely downloaded: 90 days to submit an update.
- A less severe issue on a live app: may be given 14 days to fix it.
- Safety or legal concerns: can come down immediately. A compliant update restores the app.
- Crash on launch: removed immediately.
- A concept Apple won't accept at all, such as an app designed to deliver objectionable content: removed immediately, and it can't be restored. Only a new app with a different concept gets back on.
Fourteen days sounds like plenty until you count backwards. Someone has to get the code building with the current Xcode, make the change, test it and wait for review. If the original developer has gone, the clock can run out before anyone has opened the project.
The removal nobody at Apple decides
Some apps vanish because the membership lapsed. Apple's membership renewal page spells it out: when your program membership expires, your apps are no longer available for download and you can't submit updates. Renew, and free apps come back within 24 hours. Paid apps return once someone signs in to App Store Connect and accepts the Paid Applications Agreement. Nothing has to be resubmitted.
It's the cheapest removal there is to prevent. In a small company the renewal often sits on one person's card, and when that card expires or that person leaves, the reminder emails go nowhere.
Why an EU listing can disappear on its own
Since February 17, 2025, apps without a declared trader status have been removed from the App Store in the European Union, because of the Digital Services Act. The app stays live everywhere else, so an owner outside the EU may never notice. The Account Holder or an Admin enters the trader status in App Store Connect, and the app comes back once Apple has verified it where verification is needed.
What to do when the removal message arrives
Find the rule it cites first. The message in App Store Connect names the guideline or agreement section and describes what App Review saw. If they've misunderstood something, reply in that same thread with the missing detail. That reply is the official channel.
If they haven't, fix the cause in the build and submit a compliant update. Debating the point while the live version still does what was flagged gets you nowhere. The work is the same as fixing an App Store rejection: find what actually tripped the review, change the code, the declarations or the listing, resubmit, and answer the reviewer until there's a decision.
How to keep an App Store app listed
The three-year rule is easy to beat with a wide margin. Our advice is to ship a real update at least once a year, even a small one, because each build also proves the app still compiles against the current SDK.
- Turn on auto-renew for the developer membership, on a company card someone checks.
- Check that trader status is declared, even if you think of yourself as a US-only business.
- Put an account deletion option in the app if users can sign up.
- Describe every feature in the review notes, including anything switched on from the server.
- Open the live app on each new iOS version before your customers do.
Is an appeal worth it?
Only when App Review got a fact wrong. Apple's 2025 report counts 26,305 appeals of app removals and 423 restorations, roughly one in 62. Apple adds that most appealed removals were for fraud or illegality, so that ratio says more about scammers than about honest apps. A good case is a feature flagged as hidden when it's described in your review notes. If you just dislike the rule, ship the update instead. It's quicker, and a compliant build is what brings most removed apps back.
Questions owners ask after a removal notice
Do people who already installed my app lose it when it is removed?
No. Apple says removed apps keep working for users who already have them on their device. New customers just can't find or download it.
Does Apple say how many downloads count as too few?
No. The only description is an app that has not been downloaded at all, or extremely few times, during a rolling 12-month period. Combined with three years without an update, that is what triggers the notice.
How long can a removed app stay off the store and still come back?
For the outdated-app process there is no time limit, as long as your Apple Developer Program membership is still active. Submit an update, and once it is approved the app is back.
Can Apple close my whole developer account, not just remove the app?
Yes, for some things. Guideline 2.5.19 names deliberately hidden features as grounds for removing the app and terminating the developer account, and the subscription rules say apps that scam users can get the developer removed from the program.
Does Google Play do the same thing?
Google works differently. Its usual move is to hide apps that target an old Android version from new users on newer phones, and to stop accepting updates until the app is brought up to date. The app stays listed, but new users on newer phones can't see it.
