New Advertising Identifier (IDFA) Questions on Prepare to Upload page

Crab_with_an_Umbrella

Hey everyone, I encountered a problem with submitting to Apple today. It seems they have added new questions to the Prepare to Upload page, and I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas on which boxes to click on on the Advertising Identifier (IDFA) questions.

I know if you click "No" you get an error in the Application Loader saying you have the advertising identifier in your app, and there is no way to change it after you have clicked No. I had to make a whole new app in iTunes Connect, because I clicked no the first time. I'm pretty sure this is new, so I wanted to give everyone a heads up and see if anyone knew what check boxes to click. Thanks.

neoman

I uploaded an app two days ago and didn't get this so it must be really new. The app also got approved by Apple after one day. I nearly fell off my seat when it popped up on the iPad saying it was ready for sale. I would select the first option "Serve advertisements within the app." Cheers

Crab_with_an_Umbrella

@neoman‌, That's awesome on the 1 day turn around. I think my fastest was three days, but yeah, I think Apple just put these questions in yesterday. I submitted a game last week, and this was not there. I'm going to select the first one and submit and see if it takes care of the error and hopefully it does not get rejected. Also, crossed fingers for a one day turn around.

neoman

@Crab_with_an_Umbrella I am updating an app now. If all goes well and I find no issues I will submit as well. I will report back if it gets rejected. Good luck with your app

arabianwolf

i made new version of my game and i'm stuck in this version
because i didn't click yes when they say :
does this app use the use the advertising identifier ( IDFA )

neoman

@arabianwolf said:
i made new version of my game and i'm stuck in this version
because i didn't click yes when they say :
does this app use the use the advertising identifier ( IDFA )

Just upload a game with the same bundle id and no advertisements so it does not have the advertising identifier. Once uploaded reject your binary then start over again ...

Jmattocks

I am having this same issue. Should I just select the first option? Has anyone else found a way around this? I don't know if this matters but I use iAds.

Pl4yorDieMorty

I am also confused!!!! I have taken the ads out of my game update my game and still I'm getting:

Dear developer, We have discovered one or more issues with your recent delivery etc... Improper Advertising Identifier [IDFA] Usage. Your app contains the Advertising Identifier [IDFA] API but you have not indicated its usage on the Prepare for Upload page in iTunes Connect. Once these issues have been corrected, go to the Version Details page and click "Ready to Upload Binary." Continue through the submission process until the app status is "Waiting for Upload." You can then deliver the corrected binary.

There are many great Wizards and Gurus in the community and maybe one of them will come across this problem and work some magic!

So if there are other persons out there with this problem, Pro or otherwise, a quick walk through would be GREAT!

Thanks!

Dues

Also wondering about this
Maybe @ForumNinja can answer this?

BobD

GameSalad help - New Advertising Identifier (IDFA) - How do we answer the questions if we use iAds, PlayHaven, ChartBoost or RevMob in our apps?

iamcartez

I use iAds and I've updated 5 apps so far with the below options. 3 of these apps are now live again.

Dues

Thanks for that info @iamcartez !

iamcartez

Hmmm bad news, for some odd reason my 6th app gave me that same error message today. -_-

ScoreD

I used those same settings when I submitted my update to the app. I was only using iAD as well. This is the response I received when they finally did the review...

PLA 3.3.12

We found your app uses the iOS Advertising Identifier but does not include ad functionality. This does not comply with the terms of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement, as required by the App Store Review Guidelines.

Specifically, section 3.3.12 of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement states:

"You and Your Applications (and any third party with whom you have contracted to serve advertising) may use the Advertising Identifier, and any information obtained through the use of the Advertising Identifier, only for the purpose of serving advertising. If a user resets the Advertising Identifier, then You agree not to combine, correlate, link or otherwise associate, either directly or indirectly, the prior Advertising Identifier and any derived information with the reset Advertising Identifier."

Note: iAd does not use the AdSupport framework, ASIdentifierManager, or the Advertising Identifier. Therefore they are not required for iAd implementations and should not be included in your app for iAd support.

Please check your code - including any third-party libraries - to remove any instances of:

class: ASIdentifierManager selector: advertisingIdentifier framework: AdSupport.framework

If you are planning to incorporate ads in a future version, please remove the Advertising Identifier from your app until you have included ad functionality.

To help locate the Advertising Identifier, use the “nm” tool. For information on the “nm” tool, please see the nm man page.

If you do not have access to the libraries' source, you may be able to search the compiled binary using the "strings" or "otool" command line tools. The "strings" tool lists the methods that the library calls, and "otool -ov" will list the Objective-C class structures and their defined methods. These techniques can help you narrow down where the problematic code resides.

Dues

Found this in the release notes of the latest stable build:

"Free users must select "yes" to using the Advertising Identifier (IDFA) when uploading their app through iTunes Connect, as well as check the first two Advertising Identifier options. Pro Users will only need to check this option based on whether or not they are using ads in their app."

So if we use ads in our games we probably should check the two first options.

nikkyoryzano

OK after i check the 2 box, i got rejected, i used iAd. I got this message =

---

PLA 3.3.12

We found your app uses the iOS Advertising Identifier but does not include ad functionality. This does not comply with the terms of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement, as required by the App Store Review Guidelines.

Specifically, section 3.3.12 of the iOS Developer Program License Agreement states:

"You and Your Applications (and any third party with whom you have contracted to serve advertising) may use the Advertising Identifier, and any information obtained through the use of the Advertising Identifier, only for the purpose of serving advertising. If a user resets the Advertising Identifier, then You agree not to combine, correlate, link or otherwise associate, either directly or indirectly, the prior Advertising Identifier and any derived information with the reset Advertising Identifier."

Note: iAd does not use the AdSupport framework, ASIdentifierManager, or the Advertising Identifier. Therefore they are not required for iAd implementations and should not be included in your app for iAd support.

If your app is serving ads, please:

• Ensure that you have tested your app on a device, not just the simulator, and that you have removed all previous versions of your app prior to testing

• Provide us the steps to locate ads in your app

If your app does not serve ads, please check your code - including any third-party libraries - to remove any instances of:

class: ASIdentifierManager
selector: advertisingIdentifier
framework: AdSupport.framework

If you are planning to incorporate ads in a future version, please remove the Advertising Identifier from your app until you have included ad functionality.

To help locate the Advertising Identifier, use the “nm” tool. For information on the “nm” tool, please see the nm man page.

If you do not have access to the libraries' source, you may be able to search the compiled binary using the "strings" or "otool" command line tools. The "strings" tool lists the methods that the library calls, and "otool -ov" will list the Objective-C class structures and their defined methods. These techniques can help you narrow down where the problematic code resides.

---

Note: iAd does not use the AdSupport framework, ASIdentifierManager, or the Advertising Identifier. Therefore they are not required for iAd implementations and should not be included in your app for iAd support.

---

This is confusing, so if i use only iAd, i don't need to check "yes" the IDFA question, because it will get rejected. But if i check "no" i would get an error on the application loader saying that i din't click "yes".

App_Maker

Do we need to check YES that our app uses the advertising identifier if we have revmob or chartboost ads in our apps? If we do what settings do we need to select from the drop down in iTunes connect regarding using the IDFA?

Thanks

gingagaming

@App_Maker said:
Do we need to check YES that our app uses the advertising identifier if we have revmob or chartboost ads in our apps? If we do what settings do we need to select from the drop down in iTunes connect regarding using the IDFA?

Thanks

If your app is serving adverts on iOS, then it uses the IDFA so tick yes, then tick the box that says "serves adverts" and then agree to their terms and submit. Failure to do so will result in your app being rejected.