HACKER Q&A
📣 matwiemann

Apple Developer Account Blocked without reason – can somebody help?


Does anybody else have the same problem? I have been working on an App for months now but now I wanted to submit it to the App store, but I cannot create Apple Developer Account (Enrollment) because my Account is somehow blocked. My Issue at Apple (Case Number: 101043480563) has been open since March 11th, but no progress has been made. I was inquiring almost weekly, but the very friendly senior Advisor is also waiting for an internal team to give her feedback. No progress for almost 2 months.

Been working hard to get this App online. All the infrastructure (backend etc.) is in place, but now it is all falling apart because of this.

My App will greatly improve knowledge sharing in an entertaining way and will be really helpful in the current times.

If anybody with contacts to Apple can help, it would be really appreciated.


  👤 otachack Accepted Answer ✓
Perhaps start a small business, get a DUNNs number and separate AppleID, and enroll that way. If the app is going to be making money this may be what you want in the long run.

Also, I'm a bit skeptical how you aren't enrolled already. Apple doesn't make it easy to develop and run apps on hardware until you're enrolled. They require certs + provisions tied to the registered AppID to run any apps on hardware. But it's also been awhile since I've developed without a developer enrolled AppleID.


👤 really3452
The app store is a worse monopoly than IE ever was on Windows and should be treated with in the same fashion.

👤 i_don_t_know
I haven’t tried this in ages. Some ideas:

Have you had a developer account before that you might have forgotten about and that might use the same Apple ID? Can you create a new ID? (I don’t remember if you need an Apple ID.)

Have you moved to another country? For example, is the Apple ID registered in country A and you’re trying to enroll in country B? Can you create a new ID in country B?

Does your payment method work? Last September, I noticed that the online Apple Store in Germany follows the new process in the EU when paying with credit cards online. That is, you have to enable your card to allow online payments. Other businesses still use the old method where you only need the three-digit number on the back of the card. Check with your bank or credit card company and enable online payments. It is not enabled by default. Call the phone number printed on the card and they walk you through the process.

Do you have to supply tax information so that proceeds from the sale of your app can be reported correctly? Are you missing documents, tax IDs, W8-BEN (tax treaty benefits, needed for US tax purposes when you’re a citizen of another country), or similar documents? I haven’t done this myself. I don’t know if you need all this. Just throwing it out there.


👤 erikrothoff
How is it built? React Native, Cordova, SwiftUI? Maybe the technology chosen might provide a hint? Also, where are you based?

👤 thedevindevops
Have you considered an Android version?

👤 aurizon
Probably someone in Apple feels your idea would be a good thing for Apple to do itself,(as has happened many time before) so get what copyright protection you can get and persist, then sue if they infringe on you.