Apple's recent changes to rules on splash screens cause app upload to be denied

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  • Updated 3 years ago
I successfully submitted my app to Apple on 15 December 2016. This week I tried to upload the same app after some minor changes to the text/images, but it was rejected with error ITMS-90096 by the Application Loader utility. I assume Apple have changed their rules some time in the last 30 days. I have tried to comply with what they are asking for, but I still cannot get past the upload stage.

The exact error message is: Your binary is not optimized for iPhone 5 - - New iPhone apps and app updates submitted must support the 4-inch display on iPhone 5 and must include a launch image referenced in the Info.plist under UILaunchImages with a UILaunchImageSize value set to {320, 568}. Launch images must be PNG files and located at the top-level of your bundle, or provided within each .lproj folder if you localize your launch images.

I thought this would be a simple extra line to add to my config.xml (listed below) but that did not work. I read through all the similar issues on this forum, and on stackoverflow.com but nothing has given me any further ideas to try.

You will notice I have the old fashioned style of config, but I understand that Phonegap Build still permits this option, so I wanted to stick with it in order to make a tiny change very quickly. (We actually have a different project already part-way through, which has upgraded this app to the new style of config anyway, but that will not complete for months.) Likewise I'm still using an old version of Phonegap, but I'm reluctant to change something that is already in the App Store; I'm just tweaking the text and images, and I don't want to lose time re-testing everything.

Thank you to anyone who can advise me.
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Magnus Smith

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Posted 3 years ago

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Magnus Smith

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I've now solved the problem.

Last month Apple let me get away with using a blue 1x1 PNG for every launch screen, regardless of whether my config file said it was 320 or 2000+ pixels wide. We simply did not want splash screens in our app, so we had the delay set to 1 millisecond and used blank images.

This month (January 2017) it seems Apple have tightened their checks, and they did not like seeing config.xml pointing to PNGs that were not truly matching those dimensions. I had to resize all fourteen PNGs to be the correct width and height.

Sorry to trouble the forum with this. I hope this answer can save someone else a little grief....