My App Got My Apple Developer Account Terminated – Need Help

Questions about Thunkable Publishing
1

Hello Thunkable team,

I hope you’re doing well.

I submitted my app to Apple using Thunkable. In the first review, I was informed of the following issues:
1. The app was not interactive enough
2. There was a test button activated to show ads
3. There was a button or feature that was unclear

I worked to fix these issues by:
• Making the app more interactive
• Removing the test ad button
• Clarifying the unclear button or feature

After that, I added a Google Translate feature and submitted the app again. Then I received a message from Apple saying that the app was misleading or contained dishonest content.

Because of that, I rebuilt many parts of the app. I designed the images, games (like letter tracing and word search), and other elements by myself. I did not copy anything.

Before I contact Apple again, I would really appreciate it if you could take a look at my app and let me know if there’s anything I should fix or change. Your feedback would be very helpful.

Thank you so much for your support.

2

Was your App rejected? or Account Terminated ?

3

All of them

في أربعاء، ٢٥ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٥:٣٠ م، كتب kizzy via Community <notifications@thunkable.discoursemail.com>:

4

thats weird

5

Can you share a screenshot of the email from Apple with the rejection of the app itself? Did you also receive an email from Apple stating your account had been terminated? If so, a screenshot of that would also be very helpful!

6

This message before editing the images such as the game image, the English letters images, and the tracing image were designed by artificial intelligence. The games were completely designed by myself from Canva, from free sources only.

Hello,

Appeal Ticket: APL160523

Thank you for your patience while we evaluated the activity associated with your Apple Developer Program membership.

We have completed our investigation and have determined that your Apple Developer Program membership, or another membership associated with your developer account, has been used for dishonest or fraudulent activity. This is prohibited by Section 3.2(f) of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement:

“You will not, directly or indirectly, commit any act intended to interfere with any of the Apple Software or Services, the intent of this Agreement, or Apple’s business practices including, but not limited to, taking actions that may hinder the performance or intended use of the App Store, Custom App Distribution, TestFlight, Xcode Cloud, Ad Hoc distribution, or the Program (e.g., submitting fraudulent reviews of Your own Application or any third-party application, choosing a name for Your Application that is substantially similar to the name of a third-party application in order to create consumer confusion, or squatting on application names to prevent legitimate third-party use). Further, You will not engage, or encourage others to engage, in any unlawful, unfair, misleading, fraudulent, improper, or dishonest acts or business practices relating to Your Covered Products or Corresponding Products (e.g., engaging in bait-and-switch pricing, consumer misrepresentation, deceptive business practices, or unfair competition against other developers).”

The guiding principle of the App Store is to provide a safe and enjoyable experience for users and a great opportunity for all developers to be successful. We work hard to make the App Store a trustworthy ecosystem and expect our app developers to be honest with users and with us. Manipulative or misleading behavior degrades user trust in the App Store and is grounds for removal from the Apple Developer Program.

We have found a pattern of manipulative or misleading behavior that has led to the termination of your Apple Developer Program membership. These behaviors can include, but are not limited to, inaccurate metadata describing your app or service, misleading app content, engaging in inauthentic ratings and reviews manipulation, providing misleading customer support responses, providing misleading responses in App Store Connect, engaging in misleading purchasing or bait and switch schemes, or other dishonest or fraudulent activity within or outside of the app.

Remember that pursuant to Section 11.3 of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, you have certain obligations upon termination including the requirement to immediately destroy all Apple Confidential Information in your possession or control.

This notification is not intended to be a complete statement of the facts regarding this matter, and nothing in this letter should be construed as a waiver of any rights or remedies Apple may have, all of which are hereby reserved.

Because your account has been flagged for removal, any earnings payments are paused. Once your Apple Developer Program membership is formally terminated, you may petition the App Review Board to reinstate your account by completing the Re-instate a Terminated Developer Program Membership form. In your petition, provide the specific reasons why the App Review Board should consider re-instating your Apple Developer Program membership. Include details on what improvements you are planning to make to comply with the App Review Guidelines, Developer Code of Conduct and Apple Developer Program License Agreement. If you have questions, contact us.

Best regards,

App Review Board ترجم ايش قالوا بالضبط

في خميس، ٢٦ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٥:٠٩ م، كتب Matthew Conroy via Community <notifications@thunkable.discoursemail.com>:

7

This unfortunately seems to be a fairly common issue with Apple, regardless of the platform used to create the app.

The best bet we can recommend is to try and go through the appeals process to see what specific things they found in your account and/or apps that led to this decision.

8

Do you think they will reinstate my membership? Also, is Google as complicated as them?

في جمعة، ٢٧ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٤:٤٠ م، كتب Matthew Conroy via Community <notifications@thunkable.discoursemail.com>:

9

Would you allow me to support Apple and Google with this plan?

في جمعة، ٢٧ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٥:١٠ م، كتب Me Ma <mame97246@gmail.com>:

10

I have no idea if they would reinstate your App Developer account or not. Google is not usually as rigorous in their review of apps.

11

Well, if it’s possible to publish the same app on two platforms, how do I protect my app from being hacked if I publish it on Google? Or something like that? I know it’s very difficult to steal an app on Apple due to some of its features, but on Google, how do I protect it? Especially since it’s an APK file.

في جمعة، ٢٧ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٥:٢٩ م، كتب Matthew Conroy via Community <notifications@thunkable.discoursemail.com>:

12

It’s generally not easy to steal one’s app or internal code using the downloaded app via the Google Play Store. It is not something our support team has ever encountered with another Thunkable user.

If someone were to decompile the APK file on Android for instance, they could potentially expose a URL or API key if it is connected directly to a block. The best way to combat this is to put your sensitive data on a separate backend like Xano (which is also accessed through an Web API call).

You can set good security rules–even if you do not choose to add authentication. This video goes over those security options:

Here is a demo project one of our Community members made for setting up a Xano backend in Thunkable.

This blog post has some good general information and an overview of how the backend server idea works.
​Why You Need a Backend Service for Your No Code App

This is all a bit more complicated but it does address your security concerns.

13

I have stored pictures and sounds inside the blocks, but what I fear is the application being stolen and hacked

في جمعة، ٢٧ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٥:٥٩ م، كتب Matthew Conroy via Community <notifications@thunkable.discoursemail.com>:

14

Some additional general suggestions for this, some of which overlap with what we had in the last post.

1. Secure external APIs

  • Thunkable creators often use Web APIs—make sure you don’t embed sensitive keys or logic in the blocks.
  • Use an intermediate server to handle sensitive requests.

2. Avoid storing sensitive data locally

  • If your app stores tokens, personal data, etc., consider encrypting it.
  • Thunkable has limited local storage security, so don’t assume it’s private.

3. Use Firebase or other auth providers

  • Require users to sign in so you can track behavior and prevent abuse.
  • Set Firebase security rules to control data access.

4. Sign your app

  • When publishing, use official signing tools (Thunkable helps with this) to ensure your app is verified and harder to tamper with.

No app is completely “unhackable,” but your goal is to make it:

  • Hard to steal
  • Not worth the effort to reverse-engineer
  • Secure enough that users’ data and your IP are protected
15

It does not contain any login at all. It is an application. Once you open it, you can browse it. You can view it, as I sent a link to it.

في جمعة، ٢٧ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٦:٥٣ م، كتب Matthew Conroy via Community <notifications@thunkable.discoursemail.com>:

16

You should be good to go then!

17

Hi, I just wanted to double-check something.

I’m planning to publish my app soon, and I’m a bit concerned about security.

The app does not contain any login or sensitive user data, but I’m afraid that someone might decompile the APK, steal my work (like images, sounds, and logic), and even modify or break the app, causing it to stop working properly.

If this happens, I might lose users or income, and my work could be used by someone else.

Is there a way to better protect the app before publishing it?

Thank you

في جمعة، ٢٧ يونيو، ٢٠٢٥ في ٧:٢٦ م، كتب Matthew Conroy via Community <notifications@thunkable.discoursemail.com>: