Before you upload: the app-store rejection checklist

Store rejections feel random. They’re not — the same handful of things bounce submissions over and over, and almost all of them are checkable before you click Upload. Here’s the list, split by platform, with a link to the fix for each.

Android (Google Play)

• 16 KB page size. Apps targeting Android 15+ must have native libs built with 16 KB alignment, or Play rejects the bundle. Full explainer + fix → Fixing the “16 KB page size” rejection. Check any build with store-check.
• Target API level too low. Play raises the minimum target SDK yearly; below it, the upload is refused. Bump targetSdkVersion (and rebuild).
• Data safety / permissions declarations. Declared permissions must match what the app actually requests; mismatches or over-broad permissions get flagged.
• Icon vs. listing. The store-listing icon must match the installed app icon — a mismatch shows up as a “misleading” flag.

iOS (App Store / TestFlight)

• Build number. Missing or non-numeric CFBundleVersion blocks the upload. It must be period-separated integers.
• Export-compliance key. Without ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption, App Store Connect nags on every build.
• Privacy manifest. iOS 17+ apps (and required SDKs) need PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy.
• iPad orientations. If you support iPad, the app must declare all four orientations or Apple rejects it.
• Icon alpha. The App Store icon can’t contain an alpha channel.
• Getting the build uploaded in the first place → Ship an Expo app to TestFlight without EAS. Check any build with ipa-check.

Both

• Metadata vs. reality. Screenshots and the description must match the app; “misleading metadata” is a common bounce.
• Privacy & policy. A working privacy-policy URL, correct age rating, and honest ad/data disclosures.
• Crashes on launch. A build that crashes immediately never survives review — which is why release-only crashes (minification, missing native code) matter so much. Keep a CI gate so a broken build never ships → Add CI to an Expo app.

Make it a pre-flight, not a surprise

Both tools are dependency-free and CI-friendly — run them on every release build:

npx github:nwebersoftware/store-check ./app-release.aab
npx github:nwebersoftware/ipa-check   ./YourApp.ipa

Sixty seconds of checks beats a two-day review bounce.