Can I change metadata while my app is in review?
It depends which state you are in, and the two states people run together behave completely differently.
Waiting for Review: some fields are editable. App Store Connect marks this state as editable, and Apple's own description says you can "Edit certain app information."
In Review: nothing is. Apple's entire description of the state is: "App Review is reviewing your app. You can remove the build from review." No editing is offered, and the status reference does not mark it editable.
And in both states, the same hard rule: screenshots and app previews are frozen from the moment you submit.
Apple's own words, which are vaguer than you want
From the App and submission statuses reference, on Waiting for Review:
"You've submitted a new app or updated version. Apple received your submission, but hasn't started the review. While you're waiting for the review, you can: Edit certain app information. Remove the build from review. However, you can't upload or edit screenshots or app previews."
"Certain app information" is the whole problem. Apple never enumerates it, on that page or anywhere else in App Store Connect Help.
The submission-level status is slightly more specific, and contains one genuine oddity:
"While waiting for review, you can: Edit certain information. Delete app previews. Remove items from review. However, you can't: Upload or edit screenshots or app previews. Edit In-App Event metadata."
You may delete an app preview but not upload or edit one. Strange, documented, and useful: a preview you regret can go without withdrawing, a preview you want to replace cannot.
Ready for Review, the state before you have actually submitted, carries a related note: "Images and videos aren't editable in this state." Screenshots lock before review has even begun.
What is genuinely editable at any time
A different question from "while in review", and the one with real answers. Apple publishes a reference of properties that "can be localized and edited at any time without submitting a new version of your app". The useful rows:
| Field | Editable any time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| App Review information | Yes | Demo account, contact, notes |
| Promotional text (170) | Yes | "without requiring an updated submission" |
| Copyright | Yes | |
| Primary Language | Yes | "You can change the primary language at any time" |
| License Agreement | Yes | Custom EULA text |
| Phased Release setting | Yes | Pausable inside the seven-day window |
| Price and availability | Yes | No review involved |
| IAP name, description, review notes | Yes | Reviewed separately from the app |
| App name (30) | No | Next version submission |
| Subtitle (30) | No | Next version submission |
| Keywords (100) | No | Next version submission |
| Description (4,000) | No | Next version submission |
| What's New (4,000) | No | It is the release notes |
| Support URL | No | Version-bound, which surprises people |
| Marketing URL | No | Version-bound |
| Screenshots and previews | No | Frozen at submission |
| Age Rating | No | App-level, next version |
| Category | No | App-level, next version |
Two rows are worth memorising.
App Review information is editable at any time. Apple's framing: "You must provide the following information to App Review. It isn't visible to customers and can be edited at any time." If your demo account expired the night you submitted, you may be able to fix it without withdrawing anything.
Whether the reviewer looking at your app right now picks up credentials you change mid-review is not documented. Fixing them costs nothing, and the alternative is a rejection for a login nobody could get past.
Support URL is version-bound. So is Marketing URL. A dead support link cannot be fixed on a live version, and it is a reliable rejection.
The app name is the clearest example of the rule
From Apple's App information reference:
"You can edit it until you submit the app to App Review. Later, you can change the name when you create a new version or the status of the app version permits editing this property."
That last clause is the mechanism for every version-bound field. Editability is a function of the version's state, not of the field. The editable states are Prepare for Submission, Ready for Review, Invalid Binary, Waiting for Review, Rejected, Metadata Rejected and Developer Rejected. In Review is not one of them, and neither is Pending Developer Release or Ready for Distribution.
What actually cancels a review
Apple documents no metadata edit that cancels a review. In the console a locked field is simply not editable, so there is nothing to do by accident. Through the App Store Connect API, a PATCH against a version in a non-editable state fails rather than applying, returning a 409 along the lines of "can not be modified in the current state".
What Apple does document as restarting review is withdrawal:
"The app, and any other items in the submission, are removed from the queue and the app status changes to Developer Rejected. If you resubmit the review process will start over."
So the risk is not the description you edited. It is the actions that require the version to be unlocked first:
- Changing the attached build. The build belongs to the version, so swapping it means removing the version from review. That is a withdrawal, and review starts over.
- Cancelling the submission to add or remove an item. Worse than it sounds: "any items marked as Accepted must be resubmitted."
- Removing the build from review to fix screenshots, because screenshots cannot be touched any other way.
If someone tells you editing keywords reset their review, the likely explanation is one of those three, or a console behaviour long since changed.
The practical order of operations
- Lock name, subtitle and keywords before you submit. On iOS there is no editing them on a live version.
- Get screenshots right before you submit. They freeze at Ready for Review, earlier than everything else.
- Check the support and privacy URLs resolve. Both are version-bound and both get checked.
- Verify the demo account the morning you submit. It stays editable, which makes it the cheapest thing here to get wrong.
FAQ
Can I edit my app description while it is In Review? No. In Review is not an editable state. In Waiting for Review, Apple says you can edit "certain app information" without saying which, and screenshots are excluded either way.
Can I change screenshots while in review? No. Apple states you "can't upload or edit screenshots or app previews" while waiting for review, and images and videos are not editable from Ready for Review onwards. You can delete an app preview.
Will editing metadata cancel my review? Apple documents no such behaviour, and locked fields cannot be edited in the console. What does restart review is removing the version or cancelling the submission.
Can I fix a broken demo account mid-review? Yes. Apple describes App Review information as editable at any time. Whether the current reviewer sees the change is not documented.
What if I need to change a locked field? Withdraw, edit, resubmit, and accept that review starts over. Or ship as it is and change the field in the next version. Price is not one of them: price and availability are never version-bound.
AppSubmit shows which fields are frozen to the version currently in review, so "I will just tweak the keywords" surfaces before you have submitted rather than after. The table above is the same information and you can keep it in a text file.