How to withdraw an App Store submission

There are two withdrawal routes in App Store Connect and they are not the same thing. Removing the version pulls your app out of review. Cancelling the submission pulls everything that was submitted with it. Both end with the version in Developer Rejected, and both mean review starts again if you send it back.

Apple's wording for the first route:

"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."

You need the Account Holder, Admin, or App Manager role. A Developer role cannot do this.

When you are allowed to withdraw

Apple lists five states, and the list is more generous than most people expect:

Waiting for Export Compliance
Waiting for Review
In Review
Pending Developer Release
Pending Apple Release

The last two matter. An approved version can still be withdrawn. If a build passed review and you have since found a showstopper, you are not forced to release it and patch afterwards. Pull it, fix it, resubmit.

Anything already decided against you is out of scope, because there is nothing in the queue to remove. A version in Rejected or Metadata Rejected is already unlocked for editing.

Route one: remove the version from review

Straight from App Store Connect Help:

In Apps, select the app you want to view.
In the sidebar, click the app version that you want to remove a build for.
In the message that appears at the top, click "remove this version from review."
In the dialog that appears, click Remove.

The link is inside the banner at the top of the version page, in lower case, in the middle of a sentence. It does not look like a button, which is why people hunt for one and conclude the feature does not exist.

The status change follows within a minute or two, and the version unlocks for editing.

Route two: cancel the submission

Use this when the submission carried more than the app version, for example an in-app event, a custom product page or a product page optimisation test.

In Apps, select the app you want to view.
In the sidebar, click App Review.
Under Submissions, click the submission you want to remove.
At the bottom of the page, click Cancel Submission.
Click Confirm.

Apple's note on the consequence is the important part:

"Your submission will be cancelled, and any items marked as Accepted must be resubmitted. If the submission includes an app version, its status will change to Developer Rejected. If you resubmit, the review process will start over."

Read the second clause twice. If your submission bundled four items and three had already been accepted, cancelling throws away those three acceptances. You resubmit all of them. Where only the app version is the problem, removing the version is the cheaper move.

Route three: the API

Cancellation is a PATCH to /v1/reviewSubmissions/{id} setting canceled to true. Note the single-l American spelling, which is a genuine gotcha when writing the call by hand.

Worth knowing for a reason unrelated to withdrawing on purpose: it is how a submission gets withdrawn without anyone touching a browser. If a version has quietly gone Developer Rejected and nobody admits to it, check your CI logs and any release tooling holding a key with write access. The call is one line and it does not ask twice.

What Developer Rejected means afterwards

App Store Connect Help describes the state in one sentence:

"You removed your app from review. When you're ready, resubmit your build or submit a new build."

Three things follow.

It is not a rejection by Apple. Nobody at Apple decided anything. The state name puts the words in an order that reads like an accusation, and it is not one. Apple publishes nothing to suggest a withdrawal counts against you, and the help text treats it as routine.

The version is editable again. Developer Rejected is one of the states App Store Connect marks as editable, alongside Prepare for Submission, Rejected, Metadata Rejected and Invalid Binary. So you can change the description, keywords, screenshots, previews, review notes and the attached build.

The version number does not move. You are editing the same version record. Bumping to a fresh version number after a withdrawal discards the history for no benefit, and Apple did not ask for one.

There is no undo. Once withdrawn, you cannot put the submission back where it was. You resubmit and review starts over.

When withdrawing beats waiting

You submitted the wrong build. Nothing else to decide. Pull it.

The demo account expired, or the credentials are wrong. A reviewer who cannot sign in produces a rejection you already know the reason for. Worth noting: App Review information is one of the few things Apple describes as editable at any time, so check whether you can simply fix the credentials without withdrawing at all.

A URL in your listing is dead. Support URL and privacy policy links are checked. A 404 is a guaranteed round trip.

You found a showstopper in an approved version. The strongest case, and what Pending Developer Release being on the eligible list is for. Withdraw, fix, resubmit, and no user ever sees it.

The release is now wrong for a reason outside the app. A partner pulled out, a legal review came back late. Withdrawing costs queue time. Shipping the wrong thing costs more.

When waiting beats withdrawing

The problem is metadata and the app is already In Review. Both Rejected and Metadata Rejected unlock the version anyway, so a rejection you were always going to get costs you nothing extra. Withdrawing costs you the review you had already paid for in waiting.

You are trying to dodge a rejection you can see coming. Withdrawing does not erase what the reviewer already saw, and if they had found something you may get the Resolution Center message regardless. Read it when it comes. It is free information about your next submission.

You want to restart the clock. There is nothing to restart. Apple documents that resubmission means review starts over, and publishes nothing about queue ordering, so a withdrawal is a cost with no matching benefit.

It is Pending Developer Release and you simply are not ready. Then do not release it. That state waits indefinitely for you. Withdrawing an approved version you merely want to delay is throwing away an approval.

Resubmitting afterwards

Make the one change you withdrew for. Only that change.
If the fix is in the binary, upload a new build with a higher build number and attach it to the same version. The version string stays as it is.
If the fix is metadata or review notes, there is nothing to upload.
Submit for review. Expect a fresh trip through Waiting for Review of unknown length.
Add one line to the review notes if a reviewer might wonder what changed.

FAQ

Does withdrawing a submission hurt my account or my next review? Apple publishes nothing to suggest it does, and provides the control for exactly this purpose.

Can I withdraw a version that has already been approved? Yes. Pending Developer Release and Pending Apple Release are both on Apple's list of removable states.

How long does the withdrawal take to process? The submission passes through Processing, then moves to Completed in the App Review section. Apple publishes no figure.

Will I lose my place in the queue? Yes, in the sense that there is nothing to keep. Apple's words are that the review process will start over.

Does Google Play have the same control? Not in the same shape. You can discard a release before submitting, and managed publishing lets you hold approved changes, but there is no "remove from review" once a Play submission is in flight.

AppSubmit labels this state "Withdrawn" on the release timeline rather than "Developer Rejected", and records what triggered it, because a state named after a rejection that is not one causes real confusion in a team. App Store Connect's activity history carries the same fact.