Hi everyone,
I’m hoping to get some guidance on my app review situation. My app JewelML Personalized Recs has been rejected multiple times and is now showing as Suspended in my Partner Dashboard, with a resubmit date of July 15, 2026.
The frustrating part is that I never received a clear explanation via email about why it was rejected. After digging into the Partner Dashboard myself, I finally found two requirements marked as “Critical - Not met” under the App Store review section:
- Include test credentials – The reviewer needs account credentials in the testing instructions to be able to review the app.
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- Include a demo screencast – A video walkthrough showing onboarding and core features, with step-by-step instructions, in English (or with English subtitles).
- My questions are:
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- Is it normal for the rejection email to not include this detail? I only found this by checking the dashboard manually.
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- Where exactly do I add the test credentials and demo screencast in the listing? Is it in the “Testing instructions” field during the app submission flow?
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- Any tips on what makes a good demo screencast that passes review?
- Has anyone else gone through this? Would appreciate any advice from folks who’ve been through the review process successfully.
- Thanks!
Hey @Alex_Chang! You did the right thing by digging into the dashboard, and what you found there is actually where the detail lives now. As of the updated app submission experience, reviewer feedback shows up in your Partner Dashboard under App > Distribution, with each requirement tracked individually (status, reviewer comments, and a way to ask questions). The email from noreply@shopify.com / app-submissions@shopify.com is lighter on specifics by design now, so the dashboard is the source of truth.
Both flagged items are standard, mandatory requirements rather than anything unusual about your app. The test credentials (4.5.4) go in the Testing instructions field of your app submission form, with account credentials that grant full access to the app’s features. The demo screencast (4.5.3) is also part of the submission form, and it needs step-by-step coverage of onboarding plus your core features, in English or with English subtitles. Neither of these lives in your public marketing listing, they’re in the submission/review section.
On the suspension, the July 15 resubmit date is fixed and can’t be expedited or lifted through support, and repeated suspensions extend the window, so it’s worth using this time to fully resolve every “Critical - Not met” item before you resubmit (the flow won’t let you resubmit until all of them are cleared). Running the AI self-review from the Shopify AI Toolkit against your codebase first can catch anything else that would bounce you back.
I hope this helps!
Sharing what worked when I went through a similar suspension cycle on one of my apps:
For the test credentials, the spot to add them is in your app listing’s “Test instructions” section in the Partner Dashboard (under App distribution → Listing → Review process or “Information for reviewers”). It is a free-text field that lives next to the screencast link. Put both the credentials and a numbered list of “what to click to see the value” in there. Reviewers spend roughly five minutes per app, so if the value isn’t visible inside the first three clicks they bounce.
For the screencast: a 60 to 120 second Loom is the right length. Open with one frame of the install → first-screen flow, then a clear “this is the thing the merchant pays you to do” demonstration. Don’t show the settings page first. Reviewers want to see the merchant-visible value before the configuration.
On the missing email: that is a known gap and the dashboard “Critical - Not met” badges are actually the canonical source of truth, not the email. Worth subscribing to the listing’s “App submissions” notification in the Partner Dashboard so you get pushed on every state change. The email cadence has been unreliable for the last few months and I would not rely on it.
One more thing that helped me get through review faster after a suspension: in the resubmission notes, explicitly call out each “Critical - Not met” item and the exact change you made to address it. Numbered list. The same reviewer often picks up the resubmission and a clear changelog cuts the second-review cycle in half.
You can also escalate via the App Store partner support form if a resubmit window feels too long for the type of fix you are making (e.g., you’ve already added the credentials and a screencast). They can sometimes move the resubmit date forward.