Apple submitting and plist - going round in circles

Ionic Framework ionic-v3
1

I have spent the last two days going round and round in circles trying to submit my app to Apple.

The app got rejected with a message that it needed NSCameraUsageDescription statement. I have tried every suggested entry to the config.xml file to add this and after hours and hours of attempts failed.
Now I just change the generated plist file by hand.

Now Apple Says it requires an entry for NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription - so I have added that by hand.

So I have ended up with a really bad fix - do a build and then manually adjust the plist file. The most annoying aspect is that I do not use the camera and have never installed the cordova plugin for it.

2

Maybe did you once for fun added the camera plugin and then removed it? If so, maybe the entries in the platform weren’t correctly removed?

Have you try to remove/add your ios platform again? Maybe do a copy somewhere else of your platform in case you did manually changes because you might have to do them again

What are the list of your plugin? Same in package.json as in config.xml?

3

Thanks for the reply @reedrichards.
I find the permission statements totally pointless.
My plug ins are very limited:

cordova-plugin-whitelist
cordova-plugin-device
cordova-plugin-splashscreen
cordova-plugin-ionic-webview
cordova-plugin-audioinput
cordova-plugin-nativestorage
cordova.plugins.diagnostic
cordova-plugin-device-orientation

The thing I have learned from all this is - submit to the app as soon as you start the project - don’t wait until the project design is finished .

4

Effectively looking at your plugins the error make no sense

Did you find a solution (sorry for late answer)? Have you try to rm/add the platform (with a backup in case something went wrong)?

5

No - other than to add the entries after the build.
The project was rebuilt only this week with cordova add platform IOS.
I am now in the situation that the app is submitted to the app store awaiting approval - so it is difficult to play around with the settings.
To be honest I am just happy to get to the point where I might finally get the thing out to the general public.

6

Finger crossed, keep us posted!

7

Guess what - got a rejection:

We noticed that your app requests the user’s consent to access their microphone but does not clarify the use of this feature in the permission modal alert.

It was due to my inexperience - I assumed the default statement generated by the cordova plugin would work
“requires access to the microphone to work correctly”. So I have reworded it with specific details and now waiting for the next rejection issue.

It would seem that from IOS10 Apple ask for details in the plist for all device features which is why I had to include the camera statement even although I do not use it. I have put in the submission “does not require access” so I am waiting to see what happens.

8

Yep a couple of weeks/months ago I had, and another guy of the local meetup group too, the same rejections msg with the permissions of the camera which I didn’t changed in ages. I improved the msg to make it more custom and it went thru

I guess time to time they improve their acceptance criteria