App Store Screenshots Rejected: Match Apple's Message to the Fix

Most App Store screenshot rejections cite guideline 2.3.3, which asks that screenshots show the app in use rather than only title art, a login page, or a splash screen. Read the message for the device and the phrase App Review used, replace the slides it describes with captures of your real app doing its main job, and resubmit the same build, since a metadata fix doesn't need a new binary.

Rejection notes developers have posted, like this one on V2EX, follow a pattern. App Review says some or all screenshots don't sufficiently show the app in use, adds that most of them should highlight the main features, and then names a cause under Next Steps. That last part is where the fix is. In the V2EX case it said the iPad Pro screenshots were an iPhone image "modified or stretched to appear to be an iPad image", which points at the device the capture came from, so new headlines or a new background wouldn't have cleared it. Read the named device and the named problem before you change anything, because a set redesigned for the wrong reason tends to come back with the same note.

Match the wording to a cause

The first column paraphrases what each kind of message is about, since App Review's exact wording varies between rejections. The second names the rule behind it in Apple's App Review Guidelines.

What the message is about (paraphrased)	Guideline	What's usually wrong	Fix
The screenshots don't show the app in use	2.3.3	Slides made of logos, slogans, title art, onboarding, login, or a splash screen	Replace them with screens where the app is doing its main job
An iPhone image stretched to look like an iPad	2.3.3	The iPad slot holds a resized iPhone capture	Capture the app running on an iPad or a 13-inch iPad simulator
The images don't match what the app does	2.3	A slide shows a feature, screen, or content the submitted build doesn't have	Remove the slide, or ship the feature before showing it
Prices or terms shown in the images	2.3.7	A price, "free trial" offer, or terms text in the image	Remove the price and keep pricing in the in-app purchase listing
Another mobile platform shown in the images	2.3.10	An Android phone, a Google Play badge, or another store's icon in a slide	Show Apple hardware only, or no device at all
Imagery unsuitable for a 4+ audience	2.3.8	Violent or mature imagery from a game or app rated above 4+	Pick scenes that fit a 4+ rating, even if the app itself is rated higher

If the message names a guideline you don't see here, the screenshot requirements page lists the format rules and the other content rules in one place. A wrong pixel size or a transparent PNG would have been refused when you uploaded it, so a rejection that arrives after review is almost always about what the image shows.

Screens that read as "not in use"

Guideline 2.3.3 names three screens outright: title art, a login page, and a splash screen. The same logic covers an onboarding carousel, a permissions prompt, an empty state with no content in it, and a feed filled with lorem ipsum or test accounts named "asdf". A paywall on its own is risky for two reasons: a purchase screen says little about what the app does, and the price on it can trip 2.3.7. When you replace one of these slides, pick the screen a new user reaches after setup, loaded with realistic data from a demo account. A recipe app should show a recipe with steps, a budgeting app a month of categorized spending, and a game a level in progress with the HUD visible.

Apple doesn't ban marketing slides, and the guideline explicitly allows text and image overlays on top of the app. The rejection wording says the majority of screenshots should highlight the main features, which leaves room for an opening slide that's mostly headline. In our corpus of top-chart iOS sets (analyzed August 2026), about 7% of screenshots were text-dominant, against 46% where the app UI took up most of the frame. Those are approved listings, and the share shows how small the marketing-only slice usually is. If two or three of your slides have no UI at all, those are the ones to replace first, and you can start a new set from your app captures once you've picked the screens. The layouts page breaks down how much of each slide the UI takes up, by category.

The stretched iPad rejection

The V2EX note above is this case. The message suggests the iPad slots held iPhone captures scaled up to iPad dimensions, and App Review named the two iPad Pro generations whose images were affected. Real UI scaled to the wrong aspect ratio still counts as inaccurate, because the proportions, margins, and navigation differ from what runs on the tablet. Replace every image in the iPad slots with captures of the app running at iPad size, which the 13-inch simulator in Xcode produces; the walkthrough for iPad screenshots without an iPad has the commands. If iPad support was switched on by mistake, change the target's device settings in Xcode and upload a new build, which is the one fix on this page that does need a new binary.

AI-made slides and guideline 2.3.3

Several pages ranking for this search argue that AI-generated screenshots get apps rejected. Apple's screenshot rules ask whether the images show the app in use and match what the build does, and they say nothing about the tools that made them. A generated backdrop or headline counts as an overlay, which 2.3.3 permits. An app screen that a model invented or redrew, with buttons, data, or features your build doesn't have, is the inaccurate-metadata row in the table above. The AI screenshot generator guide covers how to check a tool for this before you pay for it.

Fix the set and resubmit

Apple's help page on replying to App Review says a submission rejected for a metadata issue can be resubmitted with the same build once the issue is fixed. Open the version, go to Media Manager, and choose View All Sizes, because the message may name one device while a scaled copy of the same image sits in another slot. Check every language you've localized as well, since each localization keeps its own screenshots. Replace the slides, then reply in App Store Connect with one or two sentences on what changed, attaching a before and after if the change is easy to miss. Replies need the Account Holder, Admin, or App Manager role. If an upload stalls or the drop area is missing, the guide to screenshots not uploading walks through version states and processing.

If you believe the reviewer misread the app, you can file an appeal with the App Review Board instead. Apple allows one appeal per rejected submission and asks for specific reasons the app complies, so answer any question App Review has already sent you first.

Rebuilding the set with Screenies

Screenies builds every slide from the source screenshots you upload, and its default Creative mode can have the image model redraw a screen onto a phone inside a generated scene. If a reviewer flagged staged or redrawn UI, Clean mode instead places your real screenshot upright in a device frame on every slide, with generated art only in the background. For the stretched iPad case, the iPad screenshot generator turns the iPad captures you upload into a 13-inch set, with each slide costing two credits from a credit pack you buy once. The free size checker confirms the exports' dimensions and transparency in your browser, though it can't judge the content a reviewer looks at.

Rejected screenshot questions

Do I need a new build to fix rejected screenshots?

Apple's help page says a metadata rejection can be resubmitted with the same build, so you don't. Upload the new screenshots to the rejected version, reply to App Review, and resubmit.

Can screenshots have headlines, backgrounds, and a device frame?

Guideline 2.3.3 says screenshots may include text and image overlays. Keep the overlay around the app, with real UI visible on most slides.

Can a screenshot show an Android phone?

Guideline 2.3.10 rules out names, icons, or imagery of other mobile platforms in your metadata, which includes screenshots. Reuse the screen content from your Android build if it matches the iOS app, but put it in an Apple device frame or show it without a frame.

The same screenshots were approved last version. Why were they rejected now?

Screenshots belong to the version, and each submission goes through review again, so a set that passed before can be flagged on the next one. Treat the new message as the current standard and fix what it names.

Will Apple reject a screenshot that shows a price?

There's a real risk. Guideline 2.3.7 says screenshots shouldn't include prices or terms that aren't specific to that metadata type, and a price in an image can go out of date in other storefronts. Keep prices in the in-app purchase listing and leave them out of the slides.