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yalag

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
1,448
81
I find that some apps still go by update date (especially ones in the business section) and other apps go by the original release date. Do you find this the case? If so this is quite unfair...
 

Pring

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2003
310
0
Yup, which is one of the reasons I'm arguing it's a bug. It's not even by release date for them, it's by submission date. That makes next to no sense.

This is a known issue going back as far as August that occurred for SOME applications when editing meta data. I'm willing to bet that when trying to fix the iTunes database after the weekend problems they've triggered it for all apps. See these threads for reference.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7917099&#7917099
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8018774&#8018774
 

diesel

macrumors 6502a
Aug 3, 2007
807
25
yeah, younote was just updated and it has a release date of 30 September even though the app has been around for quite a while now
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
Developers can still control the release date of their apps through iTunes connect. A really unscrupulous developer could set their release date to the current day every day and have their app stick at the front of the list.
 

yalag

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
1,448
81
Developers can still control the release date of their apps through iTunes connect. A really unscrupulous developer could set their release date to the current day every day and have their app stick at the front of the list.

No you cannot, you can't change release date from iTunes connect
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
I'm in iTunes connect right now, where are you seeing the option to change?

Edit an application's information, go to the Pricing section. You can set the availability date to the present or a future date. If you set it to a future date, the app will disappear from iTunes until that date.

I'm not entirely sure that you can have the release date in iTunes appear to be any date that you want, but I am sure that you can make it appear to be the last date that you had an update appear. I used to have to do this every time my app had an update, because the date would never change itself appropriately.
 

yalag

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
1,448
81
Edit an application's information, go to the Pricing section. You can set the availability date to the present or a future date. If you set it to a future date, the app will disappear from iTunes until that date.

I'm not entirely sure that you can have the release date in iTunes appear to be any date that you want, but I am sure that you can make it appear to be the last date that you had an update appear. I used to have to do this every time my app had an update, because the date would never change itself appropriately.

I'm not sure what you mean, are you saying by changing the Availability Date in iTunes connect, you will be able to change the "Released date" in iTunes store?
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
I'm not sure what you mean, are you saying by changing the Availability Date in iTunes connect, you will be able to change the "Released date" in iTunes store?

Yes, more or less. Like I said, I'm not sure if the release date in iTunes will always appear as the exact same date you set the availability date to, but I am sure that you can at least get it to appear in iTunes as the last date you had an update released.

As I also said, I used to do this every time I had an update released, because iTunes would not do it automatically as used to be the normal behavior. The last time I had an update released was Sept. 27, which AFAIK was after Apple changed things but before I realized as much, so I did what I always do and alas the release date on my app is still Sept. 27 (i.e. it wasn't my intention to cheat the new system).
 

yalag

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
1,448
81
Yes, more or less. Like I said, I'm not sure if the release date in iTunes will always appear as the exact same date you set the availability date to, but I am sure that you can at least get it to appear in iTunes as the last date you had an update released.

I will try that and get back to you to confirm (waiting for itunesconnect changes to take effect)
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
I will try that and get back to you to confirm (waiting for itunesconnect changes to take effect)

OK, but for the record I am not promoting the idea of doing this for updates if it's not what Apple wants us to do. I just did it several days ago not realizing that Apple had apparently changed how things are supposed to work.
 

yalag

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
1,448
81
OK, but for the record I am not promoting the idea of doing this for updates if it's not what Apple wants us to do. I just did it several days ago not realizing that Apple had apparently changed how things are supposed to work.

Did you do it before or after itunes have the new system in place? And did your app updated the release date to the latest update date?
 

admanimal

macrumors 68040
Apr 22, 2005
3,531
2
Did you do it before or after itunes have the new system in place? And did your app updated the release date to the latest update date?

I did it on sept. 27, right around when Apple changed things. And yes my app now has a release date of sept. 27. Another old app in my category now has a release date of sept. 29, so I would be willing to bet they did the same thing.
 

Pring

macrumors 6502
Sep 17, 2003
310
0
Developers can still control the release date of their apps through iTunes connect. A really unscrupulous developer could set their release date to the current day every day and have their app stick at the front of the list.

No, that doesn't work... it'll set it to the date of your LATEST update but you can't set it to list you as newly released every day.
 
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