Why Apple rejected your app preview video (and how to fix each reason)

Start with the rule that decides most cases

Apple publishes the rule in one sentence, in the App Store Review Guidelines, section 2.3.4: "previews may only use video screen captures of the app itself." The same paragraph tells you what you are allowed to add: "You can add narration and video or textual overlays to help explain anything that isn't clear from the video alone."

Read those two sentences together and the whole policy falls into place. The base layer has to be the real app, recorded from its screen. Everything else is decoration on top of that layer. The moment the base layer is something else, a 3D mockup, an animated phone floating in space, a hand tapping a device, the preview is no longer a screen capture of the app and the reviewer has a reason to bounce it.

Apple's App Previews page says the same thing in plainer words: previews use "footage captured on device", and "App previews must show only content within the app itself. Don't film people interacting with a device, such as an over-the-shoulder angle or fingers tapping the screen."

We make these videos every day, and the same conversation comes up most weeks: the over-the-shoulder ad you saw on Instagram is not an App Store preview and was never going to pass. It can still be your ad. It cannot be your preview.

The nine reasons, with the fix for each

1. A device frame, a hand, or a person is in the frame

Any pixels that are not the app fail 2.3.4. That includes the phone bezel around your recording, a hand holding the device, a desk scene, and a "lifestyle" opening shot of someone at a cafe.

Fix: export the raw screen capture at full frame. If the recording came out of a design tool with a frame baked in, crop it or re-record. Keep the lifestyle cut for social ads, where nobody minds.

2. Mockups and motion design instead of screen captures

This is the one that surprises people, because the video usually looks better than a plain recording. A Figma prototype animated in After Effects is not the app. Neither is a 3D render of the app, nor a recreation of the UI in motion graphics.

Fix: record the real build, then do your motion design on top of it as overlays. Zooms, cursor highlights, callout text, a coloured background behind a scaled-down screen, transitions between clips: all fine, as long as the moving screen inside is genuine footage. If the app is not finished yet, record a TestFlight build. Reviewers compare the preview with the binary you submit, so the footage should match the version they are looking at.

3. The video is shorter than 15 seconds or longer than 30

The App Preview Specifications set a minimum of 15 seconds and a maximum of 30. App Store Connect usually refuses the file on upload, but an export that lands at 14.8 seconds because of a trailing cut will get through and then get flagged.

Fix: set the sequence to exactly 15, 20, 25 or 30 seconds, and check the exported file's duration, not the timeline.

4. The resolution does not match a device size

Each preview is uploaded for a display size, and the file has to be one of the accepted resolutions for that size. For the 6.1 to 6.9 inch iPhones that is 886 by 1920 portrait or 1920 by 886 landscape. The old 5.5 inch slot takes 1080 by 1920, the 4.7 inch slot 750 by 1334, and the 13 inch iPad slot 1200 by 1600. A 1080 by 1920 file uploaded to the 6.9 inch slot is the most common mismatch we see.

Fix: export one master per display size you actually ship for. A modern iPhone app needs the 886 by 1920 file; only add the 5.5 and 4.7 inch versions if you still support those devices. The full size table, and how the social formats relate to it, is in our guide to video formats.

5. A price appears in the video

Two rules cover this. Guideline 2.3.7 says previews "should not include prices, terms, or descriptions that are not specific to the metadata type", and the App Previews page adds "Don't include specific prices, as pricing and currencies vary across regions."

Fix: blur or cut any paywall screen that shows a number, and remove "only $4.99" style overlays. You can still show the paywall exists; just not the amount.

6. A paid feature is shown without saying so

From Apple's page: "If you display features that are only available through in-app purchase, or if your app uses a subscription model or requires login, you must disclose this. Disclaimer copy can be included within the footage or in the end frame."

Fix: add a small, legible line such as "Some features require a subscription" on the relevant clip or on the last frame. Small is fine; missing is not.

7. Seasonal or dated references

Apple asks you to "avoid any seasonal or timely references that will age your video, such as 'new for spring' or dates." Reviewers also dislike previews that say "just launched" for an app that has been live for a year.

Fix: cut the date, the season and the launch language. Say what the feature does instead.

8. Music, footage or logos you cannot prove you own

"Show only material you have the legal right to display." A licensed track from a stock library is fine. A song from a streaming service is not, and neither is a competitor's logo in a comparison scene.

Fix: keep the licence receipt for every asset in the video. If a third-party brand appears inside your app screens because your app integrates with it, that is normally acceptable; adding their logo as a design element is not.

9. The preview shows something the app does not do

Apple's page says "Show more gameplay than cutscenes so you don't mislead your audience", and the general principle is that metadata must be accurate. A preview built around a feature that is still on the roadmap, or a cutscene-heavy montage for a game that is mostly menus, gets treated as misleading.

Fix: only show flows that exist in the submitted build, in the order a user would meet them.

Upload errors are not review rejections

App Store Connect checks the file before a human sees it. Knowing which problems belong to that layer saves a round trip. The specification page lists them: a maximum file size of 500 MB, H.264 at up to 30 frames per second with a target of 10 to 12 Mbps, or ProRes 422 HQ, stereo audio at 44.1 or 48 kHz with all tracks enabled, and a .mov, .m4v or .mp4 container.

A 60 frames per second screen recording is the classic trip-up. iPhones record smooth, high frame rate video by default, and the export has to conform it to 30. Audio is the second: a file with a mono track, or a muted track that is disabled in the container, can be refused even though previews play silent by default.

A pre-upload checklist

Print it, or paste it into the ticket for whoever edits the video. Most rejections we have seen would have been caught by a two minute pass through this table.

After the rejection

Read the Resolution Center message first. Apple quotes the guideline number, and that number tells you whether the footage is the problem (2.3.4), the metadata is (2.3.7), or the app itself is being questioned (2.3.1). Fix only what was named, re-export, and replace the preview in App Store Connect. Replying with an explanation rarely helps when the footage plainly breaks the rule; a corrected file does.

One detail people miss: the poster frame is part of the approved preview. Apple's page says "If you change the poster frame on an app preview that's already approved, you'll need to submit a new version of your app preview." Pick the frame carefully the first time, ideally the clearest moment of the app's main screen, and leave it alone.