iOS Advertising Identifier rejection FAQ

Recently we received several reports that Apple started rejecting apps that use iOS Advertising Identifier, but do not show advertisements. If you was affected by this issue there are instructions how to remove use of this API from Xcode project produced by Unity.

1) Locate DeviceSettings.mm file in your Xcode project (you should find it under Classes/Unity/)

2) Make following modifications there:
a)Remove following functions:

Code (csharp):

1. static id QueryASIdentifierManager()
2. {
3. <..>
4. }
5. static void QueryAdID()
6. {
7. <..>
8. }
9. static void QueryAdTracking()
10. {
11. <..>
12. }

b) Remove following declarations of variables:

Code (csharp):

1. static NSString*    _ADID               = nil;
2. static bool         _AdTrackingEnabled  = false;

c) Modify implementations of following functions (replace with provided below):

Code (csharp):

1. extern "C" const char*  UnityAdvertisingIdentifier()
2. {
3. return NULL;
4. }
5.  
6. extern "C" bool         UnityAdvertisingTrackingEnabled()
7. {
8. return false;
9. }
10.  
11. static void QueryDeviceID()
12. {
13.     if(_DeviceID == nil)
14.     {
15.     #if UNITY_PRE_IOS7_TARGET
16.         if(!_ios70orNewer)
17.             _InitDeviceIDPreIOS7();
18.     #endif
19.  
20.         // first check vendor id
21.         if(_DeviceID == nil)
22.         {
23.             QueryVendorID();
24.             _DeviceID = _VendorID;
25.         }
26.     }
27. }

P.S. many other 3rd party libraries are using this API too, so consider contacting their providers if solution posted above doesn’t help.
P.P.S. we are working to release this fix ASAP

 

P.P.P.S.
Solution posted above needs to be applied for every fresh build when Xcode project gets replaced from scratch or is deployed to new folder. To make these changes permanent for all future builds you should update master template for this file, which you can find at /Applications/Unity/Unity.app/Contents/PlaybackEngines/iPhonePlayer/iPhone-Trampoline/Classes/Unity

 

Thx.
I'll try.

 

I want to ask this to Unity that is it confirmed that after changing the DeviceSettings.mm file as you mentioned, apple will not reject the app anymore?

 

I tried the above but now I receive compiler errors in Xcode. Please help.

/Classes/Unity/DeviceSettings.mm:31:13: Function 'QueryDeviceID' has internal linkage but is not defined

Undefined symbols for architecture armv7:
"_UnityAdvertisingTrackingEnabled", referenced from:
IsAdvertisingTrackingEnabled() in libiPhone-lib.a(LibEntryPoint.o)
HardwareInfoReporter::ReportHardwareInfo() in libiPhone-lib.a(ReportHardware.o)
"_UnityAdvertisingIdentifier", referenced from:
GetAdvertisingIdentifier() in libiPhone-lib.a(LibEntryPoint.o)
HardwareInfoReporter::ReportHardwareInfo() in libiPhone-lib.a(ReportHardware.o)
"QueryDeviceID()", referenced from:
_UnityDeviceUniqueIdentifier in DeviceSettings.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture armv7
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

 

I believe, you missed part c) of the instructions.

 

You are correct, my bad. Thanks for this solution!

 

Our app just got approved this morning by using the method posted here.

 

I am using chartboost SDK in my unity3D engine. I am not getting any help from chartboost help community. I am not understanding now that this issue (iAd rejection) is now regarding to chartboost integration or is it bug from Unity iteself. Please help because we are at the submission of the app and getting already very late.

 

First, it's not nice to post all in large size font. Second this is not really Unity only issue and Mantas already provided everyone a solution for Unity base code however they are not responsible or can't resolve 3rd party plugin problems. You need to get a solution from Chartboost or you need to stop using it. That means you postpone your release until they fix it or you try to fix it yourself if they provide code or find other product to do the same.

The problem relates to Apples new policy the enforce the rule they have told about before:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/03/ap...howing-ads-are-being-rejected-from-app-store/

 

I tried the solution and used "grep -r advertisingIdentifier ." to test my binary. I got this:

Binary file ./Data/Managed/UnityEngine.dll matches
Binary file ./Libraries/libiPhone-lib.a matches
./Libraries/RegisterMonoModules.cpp: void Register_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier ();
./Libraries/RegisterMonoModules.cpp: Register_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier ();
./Libraries/UnityEngine.dll.s:m_wrapper_managed_to_native_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier:
./Libraries/UnityEngine.dll.s: plt__icall_native_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier:

Dose it mean my binary still use iOS Advertising Identifier?

 

I've did everything according to the FAQ but when i launch the game (debug mode), splash screen comes up, bloody error comes up (debug mode says that error comes up in "checkBytes" ) how can i fix this?

 

I believe your error is unrelated. Most probably you are on iOS Free license and have inappropriate splashscreen installed. Maybe you were on iOS Pro trial when started your project?

 

You should be fine.

 

Yes i'm using iOS Free license and splashscreen set by default. When i follow this faq, my project doesn't work. when i don't it works fine.

 

I get this result when I try to build the build after modifiying the .mm source to what was described.

Undefined symbols for architecture armv7:
"_UnityDeviceUniqueIdentifier", referenced from:
systeminfo::GetDeviceUniqueIdentifier() in libiPhone-lib.a(iPhoneSettings.o)
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture armv7
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

 

I had commented out : extern "C" const char* UnityDeviceUniqueIdentifier()
block.. dont do that

 

@Mantas,

I've already implemented this fix on our project, but at one part, we use SystemInfo.deviceUniqueIdentifier(for Push notification-related purposes). Will this give us trouble if we use the device ID even if we are not using ads on our app?

 

With this fix SystemInfo.deviceUniqueIdentifier uses only identifierForVendor, so you should be OK.

 

my app has to use ad tracking, but doesn't show any ads. After deleting the codes above, will ad tracking still work?

 

If you are using iPhone.advertisingIdentifier then after these changes it will return NULL;

 

Our app got rejected today We have been in contact with chartboost and fiksu ... they advised us to remove their plugins from our project. Sooooo that's really cool and will help us market our game :S :S :S :S :S

 

Here's some info from speaking with Chartboost, Fisku and Tapjoy yesterday. Our app has all three of their plugins installed because we buy ads from them so our app is advertised on other apps, but no ads show up in our game.

Chartboost: They are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. For now, either include ads in your app or remove their plugin until a fix is ready.

Tapjoy: They are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. For now, either 1) Include ads in your app, 2) Monetize with Tapjoy (https://knowledge.tapjoy.com/en/integration/getting-started-guide-for-publishers), 3) Remove the plugin until they make a fix for it, or 4) Appeal the rejection to Apple. They even gave us this quote to send to Apple:

Fiksu: They are aware of the issue but said only one client (I guess that makes us client number two) has been rejected for this issue. They said you can disable access of the IDFA in their plugin and their systems would fall back to using digital fingerprinting for attribution (they didn't give any steps for how to do this and we aren't taking this route so I would contact them if you want more info). Their recommendation "would be to disable the default Unity access and re-submit with our plugin still in the app".

Summary: All three say they use the IDFA and Chartboost and Tapjoy said their plugins are basically useless in the current state if you apply the Unity fix described in the original post, so you might as well remove the plugins until fixes are made. Chartboost and Tapjoy said they will be posting more information on their blogs when they have fixes in place.

Hope this helps someone out there.

 

Thanks for sharing! Yesterday the latest update of our game was rejected by Apple (despite the fact that we did not change how we use the advertising identifier); we are going to resubmit with the modified DeviceSettings.mm and without the Chartboost plugin for now.

 

Two of my games were just rejected for this, only I have incorporated iAD and want to keep it (no other advertising, though)... what do I remove/not remove? This is REALLY frustrating.

EDIT: Never mind, it seems that following the above instructions doesn't mess with my iAD stuff... here's hoping the games are accepted this time :S

 

Hi,

Any news when there will be a Unity update to fix this?

Thanks,
Vicky

 

We also got rejected from AppStore, but I am resubmitting with the temporary workaround. Pain to do it by hand every export, but heres to hoping for a quick fix

 

Got rejected for the same reasons as well, but AFTER applying these changes.

 

Are you using any 3rd party plugins?

 

My game is rejected as well, after applying changes.

I am using AdMob, RevMob and ChartBoost plugins.

 

Got rejected as well after applying changes. I am also using Flurry, but it is updated to the last version without AID.
Another game was approved with the same options (Flurry + fixes from this post) and this one is not, although the reason given by Apple in resolution center is the same - using IAD.
Searching in the Xcode project for advertisintIdentifier gives this:
DeviceSettings.mm: extern "C" const char* UnityAdvertisingIdentifier() (it's return null already)
RegisterMonoModules.cpp
UnityEngine.dll
UnityInterface.h

 

Is your app serving advertisements in way Apple review can see them? Otherwise you might need to supply additional instructions for reviewer.

 

Maybe Flurry update didn't properly integrate into final Xcode project? Or maybe manual fix was incomplete?

 

In that case i think i should see more "advertisintIdentifier" in the search results when i do "Search in project" in Xcode, but i see only results mentioned
Fix is complete, i checked it.

 

I doubt Xcode search will find references in compiled Flurry library. You can examine referenced symbols with nm command (like this: "nm flurry.a | grep -i advertisingIdentifier").

 

I am using Flurry plugin from Prime 31, and it does all integration automatically.
And i have another game approved with this version of plugin, so i am out of ideas for now.

 

Maybe just try cleaning everything / rebuild and resubmit? Otherewise I'm also out of ideas. Btw, you might use nm tool on final binary too, to check if there are any non-scripting references to advertisingIdentifier.

 

I'm happy to report that our latest update has just been accepted by Apple. The fix to DeviceSettings.mm suggested by Mantas Puida in this thread worked flawlessly for us Thanks!
We also removed the chartboost plugin (as we were not showing ads anyway), just to be safe.

 

My game was also rejected because this issue.
I applied the fix and i also remove from "Linked Framework Libraries" the AdSupport.framework as Apple says in the PLA 3.3.12.

Waiting for the review (crossing my fingers) ...

Thanks Mantas for the fix

 

@Mantas, since we don't show any Ads, should we also delete iAd.framework? Non of our plugins are using this, only Unity.I'm not sure if this will also put us in risk during submission. Please advise. Thanks.

 

We didn't and got approved. I don't think iAd.framework uses the advertising identifier, so it should be safe I guess.

 

@Unity Team: Can you PLEASE provide a newsletter/warning/notification if such fatal issue appears?

 

I executed following command in the build folder:
find . | grep -v .svn | grep "\.a" | grep -v "\.app" | xargs grep advertisingIdentifier

and got this

Binary file ./Libraries/libiPhone-lib.a matches

What is this lib, can it be the reason of rejection?

 

I am wondering the same things as our app just rejected using workaround detailed in the first post. We were hoping to do a major launch but The ad framework has gotten us rejected both times. Is there any update to this issue?

 

Blog post was posted quite some time ago: http://blogs.unity3d.com/2014/02/11/overcoming-issues-with-ios-app-store-submissions/

 

It's a Unity runtime. You are finding scripting <-> native layer binding symbols like "__Z53Register_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifierv", which is not what Apple looking at, when checking for IDFA use.

 

@prestonf, are you using any of third party plugins?

 

@Mantas Puida

Yup, We are using iGUI for our front-end, Smart Localization for localized text/images, and U3DXT for AddressBook integrations, We also have Facebook SDK 4.3.6, but aside from importing and adding our app id we haven't used it much yet. I will poke around in U3DXT to see if they have something triggering the flag at apple, in my previous look through I don't remember seeing anything but thats not to say I could have glossed over something. If anyone has found workarounds or troubles with the above plugins let me know~

As a note in U3DXT we are only using Core Personal Address Book/Events/Locations options.

For reference this is what they are rejecting based on:
'
We have verified that your app contains code that is accessing the Advertising Identifier, however, we did not see ads served in your app.
...
- class: ASIdentifierManager
- selector: advertisingIdentifier
- framework: AdSupport.framework
...
'

Results from grep:
'
grep -r advertisingIdentifier .
Binary file ./ios/Data/Managed/UnityEngine.dll matches
Binary file ./ios/Libraries/libiPhone-lib.a matches
./ios/Libraries/RegisterMonoModules.cpp: void Register_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier ();
./ios/Libraries/RegisterMonoModules.cpp: Register_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier ();
./ios/Libraries/UnityEngine.dll.s:m_wrapper_managed_to_native_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier:
./ios/Libraries/UnityEngine.dll.slt__icall_native_UnityEngine_iPhone_get_advertisingIdentifier:
'

 

Plugins are typically integrating themselves directly from original location on Unity project tree. So running grep only against Xcode project might not catch them. Try running it against whole Unity project.