[Solved] Disabling/removing Unity Ads to comply with IDFA requirements

Currently, there's a lot of manual work involved in making sure that a submitted app contains absolutely no traces of the UnityAds framework (manually deleting folders in XCode, manually removing the reference to Ads libraries, ...).

What is the recommended way to (ideally from inside Unity) completely disable this behaviour, so that proper Ad-free apps can be released without using the Advertising Identifier (IDFA)?

The error message usually is "Your app is using the Advertising Identifier (IDFA). You must either provide details about the IDFA usage or remove it from the app and submit your binary again." Yes, just saying that IDFA is used works, but we'd like to not use it at in some of our applications. Just saying to a client "well, no, we're not using Ads, but since we're using Unity the answer needs to be Yes" is not an option, especially given that using the IDFA requires to state why it's used and to state that the answers are correct.

 

1) The project is not using Unity Services and thus there is no option to disable Ads.
2) Good point. I haven't added the Advertisement package but it was installed regardless. So I guess this one is on by default and I didn't notice. It would be great that, if Unity Services is not selected when creating a new project, Advertisement package is just off by default.

I'll test when I do the next release.

 

I ran into the exact same problem. I'm not using Unity Services and any other plugin/package. Before I was using Unity 2018.1, and I was able to build iOS version and submit to AppStore without problem (not using IDFA). However, I upgraded to 2018.3 days ago, and when I was submitting the new version built with Unity 2018.3, AppStore prevents the submission saying it's using IDFA.

I checked Packages and can see the Advertisement package is installed. I suspect this might be a behavior change between Unity 2018.1 (not installed by default) and 2018.3 (installed by default).

@mikaisomaa Can you confirm if this behavior change is by design? If not, this is a regression that should be fixed. A lot of developers are impacted by this. See this other form thread: https://forum.unity.com/threads/solved-ios-app-store-submit-and-idfa.601270/

Meanwhile, I'm going to remove the Advertisement package, build a new version and see how the submission goes with the new build.

 

Hello,
I have the same problem. I never used advertising and never enabled it, but after submitting package to iTunes connect, I see mentioned error message.
Is there some solution?
I am using Unity 2018.3.
Thank You,
Tomas

 

I found solution of current state. In Unity is possible to remove Ads package completely.
Window -> Package manager -> Advertisement -> Uninstall
After is no problem with publishing to iTunes Connect.
T.