Rehearse the App Review login on a phone nobody on your team uses

Imagine shipping an expense app. The review username and password work. The dashboard opens. Every report is empty, and the Export button appears only after a manager approves a receipt. The reviewer can sign in and still cannot reach the feature described in your submission.

Apple asks for full review access, including an active demo account or a fully featured demo mode where applicable, plus resources needed to exercise the app. Its completeness guidance also calls out working backend services and on-device testing. App Review Guidelines, Before You Submit and section 2.1

Hand off the notes and leave the room

Give a teammate who did not build the feature the exact candidate build and a fresh device or clean install. Give them only the information you intend to supply in App Store Connect. Have them start on cellular or an ordinary external Wi-Fi connection. A company VPN, an existing login or a cached workspace can conceal a missing prerequisite.

Ask for one outcome: “Export an approved expense report and open the resulting file.” Record the first step where they need to ask a question. If they reach an empty workspace, the fix is seeded sample data. If they know what to tap but it says Forbidden, inspect the demo role. If they never receive a one-time code, the authentication path needs work. Adding three paragraphs to the notes fixes none of those problems.

Write the path as something a stranger can repeat

Here is a sample note for that fictional expense app:

Sign in with the review account in the credentials fields. Open the Sample Studio workspace. Under Expenses, open October travel, which contains an approved sample receipt. Tap Export PDF. The preview should show a one-page report with the receipt total. The workspace contains synthetic expenses and can be reused after export.

Put review credentials in Apple’s designated submission fields. Use synthetic records that make the feature visible without exposing customer data. If your app requires unusual hardware or another resource, spell out the dependency and follow Apple’s instructions for supplying access. Apple’s submission overview

Before submitting, rehearse these notes with the Apple Reviewer AI mentor ↗. Describe the prerequisites and expected export, and leave credentials in Apple’s designated fields. The rehearsal is a diagnostic, not an approval guarantee.

Once the feature is reachable, check that the submitted screenshots show the app in use. A working review account and accurate store assets answer separate review questions.

Test it twice

Repeat the instructions with the same review account after the first successful run. Did exporting consume the only sample, mark a one-time tutorial complete, exhaust a trial credit or invalidate a link? A path that works once can fail when another reviewer or a later submission uses it. Prefer a repeatable operation or provide a clear reset inside the sample workspace.

Keep the account and required services available through review. When the build changes, rerun the path against that build and update any renamed buttons. The acceptance check is modest and concrete: someone outside the feature team can reach the promised result twice without contacting its author.