App rejected because the reviewer could not sign in
If any part of your app is behind a login, App Review needs an account that works. The credentials go in the App Review information section in App Store Connect, and they have to still work at the moment the reviewer tries them, which is not the moment you typed them.
Why it matters
This is among the most common rejections and among the easiest to prevent. The reviewer cannot evaluate what they cannot reach, so an app whose functionality is behind a sign-in wall with no credentials is rejected without much further analysis.
Demo accounts break in ordinary ways between submission and review: a password rotation, an expired trial, a seeded database reset, a rate limit, or an account cleanup job that removes inactive users.
Two-factor authentication on the demo account is its own trap. A reviewer cannot receive your SMS, so an account with 2FA enforced is an account they cannot use.
The same applies to anything else gating the app: a required backend environment, a geographic restriction, or an invite code. If it stands between the reviewer and the app, it belongs in the notes.
How to fix it
- Create a demo account that exists specifically for App Review and is exempt from cleanup jobs and trial expiry.
- Put the username and password in App Review information in App Store Connect, and check them by signing in yourself, on a fresh device, immediately before you submit.
- Disable two-factor authentication for that account, or provide a path the reviewer can complete alone.
- Add notes for anything else needed to reach the main functionality, including a walkthrough if the path is not obvious.
The guidelines behind it
Read from Apple’s App Review Guidelines as last updated October 16, 2026.
What ReviewAhead checks
Reviewer access to gated content. Content behind a login needs working demo credentials for App Review.
- Whether the app has content behind a login, from your answer and from what the project suggests.
- Whether demo credentials will be supplied.
- Reads whether a demo account is required and whether one is filled in from App Store Connect when your account is linked, rather than asking.
Apple’s own documentation for this requirement: developer.apple.com. Where this page and Apple disagree, Apple is right and this page is a bug.