Question

I have heard some rumours that Apple is rejecting apps for using the iOS5 deprecated method [UIDevice uniqueIdentifier]. Can anyone confirm that they have had their App rejected for this reason? I know of the alternatives to using this deprecated method, but one of our customers is requesting we use a 3rd party library that we know uses this method.

I would be surprised if this is the case as the API method has been deprecated and not made private.

Answer 1

Apple is not rejecting apps because of this. I collect device UDIDs along with tokens within my apps that support push notifications and they have all been approved. UDIDs are simply deprecated, meaning that Apple will eventually not allow you to access them. Everything still works and will be approved.

I heard that Apple deprecated access to UDIDs to prevent developers and third party analysts from being able to identify specific people. If it truly was because of issues with iCloud, Apple would clearly have fixed this instead of inconveniencing everyone else.

Edit: It looks like Apple is rejecting some apps for accessing the device’s UDID. Just to be safe, I would use CFUUID to create a random unique identifier. You can use NSUserDefaults or the keychain to save it. The advantage to the keychain is that if the user deletes your app, the keychain items are not deleted so you can still access the UDID if the user reinstalls your app. It will only get deleted if the user restores their device.