Extended Developer Center Outage May Be Causing App Review Delays [Updated]

As Apple continues to bring its Developer Center back online after a week-long outage, the company is sending out emails to developers noting a potential delay for app reviews. ReadWrite has posted one of the letters being received by developers:

"We are currently reviewing an app that you submitted for inclusion on the App Store, and want to let you know that the review process will require additional time. We apologize for the delay and will provide you with an update on the status of your app as soon as possible."

Such letters are not uncommon, of course, but given the amount of time that the Developer Center was offline, it makes sense that Apple would have a backlog of reviews to work through. While app updates were available, new apps were not able to be submitted to Apple during the outage.

According to one developer, he received the email after waiting six days for a review and after waiting another five days, his app has yet to be approved. It is unknown, however, whether or not there is a secondary issue with his app, as other developers have had apps approved at a more rapid pace.

Apple’s Developer Center first went offline on Thursday, July 18, and several days later, Apple announced that the outage was the result of a security breach. While a security researcher suggested that he might be the reason behind the outage, it remains unclear what caused the extended downtime.

Late last week, Apple outlined a plan for bringing the site back online, and began restoring systems on Friday. While the majority of Developer Center functions are now up and running, the Member Center, Forums, Videos, and Technical Support remain offline.

Update: According to the forums, many developers are currently seeing no delays at all with the app review process, especially for app updates.