App Store Connect will be closed for business December 23-27

iPad app Store (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

App Store Connect will be closed December 23-27.
That means developers won't be able to submit new or updated apps.

As is the way every year Apple has confirmed when App Store Connect will close for business this holiday season. This year that's December 23-27.

During this time developers will not be able to submit new apps – or updates to existing ones – for App Store approval. And that can always be a scary time for developers.

The busiest season on the App Store is almost here. Make sure your apps are up to date and ready for the holidays. New apps and app updates will not be accepted December 23 to 27 (Pacific Time), so any releases should be scheduled, submitted, and approved in advance. Other App Store Connect and developer account features will remain available.

Developers now have their annual dilemma. They can either push new updates out in the coming days in the hope that no new bugs arise, leaving them wtih little time to fix them before December 23. Or they can hold off until after the holiday period and miss out on getting new features into the hands of those receiving iPhones and iPads over the Christmas period.

Neither of those options sounds like a fun one to choose.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.