ios app store rejection - Your app uses the “prefs:root=” non-public URL scheme

Question

I recently uploaded a new version of my app to itunes connect. My app got rejected with this note

Your app uses the "prefs:root=" non-public URL scheme

I am almost sure that I don't use any Url scheme on my app I have tried finding prefs:root using grep -R in my entire project through terminal (case insensitive to be able to also match App-Prefs or whatever.

I also use a lot of cocoapods libraries so... my question is ... Is there a way to find out which library is using that permission?

Screenshot of search results on xcode

Frameworks used on my project:

• AmazonFling
• many others from CocoaPods (not listed because irrelevant: see my answer)

Answer 1

I faced the same rejection form Apple and to open app settings i was using the below code and it's not accepted on iOS11.

let url = URL(string : "prefs:root=")
if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url!) {
    UIApplication.shared.openURL(url!)
 }

So, to open Settings, I used the below code and App was approved.

guard let settingsUrl = URL(string: UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString) else {
    return
  }
  if UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(settingsUrl)  {
    if #available(iOS 10.0, *) {
      UIApplication.shared.open(settingsUrl, completionHandler: { (success) in
      })
    }
    else  {
      UIApplication.shared.openURL(settingsUrl)
    }
  }

Answer 2

I had the same problem and I resolved it as following:-

Step 1:- Search for the Prefs:root in your app then you will find something as follows:-

 if let url = URL(string: "App-Prefs:root=Privacy&path=LOCATION") {
 // If general location settings are disabled then open general location settings
    UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
 }

Step 2:- Change the above code section with the following one:-

 if let url = URL(string:UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString) 
 {
    UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
 }

Now rebuild your app and resubmit to the App Store with no worries :)

Answer 3

I faced the same issue. "prefs:root=" url scheme is not accepted by iOS 11. Using the UIApplicationOpenSettingsURLString value fixed it.

Reference Image

Answer 4

if you need to find with the 'prefs:root is:

Go to your project's target -> then Info -> then URL Types, there you should find URL Schemes with value like 'prefs' or 'prefs:root'

Answer 5

At the end the one with the issues was AmazonFling that was not listed on the pods because was installed using another method. See the forums post about it: https://forums.developer.amazon.com/questions/167282/apple-app-rejected-because-of-non-public-apis-refe.html

AmazonFling does not have update yet (as of Apr 27, 2018) so I removed it until they update it.

---

Fixed in AmazonFling 1.3.2, released on the same day. See https://developer.amazon.com/fr/docs/fling/release-notes.html

Answer 6

We also faced the same issue and resolved it by this:

if let url = URL(string:UIApplication.openSettingsURLString)

    {
        UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler: nil)
    }

Answer 7

To find out which library is using that permission, you can use this command in terminal

strings <file path> | grep 'prefs:root'

to search in dependencies compiled files, if you have no luck with search in Xcode.