Guideline 2.1(a) on iPad: buttons overlap or fall off the screen
Your app opened, but on the reviewer's iPad one control sat on top of another, or the last button was out of reach. Apple may send nothing but a screenshot.
Apple's words
“We will reject incomplete app bundles and binaries that crash or exhibit obvious technical problems.”
“iPhone apps should run on iPad whenever possible.”
“Users expect the app to function on all the devices where it's available.”
What it means
On an iPad, your iPhone app runs in compatibility mode, in an iPhone-shaped window. That window doesn't match your test phone, so a layout that fits can break.
The usual victim is a button pinned to the bottom of a screen that can't scroll. It ends up over a text field, and the reviewer is stuck on that step.
Taking iPad out of your settings won't take the app off iPad. Apple: “Adding or removing iPad as a supported destination in Xcode won't change that app's availability on iPad.”
Nor should you block iPad another way: Apple reserves the iPhone-only hardware setting for “genuine hardware dependencies, not to indicate distribution preferences.”
What caused it for us
1 rejection, 1 of our apps. An onboarding screen had a button fixed to its bottom edge, and in the iPad window that button sat over the content above it.
Apple's screenshot was all the evidence the message carried.
From about 20 of our own rejections across 8 apps. A guide to what to check first, not a rate for everyone.
What to check first
- Find the screen in Apple's screenshot and name the control that covers something.
- Look for a bottom button over content that can't scroll. That was our cause.
- Open the same screen on the smallest iPhone you have. A short screen often shows the same overlap.
- Try it again with the keyboard open and with larger text switched on. Both take room.
- Check every other screen with a bottom button: onboarding, sign-in and the paywall.
Kept for the paid guide
These three parts are in the paid guide only:
- The exact App Store Connect clicks. The clicks from Apple's message and its screenshot to a resubmission with a note for the reviewer.
- The prompt to paste into your AI builder. A prompt that has your builder reproduce the overlap on an iPad simulator and fix it without dropping iPad support.
- The reply to Apple. A reply that names the screen, the fix and the devices you checked it on.