How do I check where my app is using IDFA

Joshua Moore picture Joshua Moore · Aug 3, 2015 · Viewed 24.4k times · Source

While submitting my app to the App Store, I got this message: "Your app is using the Advertising Identifier (IDFA). You must either provide details about the IDFA usage or remove it from the app and submit your binary again."

I am no longer displaying ads so I said that I was not using the IDFA when I was asked. I also tried submitting the app by saying that I was using the IDFA to display targeted ads.

When I WAS displaying ads, I was using MoPub and Facebook Audience Network. Is there a way to see where I was using the IDFA?

Answer

Rumin picture Rumin · Aug 3, 2015

In order to check Advertising Identifier, you need to follow the following steps:

  1. Open the terminal window. Run the following command:

    cd (drag and drop your project folder here) Your_Project_Path
    

    Now, the current working directory will be your project folder.

  2. Find all the SDK that uses "Advertising Identifier" using following commands:

    find . | grep -v .svn | grep "\.a" | grep -v "\.app" | xargs grep advertisingIdentifier
    

    or

    find . -type f | grep "\.a" | grep -v "\.app" | xargs grep advertisingIdentifier
    

    and / or

    grep -lr "advertisingIdentifier" * | grep -v .svn | grep -v .md
    
  3. After getting the list of frameworks, search for the frameworks that MATCHES the query. Remove/ Upgrade those frameworks as per your requirement.