What does App Store guideline 5.1.1(v) require?

If your app supports account creation, you must also offer account deletion within the app. Account deactivation or disabling does not satisfy the requirement.

Does offering account deletion by email satisfy 5.1.1(v)?

No. Apple states that directing users to contact support by phone or email only, or redirecting to a website in Safari to sign in, does not meet the requirement. Deletion must be initiated from within the app.

Guideline 5.1.1(v): account deletion

Updated September 4, 2026 · quoted from Apple's own documentation

The rule is one sentence. From the App Store Review Guidelines: "If your app supports account creation, you must also offer account deletion within the app."

What fails: deactivation instead of deletion · a support email or phone number as the only route · sending the user to Safari to sign in and delete there · deleting only for users in certain jurisdictions. In force since June 30, 2022.

The four ways teams get rejected

Deactivate, not delete. A "disable my account" flow that preserves the record is not deletion. Apple treats these as distinct.
Out-of-app deletion. A link that opens Safari and asks the user to sign in again does not count. The flow must start and be completable in the app.
Region-gated deletion. Shipping deletion only to users covered by GDPR or CCPA does not satisfy Apple. The requirement applies to all users.
Sign in with Apple without token revocation. The one that catches experienced teams — see below.

The Sign in with Apple step almost everyone misses

If your app offers Sign in with Apple, deleting the local user record is not sufficient. Apple requires that you also revoke the user's tokens through the Revoke Tokens REST API. This is a server-side call, so it is invisible in the client codebase — which is exactly why it gets shipped without it. A reviewer testing deletion on a Sign in with Apple account will find the credential still linked.

This hits React Native and Expo apps disproportionately, because Sign in with Apple is often added via a library that handles authentication but not revocation.

Auto-generated and guest accounts count

Apple's guidance on offering account deletion covers accounts created automatically for the user. If your app silently provisions an identity on first launch — common in RN apps that create an anonymous record to sync state — that is an account, and it needs a deletion path.

Subscriptions

If the account has an auto-renewable subscription, Apple expects the deletion flow to tell the user that deleting the account does not cancel the subscription, and to link to https://apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions so they can manage it.

What a passing implementation looks like

Deletion reachable from within the app, in settings or the account screen, without leaving for Safari
Actual deletion of the account record, not a disabled flag
Server-side token revocation for Sign in with Apple
Available to every user in every region
Subscription notice and management link where relevant

Verify against Apple before you act. Every guideline quotation here is linked to Apple's own page. The guidelines are a living document that Apple changes without notice — read the source, don't trust a cached copy.

Cite this page

shipcheck. "Guideline 5.1.1(v): account deletion." Baker Ventures LLC, September 4, 2026. https://shipcheck.bakerventuresstudio.com/rejections/guideline-5-1-1-v-account-deletion

Sources