Articles on: Integrations

Linking Your App Store Connect Account

Appfigures connects to your App Store Connect account directly and securely using advanced encryption and collects everything you need to track downloads and revenue for your apps, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and more.


Table of Contents:


Linking your App Store Connect account will enable you to track the following with Appfigures:


  • App downloads and revenue
  • In-App Purchase downloads and revenue
  • Subscriptions revenue, MRR, Churn, and more
  • App usage
  • Apple Search Ads campaign spend and performance
  • Monthly payment reports from Apple
  • Hourly ranks
  • Ratings
  • Reviews
  • Featured placements



Linking Your App Store Connect Account to Appfigures


Note: Managing linked accounts requires the Admin or Owner role. If you are a viewer, please share this article with a team member who has the required role.


  1. Log in to your Appfigures Account
  2. Click on your avatar (top right corner) and then on "My profile"
  3. Go to Linked Accounts
  4. Click on "Link an Account"
  5. Select App Store Connect from the list of providers
  6. Enter the email address and app-specific password for your App Store Connect account
  7. Click on "Add"


We support several different combinations of permissions


Appfigures will now verify your information and connect your account. The initial sync may take some time, depending on how much historical data is available.



Creating an app-specific password for App Store Connect


To restrict access to only sales data, we recommend creating a separate App Store Connect account with limited permissions and using it instead of your main App Store Connect account.


Important: To enable an app-specific password with Apple you first need to have enabled 2FA within App Store Connect.


  1. Log into your Apple ID management page (not App Store Connect)
  2. Click into the “App Specific Passwords" section.



  1. Click on "Generate an app-specific password" in the popup that opened



  1. Enter "Appfigures" as the label for this app-specific password and click on "Create".



  1. Confirm your password when prompted.



  1. The next popup will have your app-specific password.



This is the only time Apple will show you the password. Make sure to enter it into your Appfigures account and save/update the linked account to make sure it worked before closing the popup.


Once the app-specific password has been created, head back into your Appfigures account and into My Profile → Linked Accounts → Link an Account to connect the account.



Creating a sub-user in App Store Connect and Permissions Required


  1. Log in to your App Store Connect
  2. Click on Users and Access
  3. Click the + button at the top of the page.
  4. Set the First Name and Last Name fields to to Appfigures and Analytics
  5. Set the email field to an email that isn't your main email but you have access to.
  6. Select the following permissions from the list: Finance and Customer Support (to reply to reviews in Appfigures).
  7. Click Invite.


The permissions will look something like this:



  1. Apple will send an email to the address you provided. Follow the instructions in the email to complete the setup.
  2. Once the subaccount is created, follow the steps outlined above, "Creating an App-Specific Password with Apple".


When creating a new subaccount Apple will take about 24 to 48 hours to fully generate a new Apple ID + permissions. Downloadable reports will be available once that's completed on Apple's end and importing sales reports will begin once those are detected.



Connecting Your Apple Ads (formerly Apple Search Ads) Account to Appfigures


In order to track your ad spend metrics from Apple Search Ads, Appfigures will need to have access to your Search Ads account.


To enable access to Search Ads, you'll need to link your Apple Search Ads account to your App Store Connect sub-user. Luckily, Apple made that very easy, and with read-only access, it is secure.


  1. Start by logging into your Apple Ads account.
  2. Select your Basic or Advanced account. If you use both, select Advanced. You only need to do this once and both will work.
  3. Click on your name at the top of the page, and then on Settings next to your company name.
  4. Navigate into the User Management tab.
  5. Click the Invite Users button, and enter the email of the App Store Connect account that's linked to your Appfigures account.
  6. For role, select Account Read Only.
  7. Send the invitation, then check your email to accept the invitation.
  8. After accepting the invitation, enter the code Apple provided in the invitation email to complete the signup process.


Important: Make sure you enter the code after clicking the link in the invitation email. Otherwise, we will not be able to sync any data.


You can run a manual sync by going into Linked Accounts → Sync, to kick off a sync, selecting the newly linked account, unchecking all data sets except for Search Ads, and clicking the Sync button.


Sync Messages


When you link an App Store Connect account to Appfigures, we first log in to verify that the connection works and that the account has the necessary permissions to import your reports.


Understanding each sync message:


Your App Store Connect account is not fully provisioned → Apple can take 24 - 48 hours to fully process new sub-user accounts. While you will be able to log into your App Store Connect account, the raw reports have not been generated by Apple. You can check this on your end by logging into App Store Connect > Sales and Trends > Sales and Trends Reports (below 'SAVED' on the left hand side menu). Here you will see a message about a pending Apple ID.


There’s nothing you need to do in this case. Once the account is linked, Appfigures will automatically monitor it and begin importing data as soon as Apple finishes setting it up. If your linked account has been in this state for more than 48 hours reach out to support > contact us


Apple's Limited Retention Policy


App Store Connect has a limited retention policy when it comes to sales reports.


While Apple's retention policy originally started off with seven days of daily reports, that's now grown to the last 365 days of daily reports.


Apple's current retention policy:


  • Daily - last 365 days
  • Weekly - 52 weeks
  • Monthly - last 12 months
  • Yearly - all time


FYI - we never delete any reports from your account, so going forward you will always have access to all of your reports inside your Archive, even when the raw reports are no longer available in your App Store Connect account.


Depending on when your app was released, and when you initially link your App Store Connect account, this limited retention policy can cause a difference between Net Downloads and All Net Downloads.


When looking at App Downloads this number is specifically based off the imported reports for the selected granularity and date range. Selecting the daily granularity for 2022 would provide the Net Downloads number directly form the daily reports from Jan. 1st, 2022 to today.


All App Downloads take into account all granularities (daily/weekly/monthly/yearly) to provide an accurate all time total. If your app was available prior to the daily report start date, the downloads will still be included based on the yearly reports.



Noteworthy


App Store Connect has a limited retention policy when it comes to sales reports. When linking an account for the first time, Appfigures will import reports within Apple's retention policy: a full year of daily, weekly, and monthly reports, and the lifetime of yearly reports. More information on Apple's retention policy can be found here.


Q: What role should I assign my Subaccount in App Store Connect?


A: App Store Connect offers granular roles so sub-accounts don't have more access than they need to. Appfigures supports several options, and here's what you need to get the proper access:


To get downloads & revenue data you'll need the Finance role. This is the recommended role, and provides access to all reports and data granularities.


Alternatively, you can provide a more limited sub-account that will only have access to downloads and revenue, but not financial reports or payment information by selecting

both Sales and Reports roles.


For replying to reviews add the Customer Support role.


Note: Role changes in App Store Connect may take several hours to reflect.

Updated on: 04/12/2025