Download spike from 'institutional… | Apple Developer Forums

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Hi.

Would welcome any comments or info on a spike in app download volumes we've observed!

We are puzzled by an unusual spike in download volumes, driven by institutional purchases with a BUS promo code. Downloads are to desktop, which is also unusual for us.

Having looked into the sales reports etc there is no obvious source / instigator of the downloads, and we aren't seeing an uptick in app usage, registrations etc. Which is making us wonder if the downloads are 'real' or benign. Have read Apple help info and Apple support have given a fairly generic response - neither sheds a huge amount of light.

Has anyone come across similar? Would really appreciate if you could share your experience.

Thanks in advance, Paul

App Store

1.0.0k

Posted by

PGrosvenor

Reply

Hi Paul,

We have this same issue, too! We are so confused by these unusual download volumes as well. Waiting for someone could share his/her experience.

—
Sissie
Thanks Sissie!

Is it an ongoing issue for you, or just a one-off? We are wondering if we are going to keep seeing this time and again ...

Thanks, Paul

—
PGrosvenor
Adding to the list of issues - we received a huge spike in downloads as well. All coming from a desktop in the US. Can someone explain the issue, please?

—
navin_

Replies

Hi ,

Same behavior here... My app gets about a thousand downloads per day. On Dec 28th, there were suddently 90.000 downloads from "Institutional Purchases". See screenshot. It didn't see any abnormal change in the analytics though... What is this? Screen Shot 2021-12-29 at 18.57.37.png

Posted by

cujo30227

We see the same thing with one of our client's apps. Random large spikes in Institutional Purchase installs but zero app activity from those installs. They seem to be benign but we have requested information from Apple about where they might be coming from so we can confirm but Apple says they can't provide any information. :-/ For now, we just subtract the Institutional Purchase installs from total installs but it is a pain.

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LaurenH

Hi Paul! The BUS promo code in Sales and Trends reports indicates a volume purchase for business transaction through Apple Business Manager. When your app is public, your app will be publicly available on the App Store in the territories you selected and available to anyone for volume purchase through Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.

Posted by

Apple Staff

Hi Apple Staff,

I see the same thing for my app, an unusual institutional purchase spike. The thing is that these are not real downloads and it really messes up our data (25K fake downloads compared to <1K real downloads). Is there any way to ignore such purchases in the reports (and I don't mean manually filter them out, as it is)? Or block them?

Thanks Naama

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Naama
Hi Apple staff, is there a way to know who these organizations are?

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milkyway1996

Yes! us as well , we averaged 10-20 downloads per day then over a couple of days in October 2021 we had 2000 and then 100000 downloads on 2 separate days.

Ours is a free app and I could see on connect it was an "Institutional purchase" originating from my country. Support gave me a generic answer when I asked them as well.

Our app is aimed at a fairly niche market so if an organization had our app installed on 102K devices we would know about it due to how close we work with our market.

Posted by

Jimpy

This has happened to me as well, normally ~1400/day, one day BUS "purchases" 20,000 copies of our free app.

Is there any concern here? Seems like a scam of sorts

Posted by

hugey

Hi Paul!

I'm seeing a lot of units as institutional purchase as well, but I can't see if and what kind of promo code was used. How can I check that? Thanks

Posted by

MarinaRoglic

We also have a free app that had 10,000 downloads coming from Desktop and "Institutional purchase". Any updates on this?

Posted by

MannyCosta

+1, can someone assist?

Posted by

mchitra

@Apple Staff

Can we please get an update on this? I just experienced the same thing. We are a free app and we received a huge amount of installs on desktop from "Institutional purchase". These installs are NOT in our database. Please correct.

Posted by

chrisjrocha

This is a scam IMHO. A rival will buy installs of your app for a chosen keyword to destroy your benchmarks. In turn this will affect your ranking in the store and future success. My app appears to be ruined by these practices. It used to be #1 for it's keyword in most countries, and now it can't even rise above a 3 star app (see pic).

My retention dropped from around 30% to 1/2 a %, because the downloads aren't real.

Posted by

JeremyWaldorf

Did your retention take a hit?

Posted by

JeremyWaldorf

We've seen a rash of spam 5 star (non-sensical) and bad reviews shortly after 50,000 institutional downloads. I suspect a competitor downloads, creates fake accounts, then writes spam 5 star reviews and with time changes them to 1 star detailed bad reviews as they get hidden lower in results. Has anyone encountered this? We'd like to get to the bottom of what's going on.

ios spam reviews.png

Posted by

mobileproduct900

Those obviously fake 5 star reviews can get you in to serious trouble with Apple. Be sure to report them vcia "report a fraud" in AppStoreConnect. What kind of institution downloads 50,000 apps? I would block "institutional" purchase if I could.

Posted by

JeremyWaldorf

HI! We've experienced the same spike by 10k downloads from institutional purchases. Is there new info about where are they coming from or this is just fake data?

Posted by

pvn

Just vacuous, generic response from Apple (no offence Apple peeps!), what are we meant to do with this?

"Hi Paul! The BUS promo code in Sales and Trends reports indicates a volume purchase for business transaction through Apple Business Manager. When your app is public, your app will be publicly available on the App Store in the territories you selected and available to anyone for volume purchase through Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager."

Posted by

PGrosvenor

Same issue, both BUS and EDU bulk downloads in round numbers, various countries, not always the same. Would really like to better understand why, how and how to filter.

Posted by

DDuke