Goal

You clicked Publish to App Store or Publish to Google Play, and now the Publish status card says the submission is taking longer than expected. Here’s what that message means, why it shows up, and what to do next — including when it’s worth reaching out to support for an update.

Take a breath: this isn’t an error. Your submission hasn’t failed. The message is just a time-based nudge — a heads-up that more time has passed than usual, not a sign that anything’s broken.

Prerequisites

• You are a site Admin (you can see Mobile App Mgr → Publish App).
• You have already clicked Publish for at least one store. The status messages described here only appear after a submission has been requested.

What the status messages mean

Once you request a publish, the Publish status card shows one row per store (App Store and/or Google Play), each with a submission in progress title and a description that changes as time goes by. That description is driven by one thing only: how long it’s been since you clicked Publish.

Every row also reminds you that builds run Monday–Friday, 6 AM–6 PM Central. That’s the most common reason a submission runs past the 20–30 minute baseline — it landed outside that window (overnight, over a weekend, or on a holiday) and is simply waiting for the next build window to open.

So if you submitted on a Friday evening, don’t be surprised to see the “taking longer than expected” wording over the weekend — the build queue just hasn’t run yet. The message tracks plain elapsed time; it doesn’t subtract weekends or after-hours from the clock.

Steps

1. Open the Publish status card. Go to Mobile App Mgr → Publish App. Find the row for the store you submitted to (App Store or Google Play).

2. Check the elapsed time. The row tells you roughly how long ago you submitted (“Submitted X ago”). Compare that against the build window — Monday–Friday, 6 AM–6 PM Central.

3. If you submitted outside the build window, wait for the next window. If your submission fell on an evening, weekend, or holiday, the “taking longer than expected” wording can show up simply because more than a day of clock time has gone by. Give it until the next weekday build window before treating it as stuck — the card updates on its own once the upload completes, so there’s no need to resubmit.

4. Do not click Publish again just to “retry.” Resubmitting resets the timer and adds another item to the build queue, so it won’t speed anything up. Only resubmit if you’ve intentionally changed your app and want to push a new update.

5. If it has been more than a full business day inside the build window, contact support. Once a submission has genuinely sat past the build window with no update, use the contact support link in the status row (it opens the WPMAM support page) or reach out through your usual support channel. Let them know which store you published to and roughly when you clicked Publish, so the team can look up the build quickly.

What to include when you contact support

To get the fastest answer, include:

• Which store — App Store, Google Play, or both.
• Approximately when you clicked Publish — the row’s “Submitted X ago” text is enough.
• Whether anything changed since your last successful publish (new app icon, new settings, a renamed item, etc.).

When this is not a problem

• You submitted recently and it’s still inside business hours. Give it the 20–30 minute baseline before you start worrying.
• You submitted overnight or over a weekend. The queue only runs during weekday business hours — the message is just reflecting clock time, not a failure.
• The row flips to “published.” Once the build completes and the team marks it live, the row changes to a “Live on the App Store / Google Play” message with a Publish another update button — and at that point, you’re done.

Related

• Publishing your app to the App Store and Google Play (how-to)
• Understanding the Publish status card (explanation)
• Developer account connection — invite verification (troubleshooting)