In September 2022 Apple removed MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 from the App Store. The apps stayed off the store for roughly six months and returned in March 2023. For that stretch, an iPhone user who did not already have MetaTrader installed could not download it, could not reinstall it after deleting it, and could not set it up on a new phone. Existing installs on phones that already had the app kept working. New ones did not.
This is a look at what actually happened during that removal, why it mattered more to brokers than the headlines suggested at the time, and the structural lesson it leaves for any firm whose trading terminal lives inside someone else's app store.
What happened, in sequence
MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 disappeared from Apple's App Store in September 2022. The apps returned in March 2023. During the gap, brokers running MetaTrader had no way to get new iPhone clients onto the platform through the normal channel, and clients who switched phones or reset an existing one during that window were also affected. Traders on Android, on desktop and on the existing installs already on iPhones were not directly blocked. The exposure was specific to new installs on iOS.
Neither MetaQuotes nor Apple controlled the other's decision here, and the removal was Apple's action against an app already published under MetaQuotes' developer account, not something individual brokers had any part in or could appeal directly. That is worth stating plainly because it is the core of the lesson: brokers running MetaTrader had zero say in a decision that affected their ability to onboard clients.
Why it mattered to brokers
Most brokers running MetaTrader do not publish their own app under their own name. That is the standard industry setup: a trader installs the MetaTrader app once and picks a broker's server inside it, the way a cTrader user picks a broker inside the cTrader app. It works well in ordinary conditions because it means brokers do not need their own Apple developer account, do not file the financial app declarations app stores require, and do not wait on app review for every update. The trade-off surfaced only when Apple removed the shared app: every broker relying on that one app, regardless of size or reputation, lost the same onboarding channel at the same time, for a decision none of them made and none of them could individually fix.
A broker with its own separately published app would have been unaffected by that specific removal, though it would carry the ordinary costs of running its own app: its own developer account, its own compliance filings for a financial app, and its own review queue for every update. Most brokers judge that trade-off is not worth it under normal conditions, which is a reasonable call. The 2022 removal is the scenario where that calculation briefly flips.
The structural lesson
Most brokers do not publish their own app, so most brokers were exposed to a single point of failure they did not control and could not mitigate on their own timeline. That is true regardless of how good MetaTrader is as a platform, and it is not really a MetaTrader-specific criticism. Any platform distributed as one shared app across every broker using it carries the same exposure: if the app is pulled from a major app store, every broker on it loses that onboarding channel simultaneously, with no individual recourse.
It is fair to name this plainly for eTrader too, rather than pretend the model is different. eTrader is also one app, listed under eTrader's own name, with every firm shown inside it under its own server and logo rather than as a separately published app. If eTrader itself were ever removed from an app store, firms running only eTrader would face the same kind of exposure MetaTrader brokers faced in 2022: no individual control over the removal, and no ability to fix it faster than the platform vendor does. That is a genuine trade-off of the shared-app model, the same one MetaTrader, cTrader and every other platform that works this way carries, and it should be weighed honestly rather than talked around.
What actually reduces this exposure
The mitigation is not "publish your own app," which most firms correctly decide is not worth the ongoing cost. The mitigation is the same one that applies to platform vendor risk generally: do not let your entire client onboarding depend on a single distribution channel you do not control. A browser-based terminal that works without an app store removes this specific failure mode entirely, since a removal from an app store cannot block access to a web page. A firm running a second platform, or a platform that also offers full functionality in a browser, has a fallback that a firm relying purely on one app store listing does not.
eTrader's answer to this specific gap is the browser terminal: eTrader Web is a full trading terminal in any browser, on the same account as the native apps, so a client can still trade if a native app listing were ever unavailable on a given store. That does not make eTrader immune to the broader point above. It narrows one specific failure mode without pretending the underlying exposure disappears.
What to check before depending on any platform's app
Ask whether the platform offers a working browser terminal as a genuine fallback, not a stripped-down version missing core order types. Ask what happened, concretely, the last time that platform had an app store issue, and how long it took to resolve. Ask whether your own CRM can move client accounts to a different platform if one becomes unavailable, which is the same portability question that the 2024 licensing changes raised in a different form. None of these questions have a single right answer, but a firm that has not asked them has not actually assessed its exposure.
"Most brokers don't publish their own app, which is normally the right call. The 2022 removal is the one scenario where that shared reliance becomes visible, and it is a trade-off every shared-app platform carries, including ours."
— The SGHK Team
Key Takeaways
- Apple removed MetaTrader 4 and 5 from the App Store in September 2022 and restored them in March 2023, blocking new iOS installs for that stretch.
- Because most brokers do not publish their own app, they were exposed to a single point of failure they had no part in causing and could not fix on their own.
- Any platform run as one shared app across every firm using it, eTrader included, carries the same structural exposure if that app were ever removed.
- A working browser terminal, not tied to any app store, narrows this specific failure mode without removing the underlying trade-off.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long was MetaTrader unavailable on the App Store?
Apple removed MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 from the App Store in September 2022, and the apps returned in March 2023, roughly six months later.
Were all MetaTrader users affected equally?
No. Traders who already had the app installed on an iPhone kept using it. The removal blocked new installs, so it affected new iOS clients, clients who deleted and tried to reinstall the app, and clients setting up a new phone during that window.
Could brokers have prevented this?
Not individually. Most brokers use the shared MetaTrader app rather than publishing their own, which is the standard industry setup and normally the sensible choice. The removal was a decision between Apple and MetaQuotes, and brokers running MetaTrader had no direct say in it.
Is eTrader exposed to the same risk?
Structurally, yes. eTrader is also one shared app rather than a separately published app per firm, so a removal from an app store would affect every firm on eTrader at once, the same exposure MetaTrader brokers faced in 2022. eTrader Web, a full terminal in any browser on the same account, gives clients a way to keep trading if a native app listing were ever affected.
About SGHK
SGHK is a FinTech company that designs and builds its own software for the trading industry: the eTrader trading platform, Launch your Broker and Launch your Prop Firm. Every product is written, hosted and supported in-house and licensed to trading firms, with the CRMs branded to them, all hosted by us in the cloud, managed by each firm and built to scale across clustered servers as our clients grow. Everything is encrypted, and each firm is the only one with access to its data and its clients' data.