Android In App purchases not syncing immediately across multiple devices

Question

I purchased an item on one device. Then I go to the other device, launch the App, but the item's purchase information is still not available for use on the second device (iabhelper does not return the item when you query the inventory). Attempting to purchase just shows the "Already owned" dialog. (I could possibly use this as a point to go ahead and download the item, but feels weird...)

The only solution that works so far is if I restart the device, then I immediately see the Download option in my UI (instead of Buy), since Iabhelper then returns the correct info)

Anybody else face this issue? Is there a workaround which makes it seamless to the user?

Answer 1

I am not 100% sure but Google Play Services are most probably using their data storage, which has eventual consistency, and that means that not everything is synchronized right away. Just a guess. You can try clearing the Google play services cache, but I'm guessing that it is as annoying as restarting the device.