How to test renewable subscriptions (App Store)

Question

I'm implementing auto renewable subscriptions in my app and I wonder if there is a way to simulate when a subscription period runs out and a new transaction is created.

The app is connected to a online service that always keeps track of the users and if they have "premium access" or not. As understand i, there are two ways to detect when a transaction is made.

1. The app is launched and updatedTransactions: is called in my PaymentObserver as a SKPaymentTransactionStateRestored. I then, from the app, send this information to the server which updates the subscription.

2. I regularly check the App Store API and compare the "latest receipt" with the one in my database. If there is a new one, a transaction has been made and I extend the subscription.

Either way, I need to simulate that the subscription period runs out and a new transaction is made by the App Store. How do I do this?

Answer 1

Are you sure you need to simulate this? I think you'll find that in the sandbox, the subscription lengths are made very short so that all you have to do is get a cup of coffee or something and they will expire and then you can test what happens.

the amount of time varies depending on the length of the subscription, but I think the 7 day subscription expires in just a few minutes in the sandbox.

Answer 2

The sandbox environment automatically simulates subscription renewal. 1 year subscriptions will renew every 1 hour. 1 month subscriptions appear to renew every 5-6 minutes.

Each subscription appears to renew 5x. At that point, the subscription is cancelled. Each renewal triggers a restored transaction sent to the client app.

This is all based on my experience. I cannot find any official documentation for it from Apple.

Answer 3

Actually the renewal doesn't seem to work in Sandbox. It looks like you're always into the buying process. Auto-renewal is supposed to be "shadowed" as AppStore will automatically re-conduct it until the user explicitly "cancel" it. In the Sandbox, each 5 minutes you have to purchase again.

Finally, there's a bug in the "You Already purchased that in-app" as it is supposed to send a proper transaction but it just sends an Error code.