Is it necessary to validate / refresh an app store receipt on launch in iOS?

Question

The Apple docs on receipt validation say to perform receipt validation immediately after launch. This amounts to checking for data at the path returned by [[NSBundle mainBundle] appStoreRecieptURL], refreshing via SKReceiptRefreshRequest if it's not there, and validating it. The aforelinked docs reference both iOS and macOS.

Is it actually necessary on iOS? If so, why? Is it to prevent users from using my app on a jailbroken device, or without having bought it from the app store (in which case I probably don't care if my app is free)? Or does it have implications for other operations like restoring or validating in-app purchases? For example, does the receipt data have to be there already in order to validate a transaction for an in-app purchase?

Note: I am not using in-app subscriptions. I have in-app purchases, but I don't use the receipts from them after verifying them and recording the purchase server-side.

Answer 1

you don't need to do so, that is optional only and could be done on iOS7+, if you interested in doing that.

briefly, implementing the validation is purely a financial decision, and even if you validate recipes you are recommended not to disable the content in case of failure as the validation could fail in standard environment as well anytime (e.g. in case of no connection), and such overreaction may ruin your consumers' experience.

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altogether, doing the validation'd rather make sense on OSX in practice when you are allowed to disable the content in case of failure, regardless the reason; but if you feel you have more consumers than your income suggests or the amount of the stolen content is way beyond your margin, it may be worth to do it on iOS as well.

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NOTE: in general you can read more about the technical details of receipt validation in Apple's Documentation.