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The app I'm working on was recently rejected by Apple for containing an auto-renewable subscription. They recommended that we switch to non-renewing subscriptions for our content.

The one thing I can't quite wrap my brain round is how to restore a purchased subscription to a shared device. Apple recommends we don't use user login - something we would like to avoid ourselves. I did come across one solution where unique codes were used between the two devices - to validate a purchased subscription, through a server. But I believe that could be easily pirated, as in theory friends or employees within a company could share these unique codes with one another and avoid paying the subscription charge.

I can't really find much on Google about this, and was curious to know if anyone has been able to successfully implement a non-renewing subscription?

ipmcc
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Steve
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1 Answers1

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To paraphrase the advice we received from Apple when dealing with these issues:

Per the iTunes Connect Developer Guide:

...subscriptions must be provided on all devices associated with a user. In App Purchase expects subscriptions to be delivered through an external server that you will provide. You must provide infrastructure to deliver subscriptions to multiple devices.

Apple consider user registration to be appropriate but won't allow you to make it obligatory. So registration must be optional and the user must be able to register at any time — including to allow them to share a subscription they've already bought between devices.

So it sounds like we may have received slightly different advice. Is it possible that Apple only told you not to require user login in general, separately from the requirement for distributing the subscription to all devices?

Tommy
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  • Ah, the review team said, through the resolution centre, that user login should be optional - I forgot about that. I was going off what I was told on the phone yesterday evening when I called one of their business managers - but something might have got lost in translation with the British - American accent! Thanks for your response, seems this is the only "real" solution. – Steve Nov 15 '11 at 16:30
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    Wouldn't it make sense to sync the subscription state accross all iOS devices with iCloud and the ubiquity key / value store ? This would avoid having to create a new user / password login that is so painful for the user and the application developer :/ – yonel Jan 11 '12 at 12:46
  • @yonel: I'm absolutely of the opinion that makes great sense but sadly it's Apple you need to persuade. I'm obviously not able to discuss our specific situation but for us Apple are sticking hard to the rule that they expect the developer to supply some infrastructure. – Tommy Jan 11 '12 at 13:02
  • Does this mean that if the user wants to restore a transaction, they will need to register first, otherwise they can't? Will the App Store review board allow that? – Kishyr Ramdial Feb 02 '12 at 15:32
  • @Tommy so where we actually need to implement this registration to make our app accepted.i also got a rejection.if it makes option if he decided to register one day after purchase how we know what type of subscription he had if we r using multiple length subscriptions? – hacker Jun 02 '12 at 06:38