App rejected for sandbox purchasing issues

Two things are unclear in your post and may be the source of your problem.

1) "and then trying the sandbox one if the specific error is returned." But you never tested this so are you sure it is sensing the correct "specific error"?

2) "new Description text added, but when they reject the build they turn red and say 'Proposed changes have been rejected'. Is this a symptom or a cause?" That would be the cause of a rejection. If an IAP is "rejected" - not 'needs developer action' - then that productIdentfier would be forever rejected and will never work again. I do not know from your description whether your IAP was rejected or classified as 'needs developer action' but 'red' rather than 'yellow' suggests rejected. If so, you need a new productIdentifier. I do not know if a rejected productIdentfiier will work in the sandbox - that could be the source of your problem.

Hi PBK,

We did test this on Test flight, and it correctly goes to production (buy.itunes.com), gets a "Sandbox on production error", and then correctly uses the sandbox.itunes.com url. Additionally, we have data to support that the reviewers are never even making it to this point.

I'm sorry, the "red" was referring to the stop-sign symbols on the App Features page. The color of the error is yellow on the individual subscriptions.

Maybe it was a bad night for App Review. Ask them to try again telling them it works correctly in your hands - and if they are getting the error they are getting it does not involve your handling the receipt.

Are all your banking contracts correct?

We are still getting rejections because of sandbox purchasing issues. How do we tell the reviewers that something else must be going on? The sandbox purchasing works perfectly when we try it, but gives generic cannot connect to iTunes errors when the reviewers try it.

There is no way to explain away a failure during app review. If the reviewers are experiencing the problem, then they are doing you a favour with the rejection. You would likely have a very high rate of problems when you went live. Don’t assume that your own testing and TestFlight testers are like real people. They are not. In these situations, if you have exausted all internal review and analysis of the problem (hint: you haven’t) then you should use a DTS request to get help.

"Are all your banking contracts correct?"

Hi, I have the same issue. Do you have any news?

Also I found out that my In-App purchase in the Features tab was rejected and highlited by red.

And in the App Store tab under the Build dialog I don't see Add In-App Purchase dialog.

For those of you experiencing this problem can you send me a direct email and reference this posting. Make sure to include the app ID so that I can review the App Review rejection. My direct email is "rkubota@apple.com". This might be an App Review failure - or it might be something else. If it does appear to be something else, I may have to ask you to submit for a DTS incident.

rich kubota - rkubota@apple.com

developer technical support CoreOS/Hardware/MFI

We literally just kept resubmitting the same build until they approved it finally (about two weeks worth of this...). Our data even showed that even on the submission that got approved, their cursed iPad still exhibited the failure (we send out error events for in app purchase failures). They must have just given up and tried on an iPhone, which succeeded no problem.

I think something was corrupt / broken with the apple id they were using on the iPad they were testing with.

I have the same problem when testing the application testFlighet is made in-app purchase well

But when the review is rejected

Apple ID: 1296744161

I just review the App Store Connect records - looks like the app has been approved.

rich kubota - rkubota@apple.com

developer technical support CoreOS/Hardware/MFI

Hi,

I have the same problem,my IAP App was rejected but IAP in sandbox and TestFlight is fine.

I also sent an email to you

Apple ID: 1508338598

Thank you!

Hi Rich, we have the same issue for the last 10 days now.

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1502373148

Thanks,

P

Hi Rich,

We are facing the same issue for the last 2 weeks now.

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1527884988

Thanks,

Chanan van Ooijen

Hi Rich,

We are facing the same issue since last week, which everything is okie during iPhone and iPad Sandbox and Testflight test. 

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1498868061

Thanks,
Lee Keng Lou

Hi Rich,

I've been facing the same issue since last week, my app has been rejected for many times, and it is still being reviewed.

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1312014438

Thanks,
Ying

Hi Rich,

I've been facing the same issue since last week, my app has been rejected in App review but works fine in Testflight.

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1533689261

Thank you,

Same here, multiple rejections.
Email sent

Cheers,
Tommy

Same here, email sent.

Thank you!
Pablo.

Hi Rich,

We've been facing the same issue for the last 2 months. 

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1534889320

Thanks,
B

Hi,

This is our application consistently rejected
https://apps.apple.com/in/app/mint-business-news/id470175900

AppId: 470175900

We have already implemented the verification of receipt first on production and if get status as 21007 then we are validating the same on sandbox a long time back.

Just to know what exactly is failing, we have put now hardcode error messages in our binary 4.25 (4.2):
When Receipt fails in this delegate of StoreKit
func request(_ request: SKRequest, didFailWithError error: Error) { }
Here error will be:
"There is problem connecting with iTunes. Please try again later."

NOTE:- The screenshot given by the apple reviewer shows the above error which proves that this is an error while fetching receipt from apple in the sandbox

Please review the forum link as well where other people/organizations are also facing the same issue.
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/661351

Request you to please check your receipt server of apple before rejecting the app as it is quite common from the above link.
We have tried debugging from head to toe and found nothing related to the error posted above. However, we encountered this error once when the apple StoreKit wasn't able to provide the receipt and control went to
func request( request: SKRequest, didFailWithError error: Error) { } failure delegate.

So, the thing is that they are not even getting the receipt which proves from the error which we hardcoded in the app that the control is coming in func request( request: SKRequest, didFailWithError error: Error) { } delegate.
"There is problem connecting with iTunes. Please try again later."

NOTE:
We have tested the same on a real device with the latest iOS(14.3 currently) and not in the simulator.
Also, we have uploaded app purchases many times earlier with this app without any problems. This is the first time in iOS 14 we are facing these continuous rejections.
We have already appealed the same.

If we are unable to understand anything, let us know the next steps.

Please let us know apple reviewer that their StoreKit is constantly failing and it has nothing to do with what they are sending in rejections.

I again believe it is from Apple end where there storekit function always fails

Hi Rich,

I've been facing the same issue, my app is being rejected even though when testing with Test Flights on real devices it works.

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1546548278

Thanks,
Ori.

Hi Rich,

I've been facing the same issue, my app is being rejected even though when testing with Test Flights on real devices it works.

I sent you an email as well.

App ID: 1518173404

Thanks,
Thuoc

Same issue, anyone found a solution?

I am also running into this issue as well. I've also sent an email over to Rich.

App ID: 1562588453

• Sean