Whenever we release a new version of our app, the in-app purchases are unavailable for several hours. Even when we wait 24+ hours after approval to release the app, the IAPs don't become available for several hours. We have seen this every time we've released a new version of the app. It doesn't matter if we don't add new IAPs from one version to the next.
Here are some links I've found where others mention the same problem. They're all 5+ years old, yet still relevant:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5753162/in-app-purchase-does-not-work-when-live
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13574037/iap-fails-after-release-but-no-in-development-stage
http://crazyviraj.blogspot.com/2011/08/dont-let-apples-latency-mess-with-your.html
We know you can query Apple's servers to see which IAPs are available and only display those that are. We do this. Our app ends up saying "No in-app purchases currently available. Please try again later." but that's an extremely poor user experience. Users are excited to see new features they want to buy, go to buy them but are prevented from doing so. Both Apple and our company are losing money because of this.
Is there a magic number for how long one is supposed to wait after approval to release? Does it matter? Do IAPs only begin propagation once the app has been released (not approved)? Any other strategies for dealing with this problem?
Thanks so much!
Colter