Will the original_transaction_id change when the user repurchases their subscription?

The Apple Developer documentation makes no mention that this value remains constant. In general, the originaltransactionid often remains unchanged as a subscription is renewed, is upgraded, is downgraded or is cancelled or refunded. However, do not assume that the value will remain unchanged for the lifetime of a subscription. The documentation does not indicate what may cause the originaltransactionid to change. <https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appstorereceipts/original_transaction_id>

rich kubota - rkubota@apple.com
developer technical support CoreOS/Hardware/MFI

Thank you for your reply!

I was surprised because I thought there was one originaltransactionid per subscription.

In this document, it is written as follows.

This value is the same for all receipts that have been generated for a specific subscription

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/releasenotes/General/ValidateAppStoreReceipt/Chapters/ReceiptFields.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010573-CH106-SW1

Is it correct to refer to the above information?

However, do not assume that the value will remain unchanged for the lifetime of a subscription.The documentation does not indicate what may cause the originaltransactionid to change

Are there other IDs that can be used to identify if a user has already purchased a same subscription?

The original_transaction_id remains the same for the subscription, as long as upgrades and downgrades occur within the same subscription group. If the customer cancels their subscription, and resubscribes to a subscription in a different subscription group, the original_transaction_id will also change. So there are cases in which the original_transaction_id will change for a customer. By looking at the original_transaction_id and the subscription_group_identifier in the latest_receipt_info section of the /verifyReceipt response, or in the unified_receipt.latest_receipt_info section of the App Store Server Notification payload, you should be able to identify the subscription.

Thanks to your answer I understand that the originaltransactionid does not change between upgrades and downgrades of the same subscription group.

I have one more question.For example, suppose you have the following subscription groups and subscriptions:

ex)

subscription-group-a

• subscription-a-1

• subscription-a-2

subscription-group-b

• subscription-b-1

• subscription-b-2

I would like to know when the user takes the following actions.

1. Purchase subscription-a-1 -> (A)

2. Cancel subscription-a-1

3. Purchase subscription-b-1

4. Repurchase subscription-a-1 -> (A`)

At this time, do A and A` have the same originaltransactionid?