In-App Purchases not being reviewed with App Store submission

App Store Distribution & Marketing App Review App Review

dloewenherz OP

Created Oct ’17

Replies 23

Boosts 0

Views 33k

Participants 15

Hi all,

I just submitted a few updates over the past week for one of our applications, but the new In-App Purchases that we'd intended to be released alongside this new update are not being approved. After three updates of attempting to kick the tires, they are still all "Waiting for Review".

There has been no rejection by App Review pertaining to the In-App Purchases. I have also emailed App Review and have not heard a response back.

I looked at the developer documentation for submitting IAPs, but the section on the iTunes Connect page for adding an IAP for review does not appear for me (the "Add In-App Purchases" section). https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnectInAppPurchase_Guide/Chapters/SubmittingInAppPurchases.html

Does anyone have any advice or comments? Am I doing something wrong or does App Review generally just review IAPs at a different time than App Store review?

Best,

Dan

Answered by dloewenherz in 279020022

Following up here to close this out. Thanks to everyone who commented with a potential answer. It turns out that this was an iTunes Connect bug. I opened a radar to report the problem (rdar://35297889), which was marked as a duplicate of rdar://35212039, which was just fixed as of November 16th, 2017.

Boost

luckykatstudios OP

Aug ’18

Has this been solved in the meanwhile, as we're stuck in a similar situation?

stamnajim OP

Aug ’18

TIL that these forums don't email you if someone replies to your message (probably explains why no-one came back for the "me toos")! I only happened to look so I could send a link to App Store Connect Tech Support 🙂
So here's the update:
After getting the IAP rejected for not submitting with the binary, I immediately resubmitted with no changes (had to re-edit the IAP descriptions to allow resubmission), and put the explanation of what was going on in the review notes. On Saturday the IAP entered "In Review". 4.5 days later it was still "In Review".
Luckily I had sent a message to the Review Appeal Board almost a week ago as it really screwed up this version's launch, and this morning they picked it up, tried the IAP and saw that it worked, then put the IAP in to Approved status.
I've also started talking with App Store Connect tech support, so hopefully we can end up with either a) app store connect allowing you to submit IAPs with binaries b) IAP review workflow change to take into account this scenario or c) developer documentation update to say "please get your IAPs through review *before* submitting a binary that supports the new IAPs, because they seem to take so much longer.

davem20 OP

Aug ’18

I am having this same exact problem, unable to attach the new IAP to the binary. I asked for help from the app review team and they said they were escalating the question to the appropriate internal team, but two weeks later i have not heard back and my IAP continues to be returned. Very frustrating.

davem20 OP

Aug ’18

I ended up creating a new IAP and was able to add it to the app. Maybe once you've submitted the IAP for review you cannot add it to the app?

khomiboy OP

Apr ’20

This is the best way to solve the issue guys. Make a new IAP and before review the IAP put it into the binary first then submit for review.

ozgurs OP

May ’20

Having the same problem. My new app version is accepted but new IAPs are still waiting for review for the last 2 days.

hliang OP

Feb ’22

Still seeing the similar issue in 2022: No In-App Purchases section shown when preparing for submission, although i've already added IAP items in Features > In-App Purchases. Was looking at Apple doc at https://help.apple.com/app-store-connect/#/dev1986a0e5c, not helpful at all.

hliang OP

Feb ’22

Finally found the solution:

Assuming you have Content Hosting turned on for the IAP, then follow guide below to upload item to app store connect, after that i can see the In-App Purchases section in the version page (works for both "Ready for Sale" and "Prepare for Submission") https://codingexpedition.wordpress.com/2017/11/10/how-to-upload-ios-in-app-purchase-content-using-xcode-9-1/

Other helpful info from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39962649/missing-in-app-purchase-section-in-itunes-connect You will NOT see In-app purchases section in "App Store" tab while single/all purchase item/s in "Waiting for Review" status. They should be "Ready to Submit".