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Testing purchases made outside your app

Verify that your app receives and handles transactions that occur outside your app, such as subscription purchases, renewals, and offer and promo code redemptions.

Overview

When your app offers In-App Purchases, customers typically buy the products from within your app. However, purchase transactions can also occur on another device or even outside your app. Your app needs to handle these transactions when it launches. Use the Test Transactions feature in Account Settings in iOS to simulate and test such transactions in the sandbox environment.

Simulate a variety of purchase events

Several types of events result in a purchase transaction that occurs outside your app, including the following:

Redeeming offer codes

Customers can redeem offer codes on the Redeem Gift Card or Code page in their App Store account settings, by using a redemption URL, and when your app calls a redemption API like presentOfferCodeRedeemSheet(in:). For more information, see Set up offer codes.

Redeeming a promo code for an In-App Purchase

Customers can redeem promo codes in the App Store. For more information, see Request and manage promo codes.

Redeeming a win-back offer

Eligible customers can redeem a win-back offer that you merchandise on the App Store or with a direct URL. For specific test cases, see Testing win-back offers in the sandbox environment.

Renewing an auto-renewable subscription

Apple bills customers when an auto-renewable subscription renews, and the renewal transaction occurs outside your app.

Resubscribing from the Apple Subscriptions page

Customers can resubscribe to expired subscriptions from their Account > Subscriptions page in the App Store.

All of these events result in StoreKit sending a transaction to your app through the updates asynchronous sequence in Transaction. Test your app to be sure it receives and handles the transaction.

Set up a test in Account Settings

To create a transaction outside your app for the testing environment, first open Account Settings on the iOS device, as follows:

  1. Open Settings and select Developer.

  2. Select the Sandbox Apple Account. If you’re not yet signed in, see Sign in to your Sandbox Apple Account for a development-signed app.

  3. Select Manage on the pop-up sheet. The Account Settings page appears.

  4. Check that the Allow Purchases & Renewals toggle remains selected. If it’s deselected, all purchases fail, which represents a different test case. For more information, see Testing failing subscription renewals and In-App Purchases.

Next, you need the product ID for a product you set up in App Store Connect and your app’s bundle ID. If you’re testing win-back offers, see Testing win-back offers in the sandbox environment for further steps.

Simulate a purchase outside your app

To simulate a purchase outside your app, follow these steps:

  1. On the Account Settings page, select Test Transactions.

  2. Enter your product ID and the bundle ID in the applicable text boxes.

  3. Select Test Transactions.

  4. The system presents the App Store [Sandbox] payment sheet for the sandbox environment. Confirm the purchase. The sandbox environment doesn’t process actual payments. Instead, it returns transactions as if the system successfully processes them.

After you confirm the purchase, use the following steps to test your app:

  1. Open your app. The system delivers the new transaction to your app through the updates asynchronous sequence in Transaction.

  2. Confirm that your app receives and processes the transaction to provide access to the purchased product.

Conclude or restart a test

You can repeat the test by purchasing the product again through the Test Transactions feature in Account Settings. To repurchase some products, you might first need to clear the transactions for the Sandbox Apple Account, following these steps:

  1. Open Settings and select Developer.

  2. Select the Sandbox Apple Account.

  3. Select Manage on the pop-up sheet.

  4. On the Account Settings page, select Clear Purchase History.

  5. Sign out of the Sandbox Apple Account to clear the purchase history cache on the device. Sign back in to continue testing.

Restart your app. The purchase history for the Sandbox Apple Account is empty and ready for testing. Clearing the purchase history for Sandbox Apple Accounts with a high number of purchases may take longer.

See Also

Payment transactions