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Using `syncPurchases` for automatic restoring

  • 19 January 2023
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  • fra
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  • 4 replies

Hello,

 

In my iOS app the user IDs are RCAnonymousIDs since there’s no sign up to purchase a subscription. Since there’s no sign-up, when they install the app on a new device they have a new RCAnonymousID and they do not have immediate access to their subscription.

 

There’s a restorePurchase button, but would like to have an automatic restoring purchase feature on a fresh install. I read through a similar question in this community (link) and it seems like calling `syncPurchases` on a fresh app install will do the trick.

 

My only hesitiation of using it is if there will be an Apple ID sign-in alert if there’s no receipt on the device? I had a similar issue to this when implementing `checkTrialOrIntroductoryPriceEligibility` awhile ago (link) and want to make sure it just returns silently if there’s no receipt.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated and thank you in advance!

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Best answer by kaitlin 20 January 2023, 21:43

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Additionally, .syncPurchases unfortunately won’t work at fresh app install on a new device for anonymous ids - for custom ids, it will work like a restore, but for anonymous ids, it just syncs the receipt on the device. So if there is not a receipt on the device, it definitely won’t work (still silently).

Just to follow up on this: my understanding was that in production there is always a receipt when downloading the app from the App Store (as mentioned here too).

Wouldn’t that mean that syncPurchases should work fine to restore proactively?

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Hi @kaitlin, 

 

Thank you for the quick response! This just saved me (and hopefully other devs who use anonymous ids) a lot of time!

kaitlin
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Hi @fra !

The main difference between syncPurchases and restorePurchases is how they react when there is not a receipt on the device. syncPurchases will fail silently, while restorePurchases could trigger a log in and then refresh the receipt from the store. 

Additionally, .syncPurchases unfortunately won’t work at fresh app install on a new device for anonymous ids - for custom ids, it will work like a restore, but for anonymous ids, it just syncs the receipt on the device. So if there is not a receipt on the device, it definitely won’t work (still silently).

It sounds like you already have a restore purchases button, so that’s a great start. Your anonymous id users may still need to utilize it even after .syncPurchases is called for them.

Let me know if you have any more questions - these two methods can be a little confusing!

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