Apple Releases Enhanced Sandbox Testing to Developers - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Releases Enhanced Sandbox Testing to Developers

After being announced earlier this year at WWDC, Apple has now released enhanced sandbox testing to developers.

apple developer banner

The feature will allow developers to test their in-app purchases for a wide range of scenarios, such as upgrades, downgrades, cancellations, introductory offers, and interrupted purchases.

The Apple sandbox environment lets you test in-app purchases on devices using product information set up in App Store Connect. You can now test upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations for subscriptions, as well as reset the introductory offer eligibility for a test account from Settings on devices running iOS 14 or later. You can also test your app's response to interrupted purchases on devices running iOS 14 or later. And App Store Connect users with the Developer role can now create and manage sandbox tester accounts.

The enhanced sandbox environment will afford developers far greater ability to test the implementation of their purchases using Apple's StoreKit framework in Xcode and iOS 14. Developers can now use a sandbox Apple ID to simulate all purchase situations exactly as their users will experience it.

Enhanced Sandbox Testing was first revealed at WWDC alongside other improvements to Xcode, "macOS Universal" apps, WebExtensions API support for Safari, and more transparent privacy information in the App Store.

Popular Stories

iPhone Handoff Feature

iOS 27 Introduces New 'iPhone Handoff' Feature

Wednesday September 2, 2026 12:35 pm PDT by
Apple has added a new "iPhone Handoff" feature to iOS 27 that will allow you to switch between two iPhones while using the same phone number on each device. This functionality was briefly mentioned during the WWDC 2026 keynote in June, on a slide that listed hundreds of new features coming in iOS 27 and corresponding software updates, but Apple never shared any further details at the time. ...
Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black Titanium

New Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 Features Revealed

Sunday August 30, 2026 7:54 am PDT by
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today further outlined what to expect from the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 set to be unveiled on September 9. While it was initially rumored that Touch ID may be coming to the Apple Watch this year, Gurman reiterated that he does not expect the Series 12 or Ultra 4 to have any major design changes compared to the current Series 11 and Ultra 3 models. ...
John Ternus and Rainbow Countour Apple Logo

Apple Just Made a Very Controversial Decision on New CEO's First Day

Wednesday September 2, 2026 6:31 am PDT by
Apple's former hardware engineering chief John Ternus became its CEO on Tuesday, and the company made a controversial decision on his very first day in charge. As of Tuesday, Apple Maps users in the U.S. see the name "Lake America" instead of Lake Ontario for the Great Lake that straddles the New York—Ontario border. Apple made this change after the U.S. Geographic Names Information...

Top Rated Comments

78 months ago
Not for Epic though.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PickUrPoison Avatar
78 months ago
Another one of the many developer tools Epic doesn’t want to pay for. The cheapskates 🤣
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
78 months ago

To little, too late. Soon the App Store business model will come crashing down The world is ganging up on the ways of the App Store. Change is in the wind.
The world is ending. Things are so terrible. God is coming back to rapture us all.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Appleman3546 Avatar
78 months ago
I actually ran into this problem two months ago, I was unable to test in-app purchases and was shocked to learn that I couldn’t in sandbox. This update is very needed, especially since we want to make sure the transaction involving money actually works properly before submission to avoid an unnecessary rejection!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
78 months ago

it has always been possible to test in-app purchases in sandbox.
Yes, but especially approval simulation was very difficult, as some threads on stack overflow show.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)