We are writing to report a recurring stability issue with the Apple Pay sandbox environment. We are using the official sandbox test cards provided on the Apple Developer website for our testing: https://developer.apple.com/apple-pay/sandbox-testing/
We are experiencing frequent, intermittent failures when attempting to add these sandbox cards to the Wallet for testing purposes. The issue typically occurs a couple of times per day. When the failure occurs, the card provisioning process fails unexpectedly.
The issue is not limited to a single card; we have observed this behavior across all available card networks. In some instances, all cards (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Amex) fail to provision simultaneously. At other times, the issue appears to be isolated to specific networks while others work correctly.
Crucially, the issue appears to be temporary. After some time passes (ranging from minutes to an hour), we are able to add the exact same card successfully without making any changes to our test environment or configuration.
We have diligently checked our setup to rule out configuration errors on our end. This includes verifying:
- The device is set to a supported region.
- We are signed in with a valid sandbox tester Apple ID.
- All other prerequisites for sandbox testing are met.
The fact that the process works correctly at other times strongly suggests that this is a server-side stability issue within the Apple Pay sandbox environment rather than a persistent misconfiguration on our part.
To help with your investigation, we have attached an image that demonstrates a failed attempt to add a card.
Could you please investigate the stability of the sandbox card provisioning service? Please let us know if this is a known issue or if there is any further information we can provide.
Thank you for your time and assistance.