I'm preparing my first App Store submission and have hit a chain of issues that appear to be backend state problems I can't resolve from the App Store Connect UI. I've already opened a DTS case but wanted to ask here in case anyone has seen this combination before.
Setup:
- iOS app with first-time subscriptions (auto-renewable, 7-day free trial)
- Two products: bitcoinhq_pro_monthly and bitcoinhq_pro_annual
- Both in the same subscription group "Bitcoin HQ Pro"
- Paid Apps Agreement is Active
- Bundle ID, prices (all 175 territories including United States), intro offers ("Free for the first week" in all territories), localizations all configured
Important context: On my own iPad (TestFlight build, signed into my normal sandbox account), the full flow works perfectly — paywall loads on first launch after install, both products show with correct prices, tapping Subscribe opens the StoreKit sheet, purchase completes, the entitlement grants, and Pro features unlock. So the app code and RevenueCat configuration are working. The issues below appear to be App Store Connect backend state problems.
The issues, in the order I hit them:
-
bitcoinhq_pro_monthly is stuck in "Developer Action Needed." I cannot identify which field is flagged — all required sections (price, availability, localization, screenshot, review notes, tax category) appear complete.
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Cannot save edits to the English (U.S.) localization for the monthly subscription. The localization editor returns: "There was an error with editing your App Store localization. Try again later." This has persisted across multiple browsers (Safari, Chrome, incognito), sign-out/sign-in cycles, multiple days, with Apple System Status reporting all services green, and with the description retyped manually rather than pasted.
-
Cannot submit the monthly subscription standalone. Clicking "Submit for Review" returns: "Your subscription cannot be submitted for review. Your first subscription must be submitted with a new app version." The annual subscription is in "Waiting for Review" — saved successfully when first created.
-
The "In-App Purchases and Subscriptions" section is missing from my App Version 1.0 page. Per ASC's own messaging, this is where I'm supposed to attach my first subscriptions before submitting the version. The section is not present anywhere on the version page.
-
Reviewer rejection with "The product is not available for purchase." App Review Guideline 2.1(b). Tapping Subscribe in the reviewer's environment results in this StoreKit error on iPad Air 11" M3 / iPadOS 26.4.2 — but the same build on my own devices completes the purchase without issue.
My read: issues 1–4 appear to be a single backend state problem with the monthly product or subscription group. Issue 5 appears to be downstream — sandbox returns the products for fetch but refuses the purchase from the reviewer's clean environment because the product isn't in a properly submittable state.
Has anyone seen this combination? Any way to surface the "In-App Purchases and Subscriptions" section, or work around the localization save error? Or is the only path through DTS?
Thanks in advance.