Hello,
I am experiencing a serious TestFlight issue that began immediately after I removed some testers from an External Testing group.
Right after removing those external testers, all existing TestFlight builds for my app were suddenly marked as Expired, even though they were still within the normal 90-day TestFlight validity period.
I did not manually expire any build. Removing an external tester should only revoke that tester’s access and should not affect the status of any TestFlight build.
After the mass expiration, I uploaded a replacement build. The new build uploaded and processed successfully in App Store Connect, but I could not add or submit it for External TestFlight Beta App Review.
App Store Connect incorrectly displays the following message:
Before you can use TestFlight to distribute beta builds of your app, you must renew your Apple Developer Program membership.
However, my account currently shows:
Account type: Individual — Account Holder Apple Developer Program membership: Active Apple Developer Program License Agreement: Accepted Free Apps Agreement: Active No pending Apple Developer Program agreements Replacement build uploaded and processed successfully
I inspected the failed App Store Connect network request and found the actual backend error:
POST /iris/v1/betaAppReviewSubmissions HTTP 422 Unprocessable Content
{ "errors": [ { "status": "422", "code": "ENTITY_UNPROCESSABLE.BETA_CONTRACT_MISSING", "title": "Beta contract is missing for the app.", "detail": "Beta Contract is missing." } ] }
The exact sequence was:
External testers were removed from the External Testing group. All existing TestFlight builds suddenly became Expired. A replacement build uploaded and processed successfully. The build could not be submitted for External Beta App Review. The backend returned ENTITY_UNPROCESSABLE.BETA_CONTRACT_MISSING.
I have found reports from other developers describing the same sequence after removing external testers, including all TestFlight builds unexpectedly expiring and TestFlight distribution no longer working.
This appears to be an account or team-level TestFlight backend issue in which the Beta Contract or distribution state becomes detached after modifying external testers.
I have already contacted Apple Developer Support and provided the private account, app, request, and error identifiers through my support case.
Could an Apple engineer please confirm whether this is a known backend issue and whether the TestFlight Beta Contract needs to be re-provisioned or re-attached?
Has anyone else experienced this exact issue after removing external testers? If Apple resolved it, what action was required on the backend?
Thank you.