requestPurchase return old purchase

[mihalikv]

Hi,

I am using "expo-iap": "^2.7.14", for purchasing subscription. My problem is that everything was working fine but from no where it start to returionging wrong purchase.

When I am trying to requestPurchase in iOS app in testflight mode, expo-iap is filling currentPurchase with data from "old purchase" that is already expired(then it goes to server validation, it returns isActive: false), and user receive error message.

It goes buySubscription > effect > handleSubscriptionPurchase where purchase is something old from the past, that is already expired.

useEffect(() => {
    if (currentPurchase && SUBSCRIPTION_SKUS.includes(currentPurchase.productId)) {
      // Cast to SubscriptionPurchase since we're only handling subscription products
      handleSubscriptionPurchase(currentPurchase as SubscriptionPurchase);
    }
  }, [currentPurchase]);
  
  
const handleSubscriptionPurchase = async (purchase: SubscriptionPurchase) => {
    try {
      console.log('Processing subscription purchase:', purchase.productId);

      const subscriptionInfo = await validateSubscriptionStatus(purchase);

      if (subscriptionInfo.isActive) {
        setSubscriptionStatus(subscriptionInfo);
        await finishTransaction({ purchase });

        // Refetch user profile to update subscription status and other user data
        refetchUserProfile().catch((error) => {
          console.warn('Failed to refetch user profile after subscription activation:', error);
        });

        alert({
          title: i18n.t('subscription_activated'),
          message: i18n.t('subscription_welcome_premium_message'),
          icon: 'CheckSquareOutline',
          iconBg: 'green',
        });
      } else {
        alert({
          title: i18n.t('subscription_error'),
          message: i18n.t('subscription_validation_failed'),
          icon: 'Block2Outline',
          iconBg: 'red',
        });
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.error('Error processing subscription:', error);
      alert({
        title: i18n.t('subscription_error'),
        message: i18n.t('subscription_failed_to_activate'),
        icon: 'Block2Outline',
        iconBg: 'red',
      });
    }
  };

const buySubscription = async (subscriptionId: string) => {
    try {
      // Find the subscription product to get offer details (Android)
      const subscription = subscriptions.find((s) => s.id === subscriptionId);

      if (!subscription) {
        console.warn('Subscription not found:', subscriptionId);
        return;
      }

      // Handle Android subscription offers
      let subscriptionOffer;
      if (Platform.OS === 'android' && 'subscriptionOfferDetails' in subscription) {
        subscriptionOffer = subscription.subscriptionOfferDetails?.[0];
      }

      await requestPurchase({
        request: {
          ios: {
            sku: subscriptionId,
            andDangerouslyFinishTransactionAutomaticallyIOS: false,
          },
          android: {
            skus: [subscriptionId],
            subscriptionOffers: subscriptionOffer
              ? [
                  {
                    sku: subscriptionId,
                    offerToken: subscriptionOffer.offerToken,
                  },
                ]
              : undefined,
          },
        },
        type: 'subs',
      });
    } catch (err) {
      const error = err as { code?: string; message?: string };
      console.warn(error.code, error.message);
    }
  };

[hyochan]

This issue usually happens when an old iOS transaction was never finished.
If a purchase isn't finishTransaction’d, StoreKit keeps returning it, so currentPurchase gets populated with expired/old data instead of the new purchase.

In your flow, the transaction is only finished when the subscription is active, so expired purchases stay in the queue forever and keep coming back.

If you finish all transactions (even when validation fails), this problem goes away.

Also, you're using expo-iap@2.7.14, which is quite old.
The latest version is 3.1.31, and many past edge-cases around iOS subscriptions have already been fixed there. Upgrading will make the purchase flow much more stable.

[mihalikv]

@hyochan Thank you for your advice — it looks like finishTransaction helped in my case. I’m not ready to update right now because some changes are required and I don’t want to break more stuff, but this fix of always calling finishTransaction should be enough.