title: Questions about in-app purchasing: auto-renewable subscriptions
body: <p>Here’s my situation: I have a free app which I plan to provide access to through a $0.99 monthly (auto-renewable) subscription.</p>
  
  <p>I am still testing in the sandbox, so the way I see how auto-renewable subscriptions really work may be distorted. My questions below are as follows:</p>
  
  <p>1) What is the minimum version of iOS that can support auto-renewable subscriptions? How will users of earlier iOS versions experience said functionality?</p>
  
  <p>2) If I understood it correctly auto-renewable subscriptions are classified as “non-consumable” items, that can be bought only once. What happens when I try to re-purchase a subscription before its expiry date (or the date where renewal is set to kick in): I won’t get charged again, will I? </p>
  
  <p>3) Will my app get notified if the subscription auto-renews? I would imagine that the app will automatically be sent a paymentQueue:updatedTransactions: method call in my SKPaymentTransactionObserver but I’ve never been able to see this happen while working in the sandbox. In my case I have to run a local timestamp check against the purchase receipt’s expiry date during startup.</p>
  
  <p>4) If I have to communicate with the iTunes server, using the receipt I saved from the initial purchase (or from successive renewals), how do I properly check with iTunes if a subscription is still active or if the user has already disabled auto-renewal?</p>
  
  <p>5) My in-app purchase item is the subscription itself, whose product code is known to the app... Is it really necessary to retrieve the product details when you already know what it is? Apple’s IAP Guide seems to makes it pretty clear that I need to do this but it seems just overhead for me.</p>