Devoria
Missing Metadata in App Store Connect: Fix Your Subscription
By Mehdi Azizi
Published , 9 min
Missing Metadata means a required field is empty. Check language, price, duration, countries, review screenshot and paid agreement, then attach it to a version.
Missing Metadata in App Store Connect means your subscription or in-app purchase is missing at least one required piece of information. Check these in order: language, price, duration, countries, review screenshot and the Paid Apps Agreement. While the product stays in this state, you can't send it for review, and your app can't load it. On top of that, your first subscription has to go out with a version of the app.
I got this status in July 2026 on TradaZen, my trading simulator. The new weekly subscription had its duration, its price, its group and two languages. It still sat in Missing Metadata. The only thing missing was the review screenshot. Below you'll find the causes to check, each product state and what unblocks it, and how this ties in with RevenueCat.
What does Missing Metadata mean?
Until this year, Apple's help defined this status like this: the product has been created, but you haven't uploaded a screenshot yet or finished its metadata. The status never tells you which field is missing. That's the whole problem: you have to go looking.
Heads up, the label changed in July 2026. The App Store Connect release notes announced a new submission flow on July 15: each in-app purchase is now submitted from its own page, with Add for Review. The status page no longer lists "Missing Metadata". It starts with "Prepare for Submission" and says: if your in-app purchase is missing required metadata, complete it before adding it to a submission. RevenueCat's documentation confirms it: before review, a new product shows up as "Prepare for Submission", even if it's missing metadata.
The App Store Connect API, on the other hand, still returns MISSING_METADATA and then READY_TO_SUBMIT. So tools built on it still show those words. Whatever the label, the diagnosis is the same: a required field is empty.
The causes to check, in order
I check them in this order, from the product page all the way up to the account.
| Cause | Where to fix it |
|---|---|
| Empty name or description | Product page |
| Group with no display name | Group page |
| Missing price or duration | Product page |
| No country available | Availability |
| Missing review screenshot | Review Information |
| Inactive paid agreement | Business |
| First subscription sent alone | Submission |
1. The product's language. According to the in-app purchase information reference, the display name and description are required in at least one language. The name is 2 to 30 characters, the description 45 at most. A product with no language can't go out.
2. The group's language. The subscription group also has a display name, which your subscribers see when they manage their subscriptions on their iPhone. You add it on the group page, under Display Name and Description, as explained on Apple's subscriptions page. The field doesn't look required. Yet a developer on Apple's forums explains that every subscription in his group stayed stuck as long as it was empty. The status shows on the subscription, not on the group, hence the confusion.
3. Price and duration. A subscription needs a duration, from one week to one year, and a price. Technical note TN3186 starts there when a product won't load: check its identifier, its price and its languages. Also keep in mind that the duration can't be changed after you send it for review.
4. Availability. Pick at least one country or region in Availability. Apple notes that without availability, the "Approved" status can't show up.
5. The review screenshot. That was my case on TradaZen, and it comes up a lot on the forums. The "App Review Screenshot" shows the purchase as it appears in the app, usually your paywall. It's only for the reviewer and is never shown on the App Store. It follows the same formats as your App Store screenshots. Once uploaded, you can replace it, but not delete it.
Don't confuse it with the 1024 x 1024 pixel promotional image. That one only matters if you promote the purchase on your listing or create a win-back offer, and it has its own rules. I learned that through a rejection over a subscription's promotional image.
6. The Paid Apps Agreement. To offer in-app purchases, the Account Holder has to sign the Paid Apps Agreement in Business, then fill in banking and tax info. It's not a product field, but everything depends on it. Apple says you can't create a new in-app purchase until you've accepted the latest version of the agreement. Its page on configuring in-app purchases for review adds that paid purchases don't work in review until this agreement is active. In Business, the agreement, the bank account and the tax forms all need to be active. These steps are covered in the Apple developer account guide.
7. The first subscription sent alone. This isn't missing metadata. But it's the most common reason a complete product never goes to review. I cover it below.
Product states and what unblocks each one
Here's the checklist I keep in front of me. The first column is the state returned by the API, the second is the label in Apple's help since July 2026.
| State (API) | Current label | What unblocks it |
|---|---|---|
| MISSING_METADATA | Prepare for Submission | Fill in the fields |
| READY_TO_SUBMIT | Prepare for Submission | Add for Review |
| No equivalent | Ready for Review | Submit for Review |
| WAITING_FOR_REVIEW | Waiting for Review | Wait for Apple |
| IN_REVIEW | In Review | Wait for Apple |
| APPROVED | Approved | Countries and approved app |
| REJECTED | Rejected | Fix it, Update Review |
In detail:
- Missing Metadata to Ready to Submit. Fill in the fields from causes 1 to 5, save, reload the page. The screen I had in July showed Missing Metadata, and the next state was called Ready to Submit.
- Ready to Submit to Ready for Review. On the subscription page, click Add for Review and add it to an existing submission or a new one. The in-app purchase submission steps have you pick the platform, the app version and, if needed, the group. From that point on, only the reference name, the price and availability can still be edited.
- Ready for Review to Waiting for Review. Make sure the app version and the group are in the same submission, then click Submit for Review.
- Waiting for Review to Approved. Nothing to do, except keep your paywall working. If the purchase moves to "Accepted" instead of "Approved", another item in the same submission was rejected: Apple approves nothing until everything is accepted.
- Rejected. The reason shows up in the submission's messages. Fix the item, click Update Review, then resubmit.
Your first subscription goes out with an app version
The rule is in Apple's help: the first subscription, like the first purchase of each type, has to be submitted with a new version of the app. A new group goes out with at least one of its subscriptions. Once that first item is approved, you can submit the next ones of the same type without a new version, as long as the app has an approved version.
That's what happened on TradaZen. The July version went out with the annual and the monthly plans. The weekly one, still in Missing Metadata, stayed out of the submission. Once the app was approved, it could go out alone, with no new build.
If you ship the app without its subscription, you'll need a new version to get it approved. The guide on App Store review time shows how many days that extra cycle costs you.
The RevenueCat connection: the empty offering
RevenueCat doesn't sell anything itself. The SDK reads your product identifiers from its servers, then asks the App Store for the products, from the iPhone. If the App Store doesn't return them, the offering comes back empty and your paywall has nothing to show. The SDK logs then display: "There's a problem with your configuration. None of the products registered in the RevenueCat dashboard could be fetched from the App Store."
According to RevenueCat, a product with complete metadata loads in sandbox even before review. An incomplete one doesn't. Other leads from RevenueCat and Apple:
- the Paid Apps Agreement and banking, which can take up to 24 hours to propagate according to RevenueCat;
- a change to the product, which can take up to an hour to reach sandbox according to Apple;
- a product identifier that differs between App Store Connect, RevenueCat and your code.
On TradaZen, the code hides the card for any subscription whose product isn't returned, without breaking the paywall. In October 2026, I saw a paywall with no offering for a different reason: the offering read from the SDK's cache was empty. Since then, if the offering is empty, the app's code asks StoreKit for the products directly, and offers a retry if the store doesn't respond.
A paywall with no offering should never be a dead end, neither for the user nor for the reviewer, who needs to be able to buy. The full setup is in my guide on RevenueCat for an iOS subscription, and the display pitfalls are in paywall mistakes. Once the product is ready, also make sure your paywall follows guideline 3.1.2.
Hook up your subscription without losing a week
The iOS & Android Kit starts from the starter code of my apps: onboarding, paywall and subscriptions are already coded, and its third step, "connect the money", walks you through setting them up. The whole chain, from App Store Connect products to purchase verification, is described on the iOS in-app subscription page.
If you're preparing your first launch, take the free diagnostic: it puts the steps back in order and sends you my Apple anti-rejection checklist. If your subscription is still stuck after all that, book an hour with me: we'll open your App Store Connect together and hunt down the empty field.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my subscription stuck in Missing Metadata when everything is filled in?
First check the review screenshot, then the subscription group's display name, which doesn't look required. Then check the price, the duration, at least one country, and the Paid Apps Agreement in Business. After each fix, save and reload the page before drawing conclusions.
Do you need a screenshot for a subscription?
Yes, the review screenshot, called App Review Screenshot. It shows the purchase in the app, usually the paywall, and is only for the reviewer. It isn't shown on the App Store. Don't confuse it with the 1024 x 1024 pixel promotional image, which is only useful for promoting the purchase or for a win-back offer.
Can you submit a subscription without a new app version?
Not the first one. The first subscription and its group go out with a new version of the app. Once that first subscription is approved, the next ones can go out alone, as long as the app has an approved version.
What does Prepare for Submission mean for an in-app purchase?
It's the label Apple's help has used since July 2026 for a product not yet added to a submission. It shows even if metadata is missing. The App Store Connect API still tells the two cases apart, with MISSING_METADATA and READY_TO_SUBMIT.
Why does RevenueCat return an empty offering?
Because the App Store returned no products to the iPhone. The most common causes: incomplete metadata, an inactive Paid Apps Agreement, a mismatched product identifier, or a recent change that hasn't propagated yet. Your paywall needs to handle this case without blocking the user.
