Hi — I just downloaded Arc Timeline 4 and I’m unable to get past the initial sign-up screen due to an “In-App Purchases are not available” error.
When I open the app, I’m presented with the subscription options (monthly, yearly, lifetime) and a free 1-week trial. However, when I tap “Start Free Trial,” I immediately get a popup saying in-app purchases are not allowed. This prevents me from even starting the free trial, so I’m completely unable to use the app.
Troubleshooting steps I’ve already tried:
• Checked Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → In-App Purchases — it is set to Allow
• Confirmed my Apple ID is the same in both Settings and the App Store
• Signed out of my Apple ID and signed back in
• Force-closed and relaunched the app after each change
• Checked appleid.apple.com for any account flags
• Attempted to access Payment & Shipping — this option does not appear in my Settings under my Apple ID
I’m on an iPhone running the latest iOS. I have not been able to find a way to bypass or work around the subscription screen — there is no guest mode, no way to skip, and no alternative entry point into the app.
Is there anything on the app side that could be causing this, or is there a way to contact support directly? Any help would be appreciated
Hi @RussellD! Can you make purchases or start subscriptions in other apps? Or is this happening in all apps?
If it’s happening with all apps, then you will need to contact Apple support. Individual apps basically have no insight into those parts of the system - it’s all managed by Apple, and app developers don’t get to see the inner workings of it or have any way to help.
If it’s only happening in Arc Timeline app, then… we’ve got a very weird thing happening here! Never heard of this before.
But yeah, first let’s resolve that question. Then we’ll know how to proceed.
Hey Matt, thanks for the quick reply. I just tried making purchases in 3 different apps and 2 of the 3 worked. So odd.
That’s bizarre! I’ve never heard of that before.
Could you grab a screenshot of it when it’s saying “not available”, and maybe anything else that might help to debug? I’m curious what this actually looks like, whether it looks like something very iOS standard, or something … different.
Oh also I wonder if there’s some sort of fraud detection misfiring. Though I can’t think what. Things like VPNs shouldn’t be a problem. Country mismatch shouldn’t be a problem (I use my New Zealand App Store account but haven’t lived in NZ for a decade or more).
The usual thing I’d expect is if it’s a company phone, which has corporate controls on it. But you’d expect that to block all purchases and subscriptions, not just some.
It’s a very basic iOS message that looks like their standard UI elements.
I don’t have VPN or any extra protections on. I do have a corporate management profile (on my personal phone_, but that’s only for Microsoft and HR apps and does not affect my ability to make in-app purchases on other apps.
I figured it out! I have a time block online shopping using AppBlock.app. I paused the block and it allowed me to make the in-app purchase and subscribe. The funnying this is the only things I have set up in my block is about 11 apps (things like Amazon, Poshmark, ebay..), but Arc was never added to that, nor is there a universal setting on the blocks in-app purchases.
Also, the first time I tried all this was in the daytime when the block wasn’t even active. It was on, but not in the active time block where I limit my purchasing.
Phew! Great to hear you’ve figured it out 
That one was a genuine mystery for me too. I didn’t even know blocker apps could do that!
Also super weird that it was even blocking at wrong times, and for an app not in the list. Sounds like the blocker app might have some issues there.