Purchasing an auto-renewing subscription to a Newsstand publication on an iPad is incredibly easy. You basically just tap “buy subscription”, tap confirm and you’re done. So how hard is it to unsubscribe?
Well, it involves a 12 step process so obscure that Apple feels the need to lay it out in a knowledge-base article:
- From your device’s Home screen, tap App Store.
- Tap Featured at the bottom of the screen.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page.
- Tap the Apple ID button in the lower-left corner. (If you are not signed in, tap the Sign In button, and sign in with your Apple ID. Then, scroll back to the bottom of the page, and tap the Apple ID button.)
- Tap the View Apple ID button.
- Enter your password and tap OK.
- From the main account page, scroll down and tap Manage App Subscriptions. If you don’t have app subscriptions this button will not be displayed.
- You’ll then be taken to your App Subscriptions page.
- From your Manage App Subscription page, choose an app subscription.
- Tap the subscription category for which you want to disable auto-renewal.
- Tap On to toggle the switch to Off.
- You’ll receive a confirmation message; tap Turn Off to confirm your choice.
It’s a gruelling roach motel dark pattern. Seriously Apple, what the hell are you thinking?
they are thinking ……. they don’t want you to unsubscribe heh ….
Something else about Newsstand that’s a joke…
Try putting the icon in a group, it wont go , absolutely the only one that refuses to go in to one.
So you know what I did? I stuck it on the last screen where I’ll never ever see it.
To be honest I don’t know what it does but like their book app I refuse to try it because they keep trying to foist it on me every time I load up the App store on my iPad..
The worst in the New York TImes as you can subscribe through the Apple Store, or the NYT website. The problem is that your account shows on their website. The NYT shows you have a subscription that will renew every month, whereas the Apple one shows the opposite. Nothing is joined up and customer service is slow and disjointed.
It would seem like everything to do with the print industry is archaic, even when it moves into the digital world.
For sure, the Apple unsubscribe process is a Dark pattern.
“It would seem like everything to do with the print industry is archaic, even when it moves into the digital world.”
I spent 9 months in the central digital departmentment of a major newspaper company and trust me it seems archaic because it IS archaic. Every moment I spent there was frustrating to say the least and I don’t think I achieved anything useful there except a nice VR payment when I left.
Thanks for clever people putting helpful stuff on the internet. it’s all we’ve got to keep a tiny portion of the balance in our favour.
Thanks heaps! I have been trying everything I could think of to no avail. Auto subscribe is now cancelled thanks to your very clear instructions. What a relief!