Significant increase in 410 "Unregistered" responses from APNs when sending push notifications.

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Created Aug ’25

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We are observing a significant increase in 410 "Unregistered/ExpiredToken" responses from APNs when sending push notifications after 20 July. According to documentation, this indicates that the device token is no longer valid for the specified topic. However, the sudden spike raises questions about whether there have been any recent updates or changes to APNs' token invalidation logic.

Could you please confirm:

Whether there have been any recent updates in APNs behavior related to 410 responses?
If there are best practices or recommendations for handling large volumes of token invalidations in order to detect uninstallations?

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Engineer OP

Apple

Aug ’25

The start of returning 410 for tokens that can be determined as no longer active has always been on a fuzzy schedule, if and when the system decides to return this status.

Based on ongoing feedback about it, we recently twisted some knobs and re-tuned the logic that determines 410 status will be returned for an inactive token.

That is why you are seeing this sudden spike in 410 returns. While we believe the spike will settle down to some level (could be different for each app depending on various patterns), in general, ongoing, you may expect the 410 status rate somewhat higher than you may have observed before.

As a reminder, the start of 410 status is still based on a fuzzy logic and schedule, so it will still not be a good indicator for tracking uninstalls, which is why the fuzzy logic was introduced - in order to avoid such tracking.

The 410 response is not an indicator for the app's state, but for the token's state, which may or may not be related to the app's state. So, any assumptions you will make trying to detect uninstallation will be unreliable.

Argun Tekant /  DTS Engineer / Core Technologies

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