We have two unused, dormant subscription groups in our account ("Community Growth Tools 2" and "Community Growth Tools 3") that we cannot delete through either the App Store Connect UI or the App Store Connect API, and they keep causing our app version review to fail under a different guideline each time.
Background: In September 2026 we originally designed three subscription tiers as three separate subscription groups. Per App Store Connect's rule that a first subscription must be submitted together with a new app version, all three were submitted for review together with an app version. We later made a business decision to consolidate to a single subscription product. Since we no longer needed the other two groups, we withdrew their items from a pending review submission ("Remove from Submission") instead of deleting the products outright. We did not realize this action has a permanent side effect.
What we found: Both unused products now have exactly one entry in their /v1/subscriptions/{id}/versions history, with state DEVELOPER_REJECTED. Attempting to delete either the products or their groups returns:
DELETE /v1/subscriptions/{id} -> 409 SUBSCRIPTION_DELETE_NOT_ALLOWED DELETE /v1/subscriptionGroups/{id} -> 409 ("There are active subscriptions in this group")
There is no "Delete Subscription" option in the App Store Connect UI for either product (only "Remove from Sale", which we've already done - both show "Developer Removed From Sale"). We confirmed this isn't simply "nothing left to delete": both products still return full live metadata (product ID, pricing, review notes, screenshots) via the API.
Group IDs: 22345382 ("Community Growth Tools 2"), 22345495 ("Community Growth Tools 3") Product IDs: com.jinyongpark.CodeChatApp.community_sub_monthly_2 / _3 App: CodeChat, Apple ID 6778284158
Impact: Every time we submit a new app version, App Store Connect appears to re-associate these two dormant groups with the review, even though we never include them as items in the review submission (confirmed via GET /v1/reviewSubmissions/{id}/items, which shows only the app version item). This has caused rejections citing the same root cause under different guidelines each time:
- Sept 16, 2026: Guideline 3.1.2(b) - "different subscription products should be tiers in one group, not separate groups"
- Sept 17, 2026: Guideline 2.1(b) - "Community Growth Plan (2)/(3) could not be found in the submitted binary"
We already explained this via Resolution Center on Sept 16 and asked Apple to delete these two groups on our behalf, since we have no way to do so ourselves - that explanation does not appear to have carried over to the next review pass. We've also submitted a formal appeal and requested a Meet with Apple App Review consultation, but wanted to ask here as well in case anyone from the App Store Connect team can help directly - I found a similar case (forum thread 751843) where the App Review team was able to manually resolve a comparable stuck-subscription issue after being contacted here with the app name and Apple ID.
Would appreciate any guidance on how to get these two orphaned, zero-purchase subscription groups removed or deactivated so they stop blocking our legitimate app version submissions.