Apple receipt - original_purchase_date has a date before application creation

Question

I am a little confused by this. So, following this approach , I got json that contains a bunch of decrypted fields. Among them are original_purchase_date.

I need to keep track of whether the application was purchased before this new version becomes free, and I think I need to use this field for this. But for some reason, in a sandbox environment, it shows a date

"original_purchase_date" = "2013-08-01 07:00:00 Etc / GMT";

which is a couple of years before the application was made.

So right now I'm not sure

• Why is he showing this date.

• Is the original_purchase_date field that I need to track.

Answer 1

The original purchase date is always "2013-08-01 07:00:00 Etc / GMT" for the sandbox environment.

You can use the original purchase date for your needs, but I suggest using the source field of the application version. Thus, it is much easier than using a date.