What PENDING means

Expected timeline: Apple does not publish an SLA for production Retention Messaging message review. Plan for days, not hours. Do not block launch on a message that was just uploaded.

After you upload a production Retention Messaging message, Apple sets the message state to PENDING. Apple reviews the content before it can be used in production. If the message includes an image, the image has its own review state and also needs approval.

Treat pending as a real operational state, not a transient UI glitch. Your control plane should show pending inventory, but production runtime snapshots should reference only approved content.

Sandbox approval does not approve production

Sandbox is designed for setup and performance testing. Apple auto-approves sandbox messages and images so you can validate request handling. That does not mean the corresponding production message is approved.

  • Sandbox message approved: useful for testing.
  • Sandbox performance test PASS: required before production URL configuration.
  • Production message PENDING: still not safe to publish in production rules.

The sandbox benchmark proves the callback can respond. It does not approve production message content.

Why a tool may say "no messages yet"

If you know production messages exist but a tool shows no selectable messages, check whether the tool is showing all uploaded inventory or only production-usable messages. A conservative control plane may hide pending messages from flow builders so nobody accidentally publishes a runtime rule that Apple cannot render.

Inventory view

Should show uploaded messages, including PENDING, APPROVED, and rejected states where available.

Rule picker

Should usually show only approved messages that can be used by the selected response type.

Also confirm the environment. A production message will not appear in a sandbox-only picker, and sandbox auto-approved messages should not appear in a production publish path.

Diagnosis checklist

  • Call GET /inApps/v1/messaging/message/list against the production StoreKit host.
  • Confirm the exact messageIdentifier exists in the production response.
  • Check messageState. If it is PENDING, do not publish a production rule that references it.
  • If the message uses an image, check the image list and image state too.
  • Confirm the app, bundle ID, subscription group, product ID, and locale match the flow you are editing.
  • Refresh App Store Connect sync in your control plane.
  • Check whether the flow builder filters to approved messages by design.
GET https://api.storekit.apple.com/inApps/v1/messaging/message/list Authorization: Bearer {in_app_purchase_key_jwt}

When to contact Apple

Contact Apple if production messages remain pending longer than your launch schedule can tolerate, if the API state disagrees with App Store Connect, or if messages appear stuck after you have verified environment and image state.

Include concrete identifiers so support can inspect the right objects:

  • Developer account and team ID.
  • Bundle ID and Apple app ID.
  • Message identifiers and image identifiers.
  • Current production messageState values from the message list endpoint.
  • Sandbox performance test request ID and PASS result.
  • Sandbox and production realtime URLs.
  • Approximate upload time and timezone.

Sources

Upload messagesSandbox performance testConfigure realtime URL