Who receives updates when I reduce the number of territories in which my app is sold?

Question

under the 'practical, answerable problems that are unique to software development'- specifically iOS development...

I give you the following:

I'm specifically asking about how Apple/App Store handles the following issue: namely, who receives updates when I reduce the number of territories in which my app is sold.

For example, currently my app is sold in every territory around the world. For my next release, I want to reduce the territories to just one (my own country).

My question is: what happens to the users from the other countries who have already downloaded my app? Will they continue to receive updates (as I will continue to release updates for my own country/territory)? Or will they remain 'paused' on that final version of my app that was available in their own territory, in other words, effectively 'locked-out' of further updates?

I did attempt to research this issue before asking this question and while the two links below certainly 'overlap' my question, I'm still confused about what precisely happens.

If you do know the answer - and let me know - I'd be very grateful!

Best regards, John.

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Research. Prior questions that were tangentially related to the IOS programming and app development environment. Please take a moment to consider the overall utility of this question before banning for being 'off topic'. I am not talking about planting geraniums here - I'm talking about something that is - or should be - of interest to coders and developers.

iTunes Connect App Update release for all countries?

Updating an iOS app in one territory only

Answer 1

Anyone who has already purchased (even if free) your app will continue to be able to download it forever. If you update the version, they get the new version, not the old one (unless you change the is version require to - then they get the newest one supported by their OS version.

If you pull an app completely (from all markets) you can flag it as being "for legal reasons". this prevents it from being re-downloaded, even from people who already purchased it. But this takes it off all markets, not just some of them.

It sounds like you need to contact Apple directly and describe why you want existing customers to have their right to access your app taken away. Maybe they can make a special case. In general though, they don't allow it.