Adding Sandbox Tester in iTunes Connect with an existing Apple account

Question

I'm trying to add sandbox testers in iTunes Connect. But I'm getting this error:

The email address you entered already belongs to an existing Apple account. Please try again.

My question is how can I add sandbox testers with existing Apple ID accounts?

Solution 1

Update by Dimitar Nestorov May 2021

I just tried the sub+email trick and it works again. (Not confirmed by OP)

Update June 2020

So Apple has decided in their infinite power trip to no longer allow the previous sub+email trick to work.

Big thank you to Josef Grunig in the comments for pointing out a new workaround, at least in Gmail.

You can still use the "." trick with gmail accounts: [email protected] or [email protected] without dot is the same account for Gmail while they are different for Apple Sandbox. Just tried and it worked.

This will allow you to have "multiple" email accounts all going to the same email, since you can put the "." anywhere in the email string before the @.

Example:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
and so on, and Apple hopefully won't be able to kill this workaround since periods are allowed in email addresses normally.

If any other email providers allow this kind of functionality then feel free to include it in the comments.

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The following has been left for historical record

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Currently you cannot. The closest you can get is to use an email sub+address, if your email allows it. Gmail does for sure, others probably do too.

So if your normal itunes email is [email protected], then you could set up a sandbox user like [email protected] and then do all the email confirmation and stuff in your normal inbox. This is useful because you don't have to create actual brand new address for the sandbox account.

This is still a huge pain though because itunes sees it as a seperate, unique account from your normal itunes account, and so if you want to try out the sandboxed app, you have to log out of itunes, log in with the new sub addressed account, and then when you are done testing you have to log out of the sub account and log back in with your normal account to have access to all your other apps.

Update April 2017

So I contacted Apple developer support, and after finally getting through their horrible Contact Us system, I got this reply back:

Thank you for reporting your sandbox issue.

Aliasing for sandbox testers is allowed if the main email is already registered in our system as being only a sandbox Apple ID.

The following is an example.

If [email protected] is already registered as a regular account, you can not add [email protected] as a sandbox tester.

We will not be able to fix this for you as it is expected behavior.

I know it was working with normal apple id email addresses in Feb 2017. So now it looks like you'll have to have one address that is not associated with any Apple account in order to use sub addressing.

EDIT

Just to clarify a little more. If you use [email protected] as your main apple id, you can no longer use any variations of it with sandbox testing accounts.
Instead, Apple wants you to make a complete new and unnecessary email account such as [email protected] that hasn't been used as an apple ID, and THEN use that one as your base email for the subaddressing. So once making [email protected], you could register [email protected], and [email protected], etc.

Solution 2

The errors

The email address you entered already belongs to an existing Apple account. Please try again.

and

An unknown error has occurred.

and

An error has occurred. Try again later.

are equivalent.

It means that your email address is not accepted. The email field may also be highlighted red when the error message is shown.

Apple blocks these email addresses (this is undocumented):

• Existing Apple accounts
• Existing Apple accounts with the Gmail + trick added to the sandbox user account
• Mailinator
• Mailinator alternate domains
• Other, undocumented stuff

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I'm just going to post the real solution here, since this is what other people are wanting to know:

ANSWER

1. Login to MyDomain, or GoDaddy or whatever you use to manage your personal domain (if you don't control any domains you can turn in your nerd card now)
2. Create a new MX record for anon.yourdomain.com and point it to mail.mailinator.com. Or, possibly, realize that you already did this a while ago for some previous reason
3. Register the sandbox with some email like [email protected]
4. Then you're done

Solution 3

I fixed this by creating a brand new (free) Google account [email protected] and adding that as a new sandbox tester. This makes a new Apple ID for that email address. It's a pain but it worked.

Comments

[Basil Bourque]

Related Question: iTunes connect will not let me add myself as a user

[pkamb]

Does this mean it is impossible to use an @icloud.com email address Apple ID as a sandbox tester? It needs to be a 3rd party email address, and then a new Sandbox Apple ID created for it?

[user2924482]

The problem is the sandbox testers they have their devices associated with itunes account already. Per documentation "If your email service provider supports email subaddressing with a plus character (+)". My question now is if add "+testmyApp" in the email it would allow to install the app even if the itunes account link to the device (ipad/iphone) won't have the "+testmyApp" ?

[Kevin Pimentel]

I would say that from the sounds of the apple documentation, sub addressing is a way around the email being linked to an itunes connect account. I am not 100% sure about this as I have never tried subaddressing but I think you should open up a new question.

[AndyD273]

sub addressing ([email protected]) kind of works... it lets you get the confirmation email in your normal email account so you don't have to create a special sandbox email, but it is not your normal account. You have to log out of itunes on your device, then log in with your sandbox account. Because IOS doesn't have profiles, this means that you can either use your normal apps, or the test app, but not both, and you have to log out and in each time you want to switch. It is a pain in the arse, and I hope they change how it works some day.

[Martin]

14 years in computer sciences and I just learned this sub email trick... However, very useful for all itunes related accounts, thanks !

[amallard]

Did they change this recently? I get an error This email address is not available for use as an Apple ID. You may already have an Apple ID associated with this address. Please try again or sign in using your existing Apple ID.

[AndyD273]

@amallard Huh. I just did this 2 weeks ago. I just tried it again myself, and it kind of looks like they may have plugged up this workaround to their horrible testing system. I hate IOS development so much. I'll have to see if I can come up with another work around.

[allthethings]

@amallard I get the same error. This is weird because in their own docs they actually suggest using the subaddressing trick: developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/…

[AndyD273]

@allthethings it must be a very recent change because it worked literally two weeks ago when I last​ pushed out an update. So it's either hopefully a bug in their system, or a policy change and they haven't updated their docs.

[carbocation]

Subaddressing still doesn't work as of early April 2017.

[AndyD273]

@carbocation contacted Apple about this, got a reply. They changed how it works, but it is still possible.

[Praxiteles]

@carbocation How did they change how it works? Can you be a little more specific?

[carbocation]

@Praxiteles - It's not working for me. Did you mean to direct your question to AndyD273 ?

[AndyD273]

@Praxiteles From what I gather, they made it so that you have to use an unique, sandbox only email address for the base, and then you can add +alias with that one. So if your main apple id is Praxitele@gmail, you can't use it. So you could make a Praxitele1@gmail, and then use Praxitele1+ios1@gmail, Praxitele1+ios2@gmail, and so on as your sandbox accounts. They must have just put something in place to see if the base account is not a registered apple id. They do this because they are control freaks who need their customers to jump through hoops to show their devotion.

[beebcon]

Damn he's right - [email protected] totally works. Just gotta put in the work to setup that first unique email.

[carbocation]

I think you should put your "Edit" part at the top of your answer and move the remainder to the bottom prefaced with "Original answer". That way, people will immediately see that you have the right answer for them. Nice work getting to the bottom of this, @AndyD273

[えるまる]

Error: This email address can’t contain the character "+" :)

[Deepak Bandela]

in 2020 April it doesn't allow to create aliases. It says This email address can’t contain the character "+" Not sure what apple is trying to achieve doing this.

[AndyD273]

@DeepakBandela I am convinced that Apple has a deep, pathological need for total control of every part of the user experience. This mental illness is known as The Apple Way. If a user is unsatisfied with The Apple Way, they are told that they are wrong. If a user finds a loophole in The Apple Way to use a product or service in a way that Apple didn't envision, Apple will work tirelessly to close those holes and bring the wayward user back to The Apple Way. Sieg Heil Apple. For the humor or sarcasm impaired, I'm implying Apple are fascists who hate freedom and choice. I'm very slightly annoyed.

[Josef Grunig]

You can still use the "." trick with gmail accounts: [email protected] or [email protected] without dot is the same account for Gmail while they are different for Apple Sandbox. Just tried and it worked.

[AndyD273]

@JosefGrunig Great! I actually didn't know that trick. I suppose this means that you could have [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and so on, if google doesn't care about where the "." goes. Thanks for helping in the battle against Apple and their quest to have only 1 single way to do things. The Apple Way.

[Josef Grunig]

@AndyD273 Correct, that's the way it works. I suppose Apple is requiring this for some technical reason; BTW I love Apple, but IAP Sandbox could have been easier for developers.

[xta]

Removing the + but the . still working doesn't solve anything. It just makes life harder for developers.

[AndyD273]

@xta I agree, but this is Apple we're talking about. They aren't known for being friendly toward their customers or developers, or anyone that wants to think different and not follow the apple way. You're just sandboxing it wrong, or something ;)

[Pixel]

The "dot" for Google mail still works for me as of today. I much prefer Pears.

[hyponym]

The "dot" for Google mail is not working for me as of 26.11.20

[Abhishek Jain]

"dot" trick for Gmail not working anymore :(