Now that iOS 5 has been released and devices now have the 'Newsstand' feature, I've been considering switching over some of my print magazine subscriptions to the iPad platform.
Does anyone know what happens to your existing issues after an iOS magazine subscription is canceled? After downloading the "free" app for a magazine (such as PC Gamer), you have the choice of either buying individual issues at a high price or "subscribing" on either a monthly or annual basis. The subscription can be stopped at any time (and will expire at the end of the current paid period.)
After the subscription is stopped, can you continue to access the issues that you received during the paid subscription (and, importantly, will you still have access to them using the 'Restore paid issues' option on a new device even if you don't have a then-current subscription)? Or do you lose all access to the issues after the subscription payments stop? (I'm really hoping that's not how it works, but it wouldn't surprise me. I think it should work like a paper magazine; i.e. when your subscription ends, the issues on your shelf don't spontaneously combust…)
Best Answer
From a technical perspective your subscription is only valid as long as you're paying for it. After that Apple's servers return the same response for you, as they would if you had never subscribed.
You will probably still keep access to all your issues, although restoring old issues has to be implemented by the app itself. For example wired magazine requires you to create a wired account to later restore all magazines. (But even without the account you can keep your downloaded issues as long as you want. I expect that to be standard across other magazines as well - but again, that's up to the publisher.)