There are tons of subscription services available on Apple's mobile devices, whether you're rocking an iPhone 13 Pro, an iPhone XR, an iPad Mini 6, or an Apple Watch. Maybe you signed up for Apple Music or a subscription to Wired through Apple News. Watch out, though: These subscription services often suck you in with free trial offers, and if you forget to cancel before your trial period ends, they'll start hitting your credit card until you put a stop to it. Once you subscribe to a product or service, the subscription renews automatically until you cancel it.
Luckily, Apple makes it easy to check your subscription status or manage subscriptions to services like Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple TV channels, and in-app subscriptions you tried and possibly forgot about. Canceling your paid membership means you can continue to use the subscription until the next billing period. But if you cancel before a trial period ends, you may lose access to your sub immediately. Either way, always cancel a subscription at least 24 hours before it expires so you don’t run the risk of getting billed.
Here’s how to quickly cancel subscriptions on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch.
Cancel subscriptions on an iPhone
It’s easy to review your current subscriptions and change or cancel them right from your iPhone. Here’s how to do it.
Step 1: Go to Settings > [Your name] > Subscriptions.
Step 2: Find the subscription you want to cancel and tap on it.
Step 3: Tap Cancel subscription or Cancel free trial at the bottom.
Step 4: You’ll get a pop-up telling you when the subscription will expire if you cancel.
Step 5: Tap Confirm to complete the cancellation.
Remember that you can still use your subscription or free trial until the current subscription period ends, so make sure to get the most out of the subscription you still have.
An alternative way to cancel subscriptions on an iPhone
There’s also a second way of checking and canceling your subscriptions on an iPhone, if you fancy some variety.
Step 1: Go to App Store > [Your profile picture] > Subscriptions.
Step 2: This brings you to the same screen as above, so you can tap on any subscription and cancel it as described in the previous section.
Cancel subscriptions on a Mac
For MacOS Catalina and later, you can use the App Store app to manage your subscriptions.
Step 1: Launch the App Store app.
Step 2: Click the Sign in button or [Your name] at the bottom left.
Step 3: Click View information at the top.
Step 4: Sign in with your Apple ID, if asked.
Step 5: On the resulting page, go to Subscriptions > Manage.
Step 6: Click Edit next to any subscription you want to cancel.
Step 7: Click Cancel subscription. If you don’t see Cancel subscription, then the subscription has already been canceled.
Cancel subscriptions on iTunes
With Mac operating systems earlier than Catalina (MacOS 10.15), you can cancel subscriptions via iTunes.
Step 1: Open iTunes and click Account > View my account.
Step 2: Sign in with your Apple ID and click View account.
Step 3: Scroll to Settings and click Manage next to Subscriptions.
Step 4: Find the subscription in question and click where it says Edit next to it.
Step 5: Click on Cancel subscription or Cancel free trial.
Step 6: You’ll see a pop-up highlighting the end of your current subscription period, and you can click Confirm to complete the cancellation.
Cancel subscriptions on an Apple Watch
You can do anything on your Apple Watch that you can do on other mobile devices, including managing subscriptions. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Open the App Store app on the watch face.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap Account.
Step 3: Tap Subscriptions.
Step 4: Tap the subscription you want to cancel.
Step 5: Tap Cancel subscription. If you do not have any current subscriptions, it will say, “No subscriptions.”
Don’t see a cancel option? Is there a missing subscription?
Occasionally, you might click on a subscription in your list and discover that the Cancel Subscription option is unavailable. If that’s the case, you may have already canceled the service — look for a message beneath the name of the subscription that says Expires [Date] beneath the name of the subscription, which means you’ve successfully canceled it. If the service is currently active, it will typically say Renews [Date] underneath.
If you’re still struggling to find a specific subscription on your iPhone after following the above suggestions, you might have to try a more direct approach. Check with the service provider directly or look into the specific app you want to cancel. The way you subscribed might mean having to face some annoying obstacles to cancel it entirely.
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