How to cancel App Store magazine subscriptions
The subscriptions to a few digital magazine apps started innocently enough -- you knew the editors and contributors, some of the articles you read were really good, and that US$1.99 monthly or bi-monthly charge gave you something to do other than play games on your iPad. But after a while you started to find more than half of the articles in every issue to be either irrelevant to your interests or just downright annoying. So how do you cancel your subscription so you don't keep getting charged $1.99 or more every two or four weeks for something you're not reading?
Mac or PC
It's actually pretty easy. From a Mac or PC running iTunes, simply launch the iTunes app, sign in, then click on your Apple ID (email address) in the toolbar of the app and select Account to view your account information. You'll see a lot of information on the screen -- scroll to the bottom where you see the heading "Settings".
Under that heading are things like the nickname you use for doing iTunes reviews, settings for Genius recommendations, and the ever-important Subscriptions. To the right of Subscriptions you'll see a Manage link -- click it, and that takes you to a list of the subscriptions you currently have or have had at some point in time.
Click the Edit link to turn auto-renew on or, in this case, off, and click Done. With that, your subscriptions will automatically stop -- or start again if that's what you chose to do.
iOS Devices
On iOS devices, launch the iTunes app. Looking at the Featured page, scroll down to the bottom until you see a button marked Apple ID, followed by your Apple ID email address. Tap on that, and a pop-up appears. Tap View Apple ID to see your account settings.
Partway down the Account Settings screen you'll see a listing for Subscriptions, along with a link marked Manage -- tap that to see your subscriptions and either turn off auto-renewal or turn it back on.
So there you have it -- how to actually stop spending money on magazine subscriptions you're not reading. Enjoy spending that hard-earned cash on something else, like a copy of my latest book (just kidding...).
