To expand upon Krunal's answers:
- What will happen to my currently running apps on user devices (remember apps are not distributed via App Store)?
Apps that are actually running (not just installed, but still actively running in memory, should continue to run. However, if the app is stopped and must be re-launched for any reason, it may or may not run for a short period after the developer account expires. When your developer account expires, your development and distribution certificates are invalidated. This means that if the device does check on the cert, they will be invalid and the app won't run. There is some caching that you should be aware of, but it won't allow the app to run very long after the account expiration:
Certificate Validation
The first time an application is opened on a device, the distribution certificate is validated by contacting Apple’s OCSP
server. Unless the certificate has been revoked, the app is allowed to
run. Inability to contact or get a response from the OCSP server is
not interpreted as a revocation. To verify the status, the device must
be able to reach ocsp.apple.com. See“Network Configuration
Requirements”(page 9).
The OCSP response is cached on the device for the period of time specified by the OCSP server—currently between 3 and 7 days. The
validity of the certificate will not be checked again until the device
has restarted and the cached response has expired. If a revocation is
received at that time, the app will be prevented from running.
Revoking a distribution certificate will invalidate all of the
applications you have distributed.
An app will not run if the distribution certificate has expired. Currently, distribution certificates are valid for one year. A few
weeks before your certificate expires, request a new distribution
certificate from the iOS DevCenter, use it to create new distribution
provisioning profiles, and then recompile and distribute the updated
apps to your users. See “Providing Updated Apps” (page 10)
So at best a cached OCSP response will get you a week of extra run time, if the user had launched the app right before the cert was invalidated. Regardless, very soon after, the apps will immediately quit when launched after iOS knows that the certificate was revoked.
- What will happens if the user does a fresh install of my app?
The app will not install. The app will download to the device, but when iOS goes to install the downloaded ipa, it will check the certificate, which is now revoked, and cancel the install.
- What will happen to my current account, will I able to access the account?
Yes, you can log into the account. It will basically revert to a free developer account. With the free account, you can still build directly to devices, and they will be installed with a free developer provisioning profile that expires in 7 days (vs. 365 for a paid developer account). You also have no manual control over certificates and profiles. This means you cannot create distribution certificates and profiles.
- Will my Enterprise certificate expire immediately?
Yes, Apple will revoke your certificate and invalidate your profiles when the account expires. This means you will no longer be able to create new builds using the certificate / profile.
- Will my provisioning profile expire immediately?
Yes, the profiles will be invalidated.
