Something went amiss in Apple’s application stores for iPhone and Mac apps, causing newly updated apps to crash. Users are reporting that a number of popular apps quit immediately upon loading, though this issue only seems to affect freshly updated software.
Newly updated versions of Instapaper, Readdle Scanner Pro and Angry Birds Space HD Free have all been accused of crashing upon being updated to the latest version.
Instapaper developer Marco Arment pinpoints the issue over at his blog to a likely server bug with the App Store’s content distribution network. Apple has yet to acknowledge the problem or issue a statement…
Details remain scarce, but it seems the issue plagues certain apps and specific regional app stores only. Being based out in Europe and using the US App Store, I downloaded the latest version of Instapaper that Marco pushed out this week.
Sure thing it keeps on crashing on my iPhone 4S running the latest iOS 6 Beta, indicating Apple hasn’t yet removed corrupt binaries from its servers.
Forbes thinks it’s an encryption glitch.
The Next Web has a comprehensive list of the affected programs.
According to Marco, Apple is to blame as it submitted corrupt binaries.
Last night, within minutes of Apple approving the Instapaper 4.2.3 update, I was deluged by support email and Twitter messages from customers saying that it crashed immediately on launch, even with a clean install.
He advises fellow developers to wait until Apple fixes the bug.
If you’re a developer, and you have a non-critical update pending release, I suggest waiting a few days for this to presumably get sorted out before releasing it.
Graham Spencer offers a remedy in his article over at MacStories:
If you’ve already been affected by the issue, the only real way to fix it is to delete the app and try re-installing the app – but this will only work if the app is no longer corrupted on Apple’s side.
GoodReader advises how to back up settings and restore them upon re-installation so you may wanna check out these instructions if you’re having issues with their app.
Let us know in the comments if you’re seeing this problem with your favorite apps.