iPhone OS 2.0.2: Fix for Apps Crashing, Not Launching and Missing Music

Posted by jameskatt
19 August 2008 @ 12am

The above are fairly draconian, destructive solutions.

After I had this problem - the second time since this also happened with firmware 2.0.1,
I did is the following:

1. Synchronize the iPhone - including doing a backup.
2. Disconnect the iPhone.
3. Reconnect the iPhone and select “Restore”.
4. Restore from the backup (NOT as a new phone).

This will reinstall the apps and data.

If this doesn’t work, yes, restore as a new phone and synchronize your data again.
But before doing this, back up your photos to iPhoto and export any data you can from your apps so you don’t lose everything.

Posted by peterpayne
19 August 2008 @ 5am

No problems here for me on my iPhone in Japan. All apps seem to be fine. An issue that makes the Google Maps link show correctly when emailed but with the map centered on the ocean off of Africa isn’t fixed though.

Posted by jameskatt
19 August 2008 @ 2pm

On second thought, I think the iPhones that have this problem are also the ones which have problems with 3G.

They are probably defective. Apparently approximately 2% of iPhones are defective.

I’m going to return mine for a new one as soon as I can.

Posted by DCT
19 August 2008 @ 5pm

Nit… After upgrading to 2.02, my original iPhone will no longer save my call forward number after turning call forward off. This worked fine all the way through 2.0.1

Posted by caljuice
19 August 2008 @ 9pm

All,

New to this. So frustrated, my first time responding to a forum. On a whim, I called Apple support… I thought I only had 90 days… 2 years with the iPhone. A very nice rep said that you could either select new phone or turn off your anti-virus/firewall and this would fix it. I haven’t tried it because I selected new phone. She said it hasn’t worked for everyone.

The second problem… crashing apps. After syncing, the 3rd party apps would not load. I deleted 1 and re-downloaded… fixed it. On a whim, I turned off my anti-virus/firewall and synced… fixed the crashing apps. Hope this helps someone.

Posted by mike_kaplan
20 August 2008 @ 2am

After installing 2.0.2 update, most of my apps went dead. I did a Factory Restore and resynced and all works fine now. Things seems a bit zippier.

Posted by Danyel1971
20 August 2008 @ 5am

Hi,
This is not only at 2.0.1. One day before this FW upgrade is released I tried to start up any of my 60 apps. Started up, saw the screen and back to the home page of the Iphone again. Not one app “bought” at the App store worked any more.
Next to that, ALL my music was gone. After sync with PC Itunes I saw 9Gb was used for music, video and podcast but they were not to be approached by Ipod.

Tried a restore so emptied my Iphone, after it was empty and clean again Itunes said the last copy was “broken”….Had a clean Iphone and lost EVERYTHING..!!!

Took me the whole evening to get things back, agenda/schedule lost forever. Contacts which were changed (about 200) lost and gone forever….

Danyel
White 16 Gb Iphone 3G

Posted by sjonke1
20 August 2008 @ 6am

I have an iPod touch and had this problem after updating to 2.0.2. Actually, I was having this problem after a while with some applications when running 2.0.1 and 2.0.0 before it. I finally decided to restore and set up as a new device in the hope that it would resolve the problem, and it seemed to, up until when the 2.0.2 update appeared and I updated to it. Then *all* of my 3rd party apps crashed at launch. I tried powering down and back up, restoring and setting up with a backup, and then restoring an setting up with a different backup. None of it did any good. 3rd party apps continued to crash at launch. Finally I, for the second time now, restored and then set up as a new device and so far it is working, but I guess, from the sounds of What Job’s said, that this problem may crop up with some apps in time again.

On the one hand the 2.0.x firmware brings a lot of cool functionality (and fun) and on the other hand this has been, easily, the most frustrating and infuriating series of software updates ever released by Apple for any product. I have to say that at this point my feelings about my iPod touch are decidedly mixed. The 2.0.x firmware was released before its time - we are testing beta software that should have been kept behind closed doors, or perhaps offered as an option but clearly noted as “beta” quality. Then the problems wouldn’t sting so bad. Apple has really flubbed this up pretty badly IMHO. I really hope that the September update finally brings 2.x up to release quality, but am, admittedly, tending toward skeptical at this point.

Posted by jtskreyn
20 August 2008 @ 7am

This problem has existed since the 3G launch for me. Every time a new app is installed or I install an update, NONE of the custom apps will launch or run. A note: I download all my apps from the iPhone. To fix the problem, I have to delete ONE app from the iPhone and reinstall it from the iPhone. Once complete all other apps work properly (well, mostly….disregarding their own bugs and sloppy code).

2.0.2 didn’t fix anything that I can see. Apps still need to be deleted/reinstalled every time a new app is installed, reception no better, keyboard lag still there, crashes, etc…..nothing changed.

Apple programmers seem to be busy doing something to the OS, but there is no evidence that they are actually accomplishing anything other than wasting our time installing updates and frustrating us. LOL…….It’s almost like Apple is morphing into Microsoft.

Posted by Jasen_C
20 August 2008 @ 8am

Have had no problems with 2.02… And asking around I’ve not heard of any other users with this problem. (And I am working in Iphone App Development). So probably not affecting “many”, more “some”. Or even “few”. But I guess that does not sexy Blog Post make…

Posted by portlandGuy
20 August 2008 @ 8am

I can now add, after having used my home Wi-Fi, that it continues working well as prior to the 2.0.2 update.

Posted by davoud1
20 August 2008 @ 9am

for what it’s worth i have a 1st gen iphone, itunes 7.7.1 (only one machine synced with, one itunes account) and a handful of app store apps, despite my reservations after these reports i upgraded to 2.02 and everything is fine, all apps work and everything seems a little snappier. the camera still lags too much from when you hit the camera button to when you are able to take a photo, it worked twice as fast in the 1.x firmware.

Posted by Danyel1971
20 August 2008 @ 11pm

Hello, it’s me again.

After my latest post, dated August 20, I did not sync with my pc anymore and just restored data (contacts) by Funambol.
This morning I installed three updates and, while updating, the Iphone started up, asking me 5 times my password for Itunes and then finished the updates.
Tried Whoshere, an app from the App store, and after a second or two it stopped, back to the home screen. Tried another application, the same, started up and back to the home screen.
Wanted to know if my worse nightmare came through I started up Ipod to see if my music was still there……NOPE….

This is still with the FW 2.0.1 and tonight will first make a full backup, then update to FW 2.0.2 to see if that helps. If not, I will do a restore and put my latest back up on the Iphone to see if everything is fine then…..
I fear the worst, think I have to restore as a new phone and do all settings again. Hopefully not every two days I have to do this.

Everyone saying Apple is such a fine system, make a bid for my Iphone….!!

Kind regards
Danyel
White 16Gb Iphone 3G

Posted by dspiers
25 August 2008 @ 8am

Same issues here: no music and crashing web apps. My set up was G3 with 2.0.2 and iTunes 7.7.1

Have been thinking of deleting all my apps again. But halfway decided against it. Have better things to do. Just incredible that this even happens. I just object that you have to go through this bullshit to get everything running. Apple should post a fix.

Anyway, I had about given up on the whole thing and decided to wait till a fix would be released.

Then I read one post somewhere which gave me an idea: I downloaded the free song of the week from the iTunes store on my iPhone. And lo en behold, it asked for my password, and downloaded it.
Even more remarkable was that all my music was back and my apps started to work aswell.

So everything works for now. However I have decided to stay away from iTunes and syncing. Just use the appstore directly on my iPhone to download apps or music.

I will wait till Apple posts a new iTunes or a new FW before I plug back in again.

Maybe this trick works with others aswell. Good luck.

Posted by brownskie
28 August 2008 @ 9pm

same thing happened to me and i haven’t even upgraded to 2.02. I have a first gen iPhone and a lot of third party apps. Starting three to four days ago all third party apps would not load. It would come up then just suddenly quit and am back to the home screen. Anyway I upgraded to the latest iPhone software and iTunes last nite hoping that it would fix the problem. All my music files and video files on my iPhone did not disappear by the way while I was having that third party apps launch problem. I tried that other trick posted - donwloading a free song and entering my password - well, what do you know.. everything was back to normal. Third party apps launching without any problem at all.
Hopefully apple software engineers can pinpoint the problem and post a real fix instead of us trying to find work arounds. As somebody mentioned - seems like apple is turning into the borg :-( .. workaround for this, workaround for that - shades of microsoft. hopefully not …

Posted by i_POS
11 September 2008 @ 9am

I had a similar problem: suddenly all 3rd party apps would not work (although all my music, podcasts,etc, were still visible). I tried some of the suggestions above: delete, reinstall some apps, download (shudder) the free song of the week on itunes, etc. I was almost resigned to resort to deleting all apps and re-downloading. I corrected my problem, however, by reducing the number of ‘desktops’ on my iphone. that is, moved as many apps as I could get onto each page, reducing the number of pages to 4 (from 6). now all my 3rd party apps work again. I tried to reproduce the problem by increasing the number of pages, but I cannot. Am happy enough not to have to resort to re-downloading all.