Another fix for iPhone OS 2.0.x app crashes

Posted by jameskatt
8 September 2008 @ 8am

This issue only affects a very small percentage of the millions of iPhone users.

In fact, it may affect less than 1-percent of iPhone 2.0.x users.

If it was a bigger issue, don’t you think the iPhone’s competitors would notice it? Don’t you think this problem would get even larger press such that the major news outlets and MacWorlds of this world would notice it and make a huge deal of it? After all, any negative news about Apple generates BIG PRESS.

BUT NO. There is HARDLY ANY press about this issue. The reporters and major pundits are happily using their iPhone 3Gs without crashes.

Because this issue affects only a very small percentage of users, I believe this issue actually indicates that the affected iPhone has a HARDWARE DEFECT.

For example, the Flash memory may be defective. The disk directory - which contains metadata about the files including whether or not the application is authorized to run - may be stored in a corrupt area of Flash memory. Flash memory is not perfect. It can become defective or worn out over time, not holding the data despite indicating that it has. Just ask any professional photographer why he or she makes sure to cover an event with more than one Flash card in case one becomes corrupted.

I was drive nuts by this applications-not running bug.

Realizing it may be due to a hardware defect, I simply took it to my local Apple Store. I talked with the head Genius. He confessed that his own iPhone had the same problem. He replaced his but it still had the problem. He thoughts it was a software problem. He was waiting for Apple’s 2.1 firmware update.

I told him my rationale that it was a hardware problem and I wanted mine replaced. He gave me absolutely no hassle. He was very nice - as were the other employees at the Apple Store, who wanted to be helpful. The procedure took less than 15 minutes.

Now, I am very happy to say that I have a fully working iPhone 3G.

It just works!

This is as it should be with an Apple product.

Posted by jbenninghoff
8 September 2008 @ 8am

I have fixed this by restoring my iPhone from backup. I have experienced (and seen posts online) so many problems with the App Store on the iPhone that until Apple fixes the iPhone, I can say *never ever* add, update, or delete applications from the iPhone. *ONLY* add/update/delete using iTunes. Also, until this problem is fixed, you must limit the number of applications installed on your iPhone. I have (so far) avoided the crash-on-launch problem by limiting my installed apps to 49, (4 full pages) YMMV.

Posted by jbenninghoff
8 September 2008 @ 8am

@jameskatt,

I am absolutely convinced this is *not* a hardware defect, see: http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?messageID=7846648 and the continuation here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=793137

This is a related issue where many people have experienced instability problems with many apps. Replacing the iPhone has helped very few people, some have gone through several iPhones. The reason why so few are experiencing the problem is that most people have not installed 50+ applications on their iPhone.

A quote from the second thread:
“The watchdog timer is killing Springboard when it is told to reenumerate icons after a new program is installed. THe watchdog is 2 minutes. They never thought it would take longer than that, but as more and more people put lots of stuff on the phones, it is taking longer to reenumerate the Springboard causing it more likely to see this problem.”

Bottom line: Apple never figured people would install so many apps on their phone, and certainly never tested. Installing many applications is causing iPhone to blow up.

Posted by whytoi
8 September 2008 @ 10am

The percentage may be small, but that’s only because those affected are all very active users of iPhone 3G, those who have downloaded large number of 3rd party apps.

For me, downgrade to iTunes 7.7 and only download/update/install apps through iTunes helped to resolve the issue. Otherwise I am on iPhone OS 2.0.2.

Posted by pxby99
8 September 2008 @ 11am

I’ve had this problem recur numerous times. I’ve used various fixes that sometimes worked and later did not. Seemed very fluky.

I finally got to the point where even a restore (as new phone) wouldn’t even work. I even tried restoring from multiple macs.

The problem was finally fixed when I started downloading the apps through iTunes and then synched them to the phone. I was like it need to re-establish the DRM.

I’m sure it will probably break again because it’s happened at least half a dozen times.

Posted by sjonke1
8 September 2008 @ 1pm

I have had my iPod touch crash 5 times such that it wouldn’t boot again. The first 4 times I did the (agonizing) restore and recovery from backup (not always recovering everything), but the 5th time I finally took it to the Apple Store. This was Saturday. The Apple Genius verified that there is a problem and it definitely isn’t limited to some 1% of iPhone/iPod touch users. In fact, while I was waiting, another person (iPhone user) was there for the same issue. We weren’t the first, and that we aren’t a minority. The Apple Genius said that Apple believes the problem lay with some apps in the app store not following the guidelines which, bizarrely, require the app to sandbox *itself*. What? Well, this is pretty bizarre if true. The Genius was very apologetic for the problem and said that the next firmware update, coming soon but he didn’t know exactly when, will change the OS such that all apps are forced into a sandbox of their own, thus eliminating the problem. The big question is why in the world didn’t they do this in the first place?

Posted by smarthur
8 September 2008 @ 3pm

This started happening to me after I loaded my 12th non-Apple app. The non-Apple apps would not load at all. I deleted all non-Apple apps and reloaded them using the iTunes Syncing. The apps worked again.

Posted by glennm1--2008
9 September 2008 @ 8am

The simple approach of deleting all apps from the iphone and reinstalling from iTunes works well for me. Also, it is important to see if any particular apps are causing crashes. On mine, investigation of the CrashReporter files showed that WikiPanion was a problem. I’ve deleted this app and have not had any further app crashes — at least for a week or so.

Posted by mikirby
9 September 2008 @ 2pm

@jameskatt: Let me get this straight: This problem affects less than 1% of users, and yet you have it, AND the Apple “genius” you talked to had it, and then he changed his phone and he had it AGAIN? That’s quite a coincidence for such a “rare” problem.

Posted by i_POS
11 September 2008 @ 10am

Suddenly last weekend all 3rd party apps on my iPhone 3G stopped working. they would fail to load on startup, only showing the first image before dieing. I tried some of the ‘remedies’ recommended elsewhere (delete, reinstall some apps, etc), though stopped short of deleting all and reinstalling all. I solved the problem, however, by reducing the number of pages on my desktop from 6 to 4 by putting as many apps as possible on each page. Now all my apps work again. (I am not able to reproduce the error of them not working by expanding to 6 pages again, regrettably.) This is obviously *not* a hardware defect, this is a crappy OS (although perhaps HW is to blame for the phone dropping calls every 10 minutes–probably not.) I have little hope that Jobs & co will make the firmware more stable–they’re too busy inventing new colors for the touch.

Oh linux, where is thy phone?