Corrupt App Updates Causing iOS And Mac Apps To Crash

It’s easy to update apps on iOS and OS X through both App Stores, but updates for some apps are reportedly causing problems and apps are crashing as a result. The developer behind Instapaper, Marco Arment, noticed this yesterday after posting an update to his app. Not long after pushing the update, users began sending emails and tweets saying that Arment’s app was crashing even though the update was stable when it was first submitted to the App Store.

As a result, Arment discovered that a corrupt update was being pushed out to users in various areas all over the world. Arment explained that until a functional version of the app was pushed out a couple of hours later, the only way to fix the problem was to delete the app and reinstall it.

Arment characterizes the issue as:

  • The app crashes immediately on launch, every time, even after a delete and reinstall as long as the corrupt file is being served by the App Store.
  • It doesn’t even show the Default.png before crashing. Just a split-second of a partial fade to black, then back to Springboard.
  • It may only affect customers in some regions.
  • If updating from iTunes, some customers might get a dialog citing error 8324 or 8326.
  • Mac apps might show this dialog:
    “[App] is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete [App] and download it again from the App Store.”
  • The console might show:AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen() failed, error -42110

Unfortunately, Arment’s app Instapaper doesn’t seem to be the only app causing problems. Other apps include GoodReader and Angry Birds Space HD Free, as well as a whole host of other apps.

The developer of GoodReader speculated that notifications of a new update might have been sent out for apps before Apple’s internal encryption had finished, which would have caused the issue to occur in the first place.

Arment gives a full list of the apps that are known to be affected on his website. Apple has not yet commented on the issue, but developers suggest waiting a few hours after receiving an update notification before updating apps.

Source: Marco Arment and GoodReader via MacRumors
Image Credit:Redmond Pie

Kaylie lives in Ottawa and got her first Mac in 2007 and is now a fan for life.