iPhone & Mac Apps Crashing on Launch? Delete & Re-Download Them

Jul 5, 2012 - 12 Comments

Resolve crashing apps by deleting and re-downloading them

If you updated or downloaded an app from the iOS App Store on the iPhone and iPad, or an app from the Mac App Stores recently and it crashes immediately on launch, there’s a fairly easy solution that should be able to resolve the crashing app issue; you should delete the app and re-download it from the App Store to resolve the problem.


This delete and redownload solution is pretty straightforward but it often works for many crashing app situations for both iOS apps and OS X apps.

Fix Apps Crashing Upon Launch on iPhone, iPad, and Mac by Deleting & Re-Downloading the App

The problem and solution for Mac and iOS is quite similar:

To delete an app iOS, just tap and hold on the icon until the “X” appears, clicking that X button to delete it. This actually uninstalls the app from iOS, but you’ll remedy that in just a moment.

To trash the crashing app in OS X, from Launchpad you can click-and-hold on an icon and select the same “X” to delete the app. For modern OS X versions, this uninstalls the application from the Mac, and again we’ll remedy that in a moment by reinstalling the app.

Next, for both iOS and OS X: Reinstalling is just a matter of finding the app again on the appropriate App Store, then re-downloading it again. This is easily done by browsing through your “Purchases” tab or by searching for the app name again and downloading it. Assuming you already own the app you will not be charged to re-download it.

Now, Relaunch the App: it should work again just fine, without crashing when the app opens. Problems gone!

I’ve had this experience multiple times on the iPhone and iPad, but never on the Mac, the solution has worked many times for me. So, this has a lot of anecdotal evidence behind it, but it’s not just that. In fact, at one point in time Apple notified AllThingsD that they “had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded“, which caused some application problems, but that problem was resolved assuming the user reinstalls the apps in question. So, beyond just anecdotal experience, even Apple can recommend the same solution at times.

Did this work to resolve your crashing app situation in IOS? What about the Mac? Let us know in the comments what your experience has been.

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Posted by: Matt Chan in iPad, iPhone, Mac OS, News, Troubleshooting

12 Comments

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  1. Jamie says:

    My music app will not work. When I open it only a blank white screen appears. If I reset my phone and open it I can get to my songs but then when I click on one the screen just goes white again. Can someone please help me figure out how to fix this without losing all my songs?

  2. David says:

    The Walking Dead No Man’s Land and Injustice Gods Among us keeps crashing. I deleted & reinstalled and lost all my progress on Justice League. I’ve been playing for over a year. I’m not happy.

  3. Margaret says:

    My Cibc app keeps crashing. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling and restarting and rebooting,nothing works.

  4. Marcelo says:

    In my case it’s a game that crashes during launch. I’d like to use the delete & reinstall technique, but will my progress in the game be still there when I download it again. Can having a Game Center account help me? Please, someone answer me

  5. Phil says:

    I have tried to delete then reinstall apps that crash on launch. They will work the first time but when I close them and try to open them again the crash on launch again. I love iPad and iPods from Apple but their customer support and service sucks big time.

  6. Connie says:

    My MUSIC icon has been closing immediately upon launch for the last few days on my iPad 2. It’s working fine still on my iPod touch. I’ve been thru the manual, and see nowhere what to do, when one of apple’s preinstalled items crashes. Also can’t get the iBook store to open, although the books I’ve dl’d are ok. I don’t have my PC with me (we were part of the massive east coast power outages last week). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’ve tried closing all other apps, powering off the iPad, and letting the battery totally run down before charging it.

  7. Peter says:

    I have this problem whit my iPad its the same thing there?

  8. vdiv says:

    Good grief! A DoS attack from Apple. Developers are upset because users with the issue have rated their apps lower.

  9. Rob says:

    Well, it did affect more than one users
    Yesterday updated Fractal Design via App Store umteen times and it refused to execute. Developer mailed me this morning to confirm this osxdaily article.
    Apple’s DRM management really ticks me off in general. Grr.
    Bad showing.

  10. Bernie says:

    Good grief. This effected nobody, the tech press focuses on rubbish on slow news days.

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