iPhone 3G apps crash on startup and cause iPhone to restart

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.

Well I might as well join the rest of you fine folks here... as my apps are doing the same thing! This is getting really really old...

I have started over... I don't know how many times now here....at this time I am trying to find a solution that will work and fix my 3G.... I love the phone when it works as far as the apps go.... can't believe some of the things I have seen or played....

I know how computers can have bugs... as I have built them for over 20 years now... so I know how things can go... for me I am trying to be as patient as I can.... I am sure Apple will get everything working right with the 3G... we just have to be patient! I hope someday I can say.... WOWOW this is a GREAT iPhone!

Count me in, as well. I bought the 3G phone a few weeks back - as did a couple of my friends. All of us have had the phone crash, lock up and need to be restored. In my case, I've had to restore twice now - and it won't allow me to restore from backup (gets to a point where it hangs and never continues; I've had to create new profiles). It's ridiculous, actually. It's an incredible phone.. when it works. It's at the point now, though, where I'm afraid to do anything. I've purchased a few apps to track expenses and journal entries and .. it's just so disheartening to lose it all and have to start from scratch again and again. I've lost tons of photos, been forced to stay up into the wee hours while it restores (as I need my phone during the day) and I'm a little disgusted that Apple won't own up to it. Netflix was down for 2 days and they tripped over themselves to "apologize" for letting everyone down. Where is the customer service? We are customers, Apple; we don't expect for perfection. We just hope that you acknowledge our existence, that there's a growing consensus that the phone just keeps crashing and that you're working on an update. All I hear is a rumor that there will be some magical update in September.

Beyond the frustration, I'm concerned about my iTunes account. Since I can't restore from backup and have to continually create a new profile, does iTunes know that it's the same device - that I'm just renaming it - or am I going to try to restore one night down the road (or buy a Nano), want to sync and it's going to say "sorry.. but you've reached the max number of devices allowed to sync with your library"? I assume there is a limit to the number of "devices". Should I be concerned? If so, I can't begin to tell you how angry I would be (and wouldn't no what to do to resolve it) as I just bought the new 24" iMac. I've got an 80GB iPod, an iPhone and soon.. a Nano. I've been loyal to them.

Any ideas, guys?

Also.. should I take the phone back and get a new one? I know it's probably a software/iTunes issue and that a new phone won't change things, but I feel kind of sad that I may have damaged the phone someone with all of these broken sync sessions, restores and all-around crashes. Do you think the phone is ok or am I best served by returning it for a new version? I don't know. I really don't want to march down to the store and have to go through all of this again.

I'm just so disappointed. I've raved about the phone to everyone and now it's just causing nothing but headaches and loss of sleep (literally). It's unacceptable.

As soon as I can get some time I will write what all I have did so far to get this phone to calm down as far as the crashes go.... I have read all over the internet and gathered as much information as I could and put it all together and so far my phone is ok... for how long who knows... but I will explain each step and hopefully it will help others out....

Ok joining the group here it is not related to sync... After syncimg it worked for aproximately 12 hours then apps crashed again reloading one app did not work. Only doing restore worked pain in the ***! Restored 3 times in 5 days of owning phone bout to blow a gasket here such crap great phone when it works. Bout to go over to the LG phone instead if they don't fix this soon! I pay $90 a moth to have an iphone and it is down 80% of the time.... So not worth it....

<Edited by Moderator>

Alrighty friends this problem has been going on for over a month July 12 first post Aug 26 most recent...

Ok contacted AT&T to see if they had any insight this is the chat hope it helps someone....

You are now chatting with 'Amanda Johnson'

Amanda Johnson: Welcome to the AT&T Live Support Chat.

Amanda Johnson: My name is Amanda , I will be happy to assist you .

Joshua Thornton: hi

Joshua Thornton: the apps keep crashing

Joshua Thornton: ive restored 4 times

Joshua Thornton: works for 12 hours and then they all crash again

Joshua Thornton: ive also tried eveerything listed on this site http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7955469#7955469

Amanda Johnson: I will be glad to help you with your phone issues.

Amanda Johnson: I am sorry that you are having problems with the applications on your phone. What kind of phone do you have please?

Joshua Thornton: iphone 3g 8gb

Amanda Johnson: Can you please go to the menu of the phone and go to settings and scroll down to airplane mode and turn the airplane mode on?

Joshua Thornton: ok

Amanda Johnson: Then wait 1 minute and go back to menu, settings and airplane mode and then turn it off. Once you have done this turn the phone off and then turn it back on and retest it. If in 12 hours the applications on the phone crash again you will need to change out the I phone for another one at the location where you purchase the phone. If you have had the phone for more than 30 days you will need to contact our warranty exchange department to change out the phone.

Amanda Johnson: I will be glad to wait while you test this.

Amanda Johnson: I will send you the warranty information so that you will have the number in case this does not work and you have to contact them to change out your phone.

http://ja1me.net/iTunesand_Oops/thanks_forcoming.html --- This seems to be the only temporary fix that truly sticks.... Hope it helps... I am so frustrated...

Well I have been reinstalling apps for a couple of weeks now since I had to take my other iphone 3G back.... this is my second 3G....

I have the first generation and the 3G. What I did was this.... with my first iphone I set it up and put the apps on it that I wanted.... after that it has been setting here and every few days I check to see if the apps are still working or not... and they are.... that phone has never been loaded back in itunes since I set it up....

With my 3G so far I set it up after 100 tries... and then put the apps back on it yesterday (all day long and half the night) and so far they are all working...

I have came to the conclusion that it is itunes that is messing it up... I have not hooked either phone back up to my computer to load it in itunes and so far the 3G is not giving me any problems yet...

I also think it has something to do with updating any of your apps... I will not update a app until these bugs are all worked out from Apple..

I also keep only one copy of the app in the finder under music/itunes/mobile applications so if there was six upgrades to any app I remove the app from itunes... and head to the finder to make sure it was removed and all the updates to it and then I go back into itunes and download the update. By doing this there is only ONE file for each app I have on my hard drive at all times.....

I want to say at this time I would be safe to download a new app and sync it to the phone but before I did this I would Deauthorize Computer in itunes and then Authorize Computer before downloading any app.

Another thing I have learned to do since all of this is when I am playing a game I always put the phone in airplane mode while playing it..... not all these apps can accept calls when your playing a game or in one of your programs... another thing I do is once I am finished playing a game I hold my home key down until the app completely closes.....

And I completely reboot the phone by holding the home key down and off/on switch and keep it that way without sliding to shut off until I get passed it all and I see the Apple logo and then I leave go... and let the phone boot up.

Some people are frustrated about this all and I have not been to happy but I have learned an awful lot... this experience reminds me back in the Windows 95 days..... either your a guru or your not to survive this....

When I have had to setup my phone again I have noticed that if anyone calls or texts me there goes the setup.... you can not have any calls or texts while setting it up or installing apps....

I like to see the little swirly thing go once the app has been synced to make sure it installed right... if you set it in airplane mode you can't see this.... I tried it in airplane mode but made sure not to touch the phone after each app was installed for a few minutes.... also I shut off auto lock while installing apps.... I did not want anything disturbing the installations....

After trying everyone known to man and suggestions on the internet to fix the problems here.... I feel the phone is ok at this time if I stay away from itunes once I set it up...

I'm just... so disgusted. I had to do yet ANOTHER restore a couple days ago, so the next day I went down to Apple and they gave me a new iPhone. It just locked up, again, and gave me the Apple logo for the past 3 hours. I'm now home and in the process of doing my first restore on the 2nd phone. This is just so wrong. I have read enough forums on this topic to know that some folks are going back for their 5th or 6th phone ... with the same results. The Apple "genius" said that it was probably just "a bad phone". BS. I suspect it's a problem with ALL phones and, more likely, tied to an iTunes sync, the last update or a problem with memory on the phone itself and what that person is doing at the time of the crash. In my case, today... I was moving around a lot of icons on the home screens, then saved an icon from CNN and Google Reader to the home screen. I launched CNN, it locked up while browsing the site and then it just rebooted and gave me that **** logo from ****. I'm going to try doing a sync with very few apps. I don't think it has anything to do with the NUMBER of apps, though, as my friend has the same phone and has more apps than me; she's never had any issues (then, again.. she hasn't run the 2.0.2 update). She's added tons of apps directly to the phone and has done the updates on them, as well... so... I don't think it's the App store via the phone (or the updates as some have concluded). I think it's iTunes, the update or .... moving around one too many icons, perhaps. I don't know.

I'm not going to take any pics or save anything as I know this is probably going to happen again. I'll allow for up to 2 more restores, take it back and go with a 3RD phone, but ... if it doesn't work by that point.. I guess it's back to my Blackberry - which is so unfortunate. As I've said, when this phone works... it is a beautiful thing. Maybe it's me. Maybe everyone else is fine. Between the issues we've been having and their dismal MobileMe launch, so sad. Really.

I went yesterday to the Apple store and showed an employee the same problem you all are experiencing. She had never seen anything like it before. That floored me with the number of people I have seen on various discussion forums complaining about this.

same issue with me, iPhone 16 GB v2.1. everything worked fine, did a restore via my G5 - after, could not launch ANY apps, they would just quit immediately. phone did not freeze, though.

cure: downloaded another free app directly on iPhone. now, all apps work fine again.

why that? not sure - but all apps on my iPhone had been downloaded DIRECTLY to my phone. after having been replaced through the restore of my G5, i guess, there were some issues with confusion on DRM.

I bought an Apple-unlocked 3G iPhone in Hong Kong - this is the one Apple sells that can be used with any SIM card. 16GB, v. 2.2 (5G77).

And I have the same crashing app problems that all of you have mentioned here. I just deleted and reloaded all of them and, for now, they work.

I had the original iPhone, too. The 3G is MUCH buggier than the original.

Count me in to the throngs of iPhone users with this intermittent problem. Same issue as many of us here. But, this one worked for me:
0). Do not delete any apps if you have not done the sync process to transfer all apps
1). sync your apps to your PC (or Mac)
2). when sync is successfuly done, make sure the list of apps are all transferred (some errors may occur when doing the sync)
3). Get hold of the iPhone and move arround the apps, any one. Switch around the apps from one page to another.
4). Run any apps and voila, it works!
I got the idea from Superbo. Thanks to you.
Hope this helps.

Now on to Apple: I hope you listen to your users. This is like back to the GPF (General Protection Fault) days of Windows 3.1!!! Am calling this iGPF. Thru the years I have always regarded Apple as a breed apart with regards to their software and hardware products - User friendly, stable and "Crash Proof". Well.

This iGPF (or iCrash) cannot be blamed to the 3rd party application developers, at least not solely. This crash happens to all 3rd party apps. There must something in the design of the software the makes this happen. You have to listen. Your success lies not only on sheer innovation but also partnership with other developers, music and film industry.
Personally, I jumped late in the mac/ipod/iphone band wagon when I saw a lot of apps - 3rd party apps.
Solution to this dilema would have to come from both sides with Apple leading the pack. You have the key and you are the key.