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iPhone applications no longer work

I have had my iPhone for over a year and never had the troubles I am having now. I have installed dozens of apps and have the same update problem as all of you in this discussion. Now, most of my apps will not work at all! The past week, I have had apps crash and the iPhone would go back to the home screen. A reboot, by holding down the power button until asked to turn off the iPhone would usually solve this, but now, after several reboots, none of the apps are working now. On top of this, yesterday, I was stuck in the Phone app. I could select a contact and view a map of the address, but I could never get back to the home screen or select any other app. What was even worse was the fact that I could not reboot no matter how long I held down the power button. I had to hold both the power and home buttons which did reboot, but I lost all my music and videos. I am not looking forward to going through the entire process of installing everything again! Web apps still work fine as well as all of the Apple apps, but none of the free or purchased apps from the App Store work now. I think I'll try deleting all apps off the phone and from my Mobile Applications folder except for the $20 worth of paid apps that I have and start from scratch. If that does not work, I'll try a complete Restore which is a last resort since that involves hours of resetting preferences, app locations, etc.. By the way, what is with the hour long iPhone backup when synching through iTunes. Is this a bug in the new version of iTunes? I do not recall long backups before the iTunes update. I hope we get iTunes 7.7.2 and iPhone 2.0.1 soon. I hate to say this, but I miss the old reliable and bug-free iPhone version 1.1.4!!! Any insight from those of you reading this would be much appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Original 8 Gig iPhone, iTunes 7.7.1

Posted on Aug 2, 2008 11:40 AM

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718 replies

Aug 2, 2008 9:51 PM in response to pmonahan

I have exactly the same problem you describe. It started after I downloaded a Zen Tanagram app. I could not access that app but could get to all the other dozens I have downloaded (free and purchased). I rebooted the iphone and the Zen program started working but none of the other apps work except the ones that come with the iphone, all of which work. I downloaded a new free app to see if that would kick start things, and now only the new app works and the Zen app is broken. I'm not sure exactly what to do. Something is very wrong somewhere. I am not near the iMac that I use to sync my phone, but when I do get home, I plan to sync the phone and look at the crash logs. I have no idea what is causing this behavior. I'm sad because I don't feel that I can rely on the iphone (mine's a 3G) without have a computer with it.

Aug 3, 2008 7:38 AM in response to sparejm

OK I am so having this problem, have tried removing all apps and then syncing to pc, no joy, Apple are really wasting my time right now! Have a made a really big mistake backing this phone, imbarrasing to say the least, no one I know wants one, come on Apple sort this out i cant use anything except the phone functions 😟

Also while your their add the very basic function of MMS messages like every other phone in the whole world has!!!It cant be past your talents!!

Aug 3, 2008 8:10 AM in response to kbell-tiger

Still nothing! No apps are working, not even the Apple written Remote app, no iPod data, no fix yet. I think there are enough of us with the same exact problem that Apple will put out a fix. The question is, how soon and will we hear from them an acknowledgement that their is an outstanding bug and that they are working on it. I tried to download another two apps from the iPhone recently and their icons are not even showing up. I have a full nine screens of Apple apps, webapps and 3rd party apps and perhaps there is a limit of only nine full screens. Anyone know the answer?

Aug 3, 2008 7:27 PM in response to pmonahan

I'm having the same problem.

In addition, at one point today while synching, iTunes removed most of the apps from the iPhone! When I went to re-synch, it said that I was not authorized to use those apps (even the free ones)! Following some suggestions elsewhere in the Apple discussion forums, I deauthorized/reauthorized the computer a few times, removed the /Users/Shared/SC Info directory, restarted both computer and iPhone. Eventually, I was able to get the apps to load again.

But now, none of the apps (free or purchased) work. I'll get the splash screen for the app, but then it will crash and bring me back to the home screen.

I sure hope Apple works these kinks out of the system soon; this is frustrating.

Aug 3, 2008 9:11 PM in response to Tom Borgstrom

A quick update:

I downloaded a new (free) app in iTunes & re-synched. The new app worked, but the others continued not to work.

I deleted a non-functioning app (NY Times) on the iPhone, then re-downloaded it from the App Store on the iPhone. The new download worked. I tried re-synching, but iTunes complained that it couldn't synch the NY Times app because some error ocurred. I deleted NY Times app from iTunes and was able to synch. NY Times app continued to work after the synch, but the other apps stubbornly refuse to work.

I powered down & resynched the iPhone again. No change.

So, it looks like what you have to do is delete apps and re-download. This is OK, but a pain, for free apps. But, I really don't want to have to repurchase my paid-for apps!

Aug 4, 2008 2:56 PM in response to silence2-38554

Update from my original posting: I downloaded a free app from the iPhone, rebooted and everything is back in good working order, even the videos and music. I have over 80 apps and everything seems to work now except eReader which forced a reboot. I'm avoiding that app now and do not plan to download anything more or sync with iTunes again until Apple provides an update. I tried the same trick yesterday without success. What was different? I was on the Edge network yesterday and on my own WiFi network today. Seems hit and miss, but at least I did not go through the whole clean wipe process. I did not need to reinstall the videos or music. It seems these were always there on the iPhone, but not available. Since I had to type in my password in order to download the free app to the iPhone, it looks like there must be a bug in the software regarding authorization. Be sure you try this trick a few times before a clean wipe which will take hours of your time. I plan to wait a few days before marking this thread as "Answered" since others have had the same problem return.

Aug 4, 2008 6:58 PM in response to pmonahan

Glad I did not change this thread to "Question Answered".

Bad news, I had everything working again by following the steps of installing a new app and rebooting, then I read on AppleInsider.com that iPhone software 2.0.1 was out and quickly downloaded it. after a 1 hour installation process, I am right back to having none of the applications work, no music or videos, I'm back to square one!

I tried installing three app updates from the iPhone, rebooting each time, no luck. Then I downloaded a new app on the iPhone and rebooted, again, no luck. This all began again after updating to iPhone 2.0.1.

Unfortunately, this software update is no panacea for our woes. Looks like we will need to wait for iTunes 7.7.2 before we have a true fix.

If you have everything working while reading this, then consider holding off on a sync with iTunes until a reliable fix is in place

Aug 4, 2008 9:47 PM in response to pmonahan

Ok, so I hope this helps some people out. I was having the same problem with my apps: download, use, sync, no good anymore. I have found a solution that worked for me, maybe you too. First, open itunes and turn off automatic sync (in preferences). Next, plug in device, in my case the Iphone. Third, "transfer purchases from 'xxx' iphone." It worked for me!

Aug 4, 2008 10:31 PM in response to pmonahan

I've got the same problem - twice, in fact, with a complete Restore, app, iPod and Contacts repopulate, with half my address book missing and most of my data lost, in between. The data-eating Restore option was necessary finally since the most recent backup with everything on it was "corrupt", and iTunes (7.7.1) wouldn't allow me to install any previous backups. I had also tried a number of cold reboots, app-deletion, etc., top shift the log-jam.

At a guess, the App Store updater seems to be incorrectly setting permissions, which guess is supported by the above comments.

And like others above, I'm beginning to wish I'd not bought an iPhone. Not to mention my wife telling me repeatedly "I told you so, you should have waited till the bugs were ironed out". But then, how long would one have to wait?

Please fix this immediately Apple - your good name will rapidly go down the tube, otherwise.

iPhone applications no longer work

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