Apps wont work on my iphone

OKAY GOOD NEWS for people stuggling to find a way that works for them!!! After much frustration I finally found a way that worked for me. My case was particularly bad because none of the options that were working for others would work for me. Here is what I did step by step to get third party apps working again. it requires downloading fresh copies of apps in itunes so write them all down and make sure you get all of them back. They are free if you've paid for them once already... it's a pain in the butt, but it works in the worst cases...

make sure you have latetest itunes and latest iphone OS 3.0.1 (ironic knowing that 3.0.1 was what triggered the problem in the first place for me, but none the less in the interest of thoroughness...)

1. sync your phone for a back up and sync All your apps onto the phone then disconnect it.

2. delete each and every app manually from the phone to get rid of all the hidden firmware. It's important to put them all on the phone and then delete them manually as this removes ALL the hidden firmware for all the apps that might get in the way. I read that the firmware for the apps can still be on the phone when the apps are simply unsynced so you have to put them on the phone in order to totally delete them from the phone... stupid I know...

3. do a HARD RESET of the phone by holding the sleep and home buttons until you see the apple logo and it reboots. leave it disconnected from the computer.

4. in iTunes, in the app window highlight all apps and totally delete all of them moving the files to the trash when prompted. DO NOT LEAVE THEM IN THE APPLICATIONS FOLDER, make sure you write down all the names or somehting so you can find them all again in the app store.

5. Deauthorize your computer in the store account window, close and restart itunes, and proceed to step 6, and if at the end of this procedure it doesnt work repeat entire procedure with step 5a. instead of this step...

5a. in the itunes menu bar under "store" click view account put in your password and then on the account summary page click "remove all computer authorizations". (this is what I HAD TO DO) You can only do this if you have all your five authorizations in use and you haven't used this option within the last year. You can only see/use this button once per year AND ALL your five authorizations are currently in use. I had 4 already in use and had to authorize another machine to fill up my five to get the button to show up. You can use friends computers it doesn't matter because all auths will be removed next step anyways... The point of this is that when you remove them all I think a file gets deleted/discarded on an apple server that was probably corrupted in some way. You find this button on the account summary page to the right of where it says how many computers you have authorized. Once all authorizations are removed reauthorize the itunes computer/library you are syncing your phone with. You can reauth your other machines later when your done. Reauthing them won't screw up the new file on the apple server. The single criteria between success and failure for me was removing all the auths as this didn't work the first time around when I reauthed just the one current computer. So I can't help but suspect that there is a file that gets screwed up somehow on their servers...

6. IN ITUNES... With a freshly authorized computer and an empty application folder, download all your apps again (a pain in the butt I know)

7. sync apps to the phone and they should work!!!

summary of steps
delete ALL app data from itunes and the phone
remove computer authorizations from itunes store account. (just the one your using or all of them depending on the state of your file on the apple server)
reauth computer and redownload apps in itunes and then sync them over.

It seems that the back up file for the phone has nothing to do with the problem for me at least which is good because you won't lose all your texts, notes, call history, blah blah blah. It seems to be more about computer aauthorization files stored on the apple servers, I think it's magnified by the phone OS updates but the back up file is good, so no need to worry about losing personal data!!! Maybe some of these steps aren't necessary but I'm not sure so I thought it best to tell everyone exactly what I did. Sorry if this all seems convoluted... good luck!

Right... the answer to this is to restore the phone back to factory settings and start the iphone in itunes as a new iphone. this means losing txts you'd have otherwise kept etc but its worth it to have a phone that works. Next I individually deleted and reinstalled every iphone application in Itunes on the computer and only after that did I re-sync my phone to itunes. My applications did not do what all of you are experiencing. I was told by apple support that sometimes the software gets corrupted somehow and so the back up to the phone which is taken contains the corrupted app software hence its reticence to work in the new OS. But never fear this has worked for me and if it worked for me, then its gonna work for anybody!!

Does everyone find this ok? that we actually have to delete all of our applications and re-download them all again? that is simply not an acceptable fix. furthermore, Apple needs to acknowledge that there is a real problem here that needs to be addressed and resolved.

I have tried absolutely everything on the forums.. the only "fix" that works for me is to delete the application and re-download then sync it via iTunes. restored applications in any other form do not work.

Today for example my workmate was about to upgrade before I warned him not to but he did it anyway on a iPhone 3G from OS 3.0 to 3.0.1 and same problem. luckily he had only 6 applications and no data to worry about. on the other hand, I upgraded my iPhone 3GS from 3.0 to 3.0.1 and now I have almost 100 applications that do not work, all packed with data I cannot lose ~ there is no way I am downloading over 1GB of applications again and losing all my data from each one.

Apple please acknowledge and do something ~ I have talked this piece of hardware up, made lots of people go buy one and sold my windows mobile but I'm seriously thinking that was a bad choice when looking for support and this is all I can find. I was told "it just works" by the Apple salesman but that is simply not the case for me or anyone else in this and the many other threads dealing with this problem.

Apple,
please acknowledge and FIX this issue or you will end up with another "united broke my guitar" type video. I'm pretty frustrated by NONE of my apps working. I'm also a pretty good song writer...

All workaround provided in here are indeed not acceptable and can barely be implemented when you are not connected to a Mac or PC.

By definition, this is a 'high-priority' problem that requires an urgent fix because it simply prevents normal device (i-phone) operation when your are out of any synch scope.

I let you imagine if you buy an expensive navigation software (>70USD) and simply cannot start it when you need to quickly drive to the nearest hospital. That could be an interesting case bringing another type of frustration....

Apple can you please acknowledge and fix the issue?

I have spent over 2 hours on separate calls to apple tech support and got *_NO WHERE!_*

I've done all of the suggestions on the forums (which i appreciate people posting) ive un-installed itunes, complete factory reset on my iphone, which means i've lost everything on it, and still i cant log into itunes, i cant download or open apps on my iphone and apple are STILL insisting its got nothing to do with the 3.0.1 upgrade.

Come on apple, this has gone far enough - please sort it out!

I have (had) the same problem. I tried everything in the forums until this, which worked for me:

- Uncheck all apps in iTunes and sync the iPhone
- De-authorize my computer in iTunes
- Restart computer & iPhone (hold down home + sleep buttons for 10 sec)
- Re-authorize my computer in iTunes
- Check all apps in iTunes and sync the iPhone

Good luck!!

(All the purchased songs that still have DRM on them (128 kbps) also won't play -- no fix for that yet.)

Same problem after I had synced phone and downloaded latest iphone software update.
Tried hard reset and a reset of network settings which didn't work.

Then went to app store and saw i had an update to download for one of my apps. After updating just this one app in the usual way the phone worked fine afterwards.

Maybe attempt this first before trying the more time consuming methods.

I have been having this same problem for a frustrating week. I finally called Apple support today and after the tech had me back up my phone we restored it and set it up as a new phone without syncing any apps initially. Once that was done I downloaded an app and made sure that it worked, which it did. I then went ahead and checked all of my other apps to sync and they worked fine.

After that you have to repopulate your phone favorites, re-sort your home screen, etc. It's a bit of work but worth the effort in order to have a fully working iPhone once again.

I have the same issue. The first time I noticed it, I did delate all apps. and downloaded them again. It works, but two or three days after, the problem continues.
What I have found is that the issue occurs when you sync the Iphone with the Itunes.
What I'm not going to do is restore the iphone because the issue will occur again in a few days.
I hope Apple will resolve the bug as soon as possible.
If anyone has any news, please email me: rodriguezlagares@gmail.com
Regards.

Message was edited by: Yaxide

I am having this miserable problem and have tried just about everything - restored, deleted all the apps from my phone and from iTunes, de-authorized and reauthorized; downed loaded a single app - the Apple developed iTunes remote and synced it. When I launched the app, it crashed my phone and then...it showed up with a different icon (from one of the previously deleted apps and the problem is duplicatable. Anyone seen this happen?

I have had my iphone for one month and the same problem has happened. As suggested, I have deleted all third party apps, did a reset, restarted the iphone, loaded contacts, etc at home, loaded two third party apps which worked for 3 days and then they did not work. One of the apps was a paid for app and the other was a free app. I can understand why there are so many downloads from the apps store, you have to keep on reloading them. I will try loading my paid app one more time and I'm going to ask for a refund as its not working as it intended.

Same problem with my new iphone. It was worked great for two weeks, then I upgraded and syn-ed with ITuness. Next time I opened any (installed) app it blinked and would not work. The symptoms are the same as all of the other notations here. Does anyone know where to register complaints? If everyone who has this problem leaves a note, mayble Apple will respond.

Same problem here. The apps problem seems to be at least temporarily solved by deleting them all, are downloading again.

But, my music purchased on iTunes will no longer play. Is anyone/everyone else also having this problem?

I have a very similar problem with you all except it applies to my Notes.app, and its quite a bummer because i got this iPhone only a few days ago.

I rely on my Notes.app quite a bit, but when i opened it, it opens for two seconds and quickly closes. I cant apply the same method of unchecking and reinstalling them via itunes because its a default app that wont appear om itunes.

If anyone could help id greatly appreciate it.

Hope apple resolves these issues soon.