iPhone 4S apps crash/fail constantly

While on the Home screen press the Home button twice quickly. A list of recently used apps will appear across the bottom of the screen; it can be scrolled left and right. Hold your finger on any app until a "-" appears on all of the apps, then tap the "-" on each app to close it and free up memory.

OK, plan B. Download any free app from the App Store on the phone.

I have this problem too! I've done restores and DFU restore a couple times. same issue. Went to Apple store - they ran diagnostics and said everything was normal and did a DFU restore. Still the same problem. Crashing 4 - 6 times a day is not normal...

How did you fix it??

I have the same problem and response from Genius Bar. It is very frustrating. I've also had to reset the phone several times. No solution to contribute unfortunately. What is interesting is that there are 4s users who don't have this problem. So, why on some not others? If it was software, you'd think after several DFU restores by app store would make our phones "normal".

I've had a similar issue except they wouldn't open at all. See this posting for history & original fix. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3552576?answerId=16944435022#16944435022

I began to have this same issue again. Downloading a new application from the App Store would no longer fix the problem. Closing them in the recently opened list (multitasking list) also didn't work. As I downloaded more applications, some of them would also come up in the list of apps that were not authorized on my device (MBP) when syncing and therefor would not be backed up on my MBP. These were the same apps that would not open (crash on start) on my iPhone 4s. I checked to be sure my MBP was authorized and, of course, it was & is. I tryed a few other things that didn't work. Then, I picked an app in that list that had no stored data in it as an experiment. I deleted that app from my iPhone, reinstalled that app from the App Store, & imediately synced to my MBP. That app no longer was in the list of not authorized apps on my MBP. It synced properly & worked without crashing. I tryed another and another. All apps that I deleted, reinstalled, & successfully synced to my MBP began to work properly again.

I'm hesitant to delete Angry Birds Free because my score is in the top .02% of > 12million players. The data may be lost unless it is stored in the game center or something else. However, I can't open it anymore in this state.

Hope this helps. Have fun.

I called apple tech support and explained the problem and that I've done a DFU restore twice at the app store and problem remains. They scheduled me for a replacement and I had my 4s swapped for a new one. It's been 48 Hours and no crashes so far. I averaged one crash per day before.

I am facing similar issue. I have a 16gb bought in feb 2012, I just started using phone in april2012 as I returned to India from uk. Now all my apps keep crashing, not that I have many apps installed - 10 gb of 16gb is still free and unused. Apple customer care got me to do iOS restore, but it's still crashing!!! There is some problem with the iphone4s compatibility/ hardware and I am sure it is not with only few users- this forum and if you google this issue, it will be clear that many ppl are facing this issue. I see someone got his phone swapped for this issue- apple should do this for every phone they r not able to repair by soft restore!

I'm having the same problem, and it gets worse. It used to be facebook, now whatsapp and safari, i think there's a memory problem because it crashes when i open more complicated apps or web pages, it's fine for calculator...and clock....

so the only choice i have is to go to apple store and get them to fix it or replace it? hmm...ok...i'll go see what they can do...

I don´t know, but, do you think the cause is the IOS, many many fails, and the hardware is not the problem. The Apps or the IOS. Somebody tell me in the MacStore to reinstall the original settings, and the apps by iCloud, no the security copy.

I have been having the same problem. when i text or send emails. the phone shuts down on me and go back to home screen. The battery life deplates too, Doesnt matter what app i open. I reset the whole system and i even recieved a new phone thinking it was the phone. Does anyone know which app is causeing this? i am about to throw the phone off a cliff and switch to blackberry.😕

few things. First, double tap your home button and X out of any apps you have running. 2, press your power button and slide to power off (restart your phone) and 3, do a hard reset by pressing your top power button and your home button at the same time until you see an apple appear (about 5-10 seconds) as soon as you see the apple appear, let go. this fixes most softwre related issues. do not attempt a reset while phone is plugged in to computer.

i dont recommend this as the iphone does not yet have a parachute app.

also- if the apps are stil crashing after doing a hard reset, your next option is to do a full backup with itunes, turn on your icloud also and do abackup that way (can never have too many backups)

completely restore your phone as a NEW device- download a few test apps to see if its working before you even think of getting any of your data back.

if apps are still crashing, you DO have a hardware issue and you can set your phone up for repair by calling applecare, or by going to your nearest apple retail store (schedule a genius bar appointment first)

if the apps are not still crashing- then do NOT restore your phone with your itunes backup. This basically means whatever is causing the apps to crash is still in your backup and the problem will start uo again as soon as you restore.

This is where icloud comes in. If you restore as a new device, you can log in to icloud and get your contacts/pictures back and whatever else you had set to sync without bringing the problem back.

I've also had the same issues, after upgrading to IOS 6.0, the apps in my iPhone 4 were crashing and the battery life run out very fast.

The only solution worked for me was to remove all mail accounts (Exchange/Gmail) from my iPhone (in settings) and then add them back.

The crashing were stopped! 🙂 also the battery was back to normal.

I found the solution by first looking at the crash logs (in IOS 6). you can find them at Settings -> General -> About (at the bottom of the About menu you will find the option that opens the logs).

There i saw many logs about Low Memory crash. 99% of the logs were pointed that the largest process (use the most memory) during the crashes is "dataaccessd".

I search in the web and found that this process is a deamon process that reponsible the Mail accounts (like Exchange/Gmail) and contancts list.

I've installed the app "System Status - activity monitor" which shows important system info like CPU usage, Memory usage and running processes.

Before apply my solution (deleting the mail accounts) i saw that the CPU usage was very high which consume the battery very fast. Also i saw that the memory (RAM) was run out.. which probably what cause the crashing..

After deleting the mail accounts (at Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars) i check again with the System Status app, and saw that the memory and CPU were back to normal.

Adding the mail accounts back, still everything work ok 🙂

Hope this solution will help you too,

Enjoy! 🙂