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iPhone 6 apps crashing - mapkit bug?

Hey everyone, so I have an iPhone 6, 64GB. I've been having app crashing issues with specific apps, and apple it not of much help at all. I think I may have narrowed down the problem, but wondering if anyone else is having the same issue? So far, upon search the only other major crashing issues I've seen are with 128GB iphone 6+, and that's not me. Here's a rundown of what I've experienced:


9/17/14

- BRAND NEW iPhone 6, yay, restored from a backup of my iphone 5, and everything was working perfectly, no problems.


9/26/14

- That evening while traveling, random apps started crashing.

- Facebook, Redfin, Maps, sometimes Calendar/Safari/Email, sometimes Fitbit, sometimes Myfitnesspal.

- By crashing, I mean that they close abruptly with no warning. Sometimes they will actually load initially, but then after a few actions or minutes of use, they crash (facebook, email/safari/calendar). Some apps just NEVER load (Maps, Redfin), they begin to launch and then immediately close. They appear to close, but when you double-click the home button to see which apps are running, there they sit in all their glory, but you can't actually use them: bringing them back to the front of open apps just makes them appear to "crash" again. I guess it's technically more of a display error, in that the app is technically running, but you can't see it and therefore use it.


*Side note - Coincidence this was the day the fatal/buggy iOS 8.0.1 update was released? Although I hadn't installed it yet...but weird nonetheless.


9/27/14

- Installed 8.0.1 over wi-fi (traveling and no computer), but didn't fix the crashing problem.


10/27/14

- Still been crashing all this time, life without maps and facebook is hard.

- Attempted to install 8.1 and had horrific errors. Had to wipe everything and set up as new phone, install the 8.1 update, and then restore from my last iphone 5 backup.

- App crashing has ceased, and maps and all other apps are working normally. Not happy I've lost the past 45 days of history, but at least the phone is working again and I have *most* of my stuff.


12/22/14

- Haven't had a problem since the last fix in October. Once again while traveling and literally on the plane out of town (I think maybe I'm cursed?), same crashing issues start.

- It began with Facebook, then I immediately checked maps, calendar, safari etc etc and they're all broken again. In case you didn't know, traveling in a city that you don't know without maps at your fingertips, and facebook to post your exciting updates, is not fun. Begrudgingly gritted my teeth and dealt with it until I could get home from travels and try to fix it.


1/12/15

- So I've been paying attention to this crashing thing the last few weeks and taking notes, trying to figure it out, because I actually want Apple to fix this, but I can't take it anymore.

- Started out by turning on iCloud Photo Library beta to make sure all photos/vids are stored, then also did an iCloud backup and a full iTunes backup. Also took screenshots of screen layout and other important settings.

- Called Apple Support and they (of course) told me I need to update to 8.1.2 (dreading this!), and then wipe everything, setup as a new phone, and see if it's still having the problem; then restore from this mornings backup and see if that fixes it.

- I first wiped the phone, just in case the glitch/bug is what caused my last update attempt to go awry. Then setup as new phone, then updated software, then restored from this mornings backup. Seems to be working again, and now the crashing is not happening. BUT - we all know it will start happening again at some time in the future, when the stars align or some random thing triggers that glitch that starts this whole nightmare.


WHAT I'VE GATHERED FROM THIS:

1) Apple support techs are very quick to assume it's probably a corrupt backup file, and that the only way to permanently fix it is to setup as new phone and ditch the old data. Well I'm sorry, but that's just not acceptable to me. For one, every time I've restored from a backup, it appears to fix the issue. That leads me to believe there is a bug that isn't initially a problem until something triggers it. Two, I do not pay premium $ to have an iphone so that I can be told "sorry, you just have a dud backup file, if you want your phone to work properly you need to lose all your history"...I buy the iphone because of it's ease of use, and being able to seamlessly upgrade devices. At that price point, the phone better work flawlessly, and if there's a problem they need to actually fix the problem. I didn't write the code, and I certainly didn't go into my backup and change the code. And three, I have way too much data to lose in apps, messages etc - losing that alone would be worse than dealing with this dumb glitch.


2) After looking at the Diagnostic Crash Logs, all these app crashes have something to do with the Mapkit code, and sometimes also a Vectorkit code which I'm assuming is how the phone renders the map data and displays it. I'm not a developer or coder, I don't speak that language, but I can clearly see the event is EXC_CRASH and the thread each log points to has SOMETHING to do with MapKit and sometimes Vectorkit. Being that all these apps do use apple's native maps app to display or lookup map data - it's clear to me that this seems to be the issue. In researching further, I came across this post from a developer who mentions something about it: http://thecodist.com/article/our_ios_app_crash_rate :


"1/3 of the crashes are a particular one in MapKit where Apple's tile loading code in VectorKit appears to try to update a map which has already been deallocated. I reported it in Radar but so far no idea if they are going to fix it. It appears that when a map tile load isn't delivered fast enough it can complete after the app has already removed the map view."


I'd like for them to actually fix this!

iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.2

Posted on Jan 12, 2015 2:53 PM

Reply
16 replies

Apr 26, 2015 1:05 PM in response to socalprincess1

I have a similar issue in that my Delta app crashes without warning and I have not been able to resolve the issue. I have tried everything other than a full system restore. It seems crazy to me that only my Delta app is behaving this way?? I have no other issues other than the extremely poor longevity in battery life. (iPhone 6 refurbished). I have an appointment to see the Genius Bar early next week to review this as well as the battery issue. I'm at a loss!?

iPhone 6 apps crashing - mapkit bug?

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