How to Fix Crashing iOS App on iPhone & iPad

iOS Apps
iOS Apps

Although, the apps available for iPhone and iPad are very stable and rarely crashes, there are times you will encounter apps that crashes at random.

When an iOS app crashes, they quit themselves and return to the Home Screen. An app crash can happen immediately upon launching the app, crash randomly in the middle of using the app.

If your app is crashing every time when you perform a particular action, it could be bug in the code. In this case, all we can do is to wait for an update from the developer that fixes the bug.

Regardless of when and how the iOS app is crashing, we can try few solutions to remedy the problem.

Reboot The Device

Ok, this seems silly, but this is the standard troubleshooting 101. This works so well for resolving many common app crashing issues, and it is so simple, that you absolutely should try this first.

To force reboot the iPhone or iPad, by holding down the Power button and Home button until the device flashes the Apple logo. Then let it boot back up and try to use the app again, it should work… if not keep reading on!

Quit All Apps And Relaunch The Crashing App

Sometimes the simplest solution to a resolve a crashing application in iOS is to quit all apps and then relaunch the app that is crashing. This will clear the app from memory and allow for a clean launch.

To do this,

  • Double-click on the Home button to bring up the multitasking screen.
  • Locate the application you wish to quit, then swipe up on the app to quit out of it.
  • Hit the Home button to return to the Home Screen of iOS, then tap the app icon to re-open it again.

Update The App

Sometimes Apps crashes due to bugs in them. Developers frequently identify bugs within their apps, fix them, and then push an update to the app. Many users will ignore app updates, but if you are experiencing a problem with a particular app, it is always a good idea to update your app.

  • Open the App Store and go to the Updates tab.
  • Install any updates available to the application which is exhibiting crashing problems or bugs.
  • Relaunch the freshly updated app.

Delete The App And Reinstall

If an app is crashing due to corrupted files, this method will solve the crashing. All you have to do is uninstall/delete your app and reinstall it again. This is usually pretty quick, though some apps which are large can take a little while to download again.

  • Locate the problematic app on the Home Screen of iOS, then tap and hold on the icon.
  • Tap on the (X) icon when it appears, then confirm you want to delete the app.
  • Now launch the App Store and use the Search function (or visit the Purchases tab) and locate the name of the application you just deleted, then re-download it.

Another perk to deleting and reinstalling apps is that it dumps app cache at the same time, which will free up some storage capacity. The caches created by apps can sometimes be the cause of the app crashing in the first place. Some apps in particular are really bad with handling caches, and will crash when attempting to load it. Large caches can also lead to an instant crash from memory issues.

Update iOS To The Latest Version

Contrary to popular belief, iOS is not a very stable OS. It has lot of bugs that can cause apps to crash. Additionally, some apps actually require a new version of iOS for certain features to work, or even for the application to work at all. Updating iOS to the latest version is fairly straight forward and usually without incident, and this combined with installing the latest version of an app is usually the be-all-end-all solution to a problematic app experience. Be sure to back up the iOS device before you update iOS, however.

  • Back up the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iCloud or iTunes.
  • Open Settings -> General -> and go to Software Update.
  • Choose Download & Install and let the entire iOS updating process complete.

Updating your device to the latest iOS really works and solves many crashing problems. However, for some reason none of the above steps works for you, then your only chance is to report the issue to the developers of the app and wait for a fix.

Help Us Grow

If you like this post, please share it with your friends.

You are free to copy and redistribute this article in any medium or format, as long as you keep the links in the article or provide a link back to this page.

Subscribe to our mailing list

You may also like...

1 Response

  1. frank says:

    useful info!!!