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Fix for iPhone third-party application crashes and problems

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 1:20 PM

iPHone 3GWhat good is a new iPhone OS update if you can’t make use of most of the installed applications on your iPhone or iPhone 3G? Not much good.

The iPhone 2.0.2 OS update has been reported to be causing application-related headaches for some iPhone users. The iPhone app-problems range from third-party applications simply not starting up to applications starting up and immediately crashing out. In either case, the iPhone application problem is bound to be annoying for some users.

Incidentally, it seems that too many third-party iPhone applications on your iPhone can cause many of the applications to start going wonky.

Here are a couple potential ways to fix your iPhone application woes after updating your iPhone or iPhone 3G to iPhone 2.0.2 OS:

  • Delete as many third-party iPhone application as you can bear to part with. If you can get your homescreen down to 3-pages worth of applications, you’ll likely start to see a huge improvement in iPhone application performance. Hopefully, deleting all but a couple dozen iPhone applications will fix application crash and non-start problems.
  • If that doesn’t work, re-install all your iPhone applications (it would be wise to only re-install up to 3 pages of apps). To do this:
  1. Turn on your iPhone and navigate to Settings > General > Reset and hit the “Erase All Content and Settings” button.
  2. Delete all iPhone applications through iTunes (fire up iTunes, hit the “Applications” category on the left-hand navigation bar, and delete all apps).
  3. Deselect any music, video, and pictures for synchronization (we want to remove all music and video from the iPhone)
  4. Connect iPhone to computer and sync iPhone
  5. Re-install those iPhone applications (again, try to keep it under 3 pages worth)
  6. Sync your music and other media.
  • Failing that, you can try a full restore of the iPhone. You will want to “Restore” your iPhone and then “Setup as new iPhone.” This will erase all text messages, stored passwords, and any personal customizations you’ve made to your iPhone.
  • You may also want to downgrade your iTunes installation to iTunes 7.7.0 for Windows or iTunes 7.6.2 for Mac. Here’s how:
  1. Delete your iTunes installation (remove the application from Windows).
  2. Download the previous version of iTunes.
  3. Install the older iTunes package.
  4. Setup your iPhone as a new iPhone.
  5. Sync your apps.

Happy iPhoning!

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • D NELSON

    THIS IS CRAZY… HOW ABOUT GETTING APPLE TO FIX WHAT IS AN OBVIOUS PROBLEM WITH THEIR SYSTEM!

  • anil

    hi
    i want to develop small third party application in iphone
    using vm ware can u tell steps to be followed

  • Dimus

    This is the same as buying a Lamborghini and being told that anything about 30mph will blow the engine.

    Uninstalling applications is not an idea or a fix. It’s a joke!

  • samantha

    definently agree wiv u!…
    i downloded a few applications i havnt even used them yet and they close by themselves .. they only open for like a second.
    iv tried delteing and reinstalling from the apps store.. and iv tried syncing them from itunes many times.. iv also rebootied my iphone .. iv tried everything.. dis is so stupid .. honestly.. i shall tell a few people to write complaint letters to apple.. iw ould never recommend this phone to anyone.. alot of people have asked me if its a good phone and my answer has always been no.

  • chris

    this sucks – even on my iphone 3gs i get the start and close problem on the 3rd party apps! and I have less than 2 pages of apps in total. I did re-install and it worked for a while and now it started with it’s crap again – WTF?!?!

  • ahmed

    nothing worked with me except deleting all apps from iTunes and de-authorize my computer. authorize back. download and install applications.
    and it works

  • Kumar

    Re-installing is not a solution.. if that the fix then we dont need to discuss here ..we are not that dumb users

  • chris

    dose any one now how to get an app of the iphone thats just black with waiting on it and it want come up with x when you make them shack

  • amir

    I’ve got a problem with Top Gun application. Since I have upgraded my iPhone OS to OS4, the Top Gun application does not work. Its startup nicely but then crash. Need help pls