App crashing

[mbsmike]

All the sudden my app crashes every time I open it. It may stay up for 5 seconds, it may crash immediately. I use it every night and it just started happening tonight. BTW my wife's crashes on her iPad too.

Help please?

Mike

P.S. I have closed all apps and restarted my iPad with no success.

[raf]

For some reason, Apple's server is not sending the "Title" field for one of the in-app purchases, causing this crash scenario. I've reported this to apple. Hopefully it will be fixed soon!

Remoter queries Apple on startup to see if there's any changes with the in-app purchases. For some reason, Apple is sending bad information tonight, causing the crash. Hopefully it will be cleared up by tomorrow.
Work-around: Set the device to airplane mode, start Remoter, then get it out of airplane mode.

Thanks for the report!! I'll post updates here!

Raf.

[raf]

OK, status update:

1- Apple has been notified of the problem. For those devs out there:
For some reason, around 10 to 10:30PM EST tonight, Apple's servers started sending an empty (nil) localizedTitle for the SKProduct result for all of Remoter VNC's in-app purchases. Remoter attempts to store the result in an NSDictionary, but inserting a nil causes the crash.

2- I've quickly corrected the way Remoter handles this response, so that it doesn't crash anymore if the message is malformed.
Remoter VNC 3.6.3 has been created, and submitted to Apple

3- I've requested an expedited review for Remoter VNC 3.6.3.

To recap: A change in Apple's servers is causing Remoter VNC to crash instantly on startup. This may clear itself up in hours. Or it might not.
A work around exists: Set your device to "airplane" mode before starting Remoter. You can get out of airplane mode afterwards.
A new version that is more resilient is in Apple's hands, and we just need to wait for it to be released.

Thanks for understanding!,
Raf.

[Greg]

Thanks for posting this information.

Unfortunately the work around doesn't work for me. As soon as an internet connection is detected it crashes when I load the app.

Hopefully Apple gets their finger out and releases this update soon.

[jrivera1983]

I read all the posts and did everything mentioned in them and nothing...not even with the airplane mode then turn on wifi...

[devonhub]

for what it's worth, Remoter VNC isn't the only iOS experiencing this problem this morning. After finding out what might be causing the problem, I went through all other iOS apps I had installed that I thought would be checking Apple's estore for credentials/permissions/etc. I found that the 'Entertainment Weekly' subscription app is crashing on launch the same way Remoter VNC is.

[raf]

I'm still waiting on a response from Apple on the expedited review request. I might take Remoter VNC off the App Store until this is resolved. Even though I've added some text explaining the problem to the description, some people are still buying it, and then wondering why it keeps crashing.

Thanks devonhub for that insight. The more apps are experiencing this issue, the higher the pressure will be on Apple to take action. But worse-case scenario, version 3.6.3 will be out next week and won't crash even if this issue persist. (Hopefully we won't have to wait that long!).

jrivera, Make sure you turn all internet off (airplane mode, no wifi), then start Remoter. Once remoter is running, you can go back to settings, and disable airplane mode. Then going back to Remoter should bring up the previously running version. (Need iOS > 4, though as version 3 doesn't support multitasking).

Thanks,
Raf.

PS: I've filed a bug report, and also notified them through the channels. I'm just not sure the info/issue is reaching the right people ATM.

Update: (12PM EST)
-Remoter VNC is off the App Store for now
-Apple has approved the expedited review. Hopefully version 3.6.3 will be out later today. I'll keep you posted.

[raf]

Update: 6PM EST:

-Version 3.6.3 is not under review yet (even though the expedited review request was approved).
-Seems the glitch resolved itself; I haven't been able to get Remoter VNC to crash anymore. Hopefully it will stay this way. But in case it doesn't, 3.6.3 will be out soon.
-Remoter VNC is back in the App Store.

Thanks everybody for your support, and understanding. This has been a really long couple of days. Time for a breather.

Raf.

[raf]

Version 3.6.3 is out.

[devonhub]

Raf and Co.,
Software by nature has variables changing and causing problems all the time. Net-based software has to deal with even more possibly changing variables and external influences. (Users are of course the biggest unknown ever changing variable.) You guys have done a fantastic job responding and communicating to all of us through this App store hiccup. Thanks!

dEVoN