App crashing on iOS 9 only when release via App Store (not in debug, not with ipa file)

I'm maintaining an app which is mainly targeting old devices (iOS 9) audience.

In its latest version, I added some nice changes that I always tested successfully on my old iOS 9 device. It always run fine (debug mode connected to Xcode).

However, after releasing the app through the App Store, the app crashes immediately at launch on all iOS 9 devices (mine and customer' devices).

I later discovered the capacity to generate IPA file on Xcode and install them directly on the iOS 9 device. I hoped with that method to debug my app quickly without having to debug blindly by releasing several small changes on each App Store version until I understand the changes which makes the whole app crash. However, when using this IPA methods (which shall produces a similar app that what the App Store generates), the app does NOT crash..

I am now a little bit lost.. I have to revert all my code back to the previous stable state without having any clues which code is killing my app on start. I even reverted already all the AppDelegate and Main ViewController changes... without success... it is still crashing through the App Store.

  • Any Idea / Suggestion on how to make a step forward?
  • Is that normal that generating an IPA file in Xcode is not the same that releasing the app through the App Store?

FYI: The app releases on App Store crashes on iOS 9 but no on newer iOS...

Thank you!

Well, you're using APIS available for newer versions of iOS and not 9. Simple. And why on earth is anyone still using iOS 9?

  • The only addition I have made with external references is 'import mapkit'.
  • As described this runs smoothly on Debug mode on an iOS 9 and also using IPA releasing method. So this is not linked to a "clear" incompatibility.
  • Additionally during coding, Xcode tells me no warning that my code would be incompatible on iOS 9.

My app is a picture slideshow exactly dedicated to reuse old devices and turn them into something more valuable than the garbage bin ;-)

I reverted the code base to the same that was published and stable some week ago. I published with it a new version. Unfortunately, after publishing, the new version crashed at start.

This makes me think that Apple did some changes under the hood and that I will not be able to fix that on my own.. ;-(

I have same issue.

Has anyone been able to find a solution yet for this? A similar thing happened for us when we rolled out a new version of our app yesterday on AppStore. The app crashes instantly on launch and even the crash reports are not visible anywhere!

I observed that Apple now fixed the issue. I could release 2 versions which previously crashed at launch and now it works fine again... I can only think that this issue had temporarily to do with the release of Xcode 14 (and oncoming support drop of iOS 9?).

App crashing on iOS 9 only when release via App Store (not in debug, not with ipa file)
 
 
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