Updates to iOS seem to always break app

Question

Created Oct ’22

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Hello, I am new to iOS development, coming from a web development background. The app I am working on (mostly built before my time) always seems to break during an iOS update. During the update from 14 to 15, there were issues, and now from 15 to 16 there are again issues. Each time, there is panic on our team and it makes me wonder if there is a better way to address this before it becomes such an urgent issue.

Are there best practices that exist to avoid this type of situation? Is this a common occurrence or is this something that may be unique to my app's code? If you have any advice, please let me know! Thanks in advance!

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Answer 1

darkpaw OP

Oct ’22

Things change, code changes. You have to update your apps when the new SDKs are available. WWDC is in early-June each year and the latest version of iOS usually comes out three months later, so you have at least three months to handle the new way of doing things.

For example, Apple changed (well, silently deprecated) the UIPickerViewController and my app crashed. The fix was relatively simple, or I could update to the newer picker, so I did that instead.

Just keep on top of things.

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Answer 2

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’22

While iOS does evolve and that can break apps, in general it’s pretty good about binary compatibility. If your app is breaking with every major release, that’s suggests a deeper problem. Can you give us some examples of things that have broken your app recently?

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

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Answer 3

theoroque OP

Oct ’22

Hi thanks for your reply! I see, so in Xcode, there is some way to test your app on the next major version of iOS before the version actually comes out? I tried looking at the code documentation and googling but didn't really find answers =(

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Answer 4

theoroque OP

Oct ’22

Thanks for replying yall! Yea so when 15 came out, our app would automatically crash whenever the user just clicked on the Input field of our login page. The fix ended up being that I had to update Xcode, then re-build/sign the app using the newest version of Xcode. Now, with 16, it seems that our app has lost its ability to capture users' speech. Thoughts?

Also, is there some way in Xcode to test our app on the next major version of iOS before the version actually comes out? I tried looking at the Xcode documentation and googling but didn't really find answers =(. Thanks again!

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Answer 5

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Oct ’22

our app would automatically crash whenever the user just clicked on the Input field of our login page. The fix ended up being that I had to update Xcode, then re-build/sign the app using the newest version of Xcode.

None of those should affect an issue like this. It sounds like you’re dealing with a heisenbug, and you haven’t fixed the underlying cause.

Now, with 16, it seems that our app has lost its ability to capture users' speech.

It’s pretty hard to offer any insight into that without knowing what APIs you’re using and the symptoms of the failure.

is there some way in Xcode to test our app on the next major version of iOS before the version actually comes out?

Yes. Apple seeds beta releases of the OS to developers before we ship the final version. For a major OS release that seeding process traditionally start at WWDC in Jun and continues until the OS is released in Sep-ish. Access to beta seeds is one of the benefits of joining the Apple Developer Program.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

0