Yesterday there were reports that Apple’s App Store was causing apps to crash on iOS devices and Macsas soon as users tried to launch them. It seems that Apple has finally fixed the problem. According to AllThingsD Apple responded saying,
“We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded,” Apple said. “The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again. Users who experienced an issue launching an app caused by this server bug can delete the affected app and re-download it.”
Some of the apps that were affected included Rovio’s Angry Birds, and Angry Bird Space. Popular apps like Flipboard, Zite, Temple Run, Instagram etc, were running fine on iOS devices.
Apple logo. AP
The problem was first noted by Instapaper app creator Marco Arment who wrote on his blog:
Last night, within minutes of Apple approving the Instapaper 4.2.3 update, I was deluged by support email and Twitter messages from customers saying that it crashed immediately on launch, even with a clean install.
While the issue with Instapaper was resolved after Arment spoke to Apple, other app developers continued facing these problems. Some App Store users reported seeing error numbers 8324 and 8326 in iTunes.
The problem appeared to be with the encryption from Apple’s end. According to GoodReader, an app for iPad that faced the same issue, there is something wrong in Apple’s servers which is causing a corrupt binary to be distributed instead of the correct update.
For now it seems that Apple has managed to fix the issue but it seems app developers are an angry lot. According to TechCrunch, Apple’s FairPlay DRM is being blamed for the issue and developers are quite angry with the way Apple reacted to the whole problem.
