iOS and Mac apps reportedly crashing due to corrupt App Store updates

Several iOS and Mac applications have been reportedly crashing in the past few days due to corrupt App Store updates. This has come across as a big surprise as application updates are properly vetted by Apple app review team before being released in App Store.

Instapaper creator Marco Arment was the first one to report the issue on his blog where he mentioned when 4.2.3 update for his app was rolled out on Tuesday, users found that it was crashing immediately upon launch. According to him, the version he sent to Apple was working perfectly. He believes that this problem is occurring due to corrupt updates. The only way to solve the issue is to uninstall the app and reinstall it. Even that would only work in case the clean copies are available.

Apps that have presently been reported to be facing the problem include Angry Birds Space HD Free, PDX Bus, Readdle Scanner Pro, Gaia GPS, Pair, Redshift, Flick Soccer, iBike Moto, Please Stay Calm, Pinball Maniacs, Pinball Maniacs, Stack the States, Threadnote, Checkout Helper, Metronome+, Phoster, Melodies Pro, MoPho, SMARTReporter (Mac) and Good Reader.

GoodReader infact has noted this problem in two of its consecutive updates. According to GoodReader's creators, the problem is due to an encryption issue on the AppStore side, resulting in customers receiving binaries that iOS refuses to launch. GoodReader's developers have also provided a complete tutorial for its users on how to restore the application to a previous working version without losing any of their application data.

While several users are being suggested to avoid updating their important apps, developers are also being advised not to roll out any updates pending their release till the issue is resolved.

There is no word from Apple on the problem so far.