Sunday 2 January 2011

Does your Tesco Finder app crash when starting up?

I've just accepted an update of Tesco Finder and now it crashes as soon as I start the app! Help!

If you downloaded the Tesco Finder app in the past, then updated to the more recent version of the iPhone Operating System,  then take our Tesco Finder app update, our updated app seems to crash on some customers' phones.


There seems to be a further clue: it is mostly affecting customers who have upgraded to version 4 of iOS but not yet further upgraded to v4.2.1 (the very latest version at the time of writing).
You can find out your version by tapping on the Settings app, then selecting General - About - and reading the version number. My iPhone says: version 4.2.1 (8C148).

Customers downloading the app fresh for the first time are not having this problem - it's about the new app version using its old data store after an iOS upgrade.

To get round this problem, here's what you need to do:
  1. Sync your iPhone with iTunes to make a backup copy of Tesco Finder (unless you want to download the app again),
  2. Delete the app off your iPhone, 
  3. Shutdown and restart your iPhone (this clears away all remnants of the app),
  4. Re-sync with your iTunes program to copy the app back on to the phone, or re-download the app from the App Store - and please check your iPhone has the latest Apple operating system installed - iTunes will help you confirm this - at the time of writing it is v4.2.1 .
  5. Start the app (it will ask you to re-select your home store). The freshly installed app will rebuild the data store compatible with your iPhone.

Our apologies for having to get you to do this. It results from the latest Apple iOS having a data store which does not seem to be fully backward-compatible. When you updated the iOS version (iPhone's operating system) when instructed to by iTunes, it protected the earlier app code and data store. However when we compiled the new app against the latest iOS, the 'earlier version protection' was no longer provided by your iPhone. The updated app tries to connect to a now incompatible data store left over from the earlier version of Tesco Finder and crashes.

When we are back at work, we'll look at how the app can survive the crash and attempt to rebuild the data store (or wipe it out and create a new data store). We'll need to do something because the current live version, 2.3 has an overall 1-star rating :(

It's also a learning curve to be fed through to our testing process. It looks like we need iPhones with different iOS versions in order to test the upgrade not just of our app but cope with the consequences of an iOS upgrade too.

7 comments:

  1. All this talk of iphones and apps out for Ovi and windows phone ... is there annnyyy chance of an android app? After all it is becoming the largest player in the market!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sort out your crappy code-dont blame someone else.

    "The data file doesnt seem to be completely backward compatible" is just PR speak for "we f**ked up". Your instructions to rectify the problem are useless. Dont blame the kit- brand new iphone 4 with 4.2.1. Dont blame Apple " update submitted" is another PR excuse! This app has been like this since you issued the update-and you know it! Sort it out you loser!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Does this mean that the app is no lnger iOS 3.x.x compatible ?

    Some of us do not want to update to iOS4 as performance is not as good with the iphone 3g @ iOS4

    ReplyDelete
  4. The finder app crashes after the splash screen on my ipod touch 1g ios 3.1.3 every time. This is with a fresh install not an update and a restart of the device makes no difference. The itunes page states it should run with ios 3.0 or greater.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have an unlocked iPhone which I cannot update. If I do it assumes that it's still on the original network which it isn't. So how do I download Tesco Store Finder?!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I cannot upgrade to the new iOS as i have a 3g - which just crashes my phone.

    Can i resore an older working version of the app? as before the update, it worked fine and i used the app all the time!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have this same problem now with a first time installation of the Tesco app onto an iphone 3g - the app crashes. I worked through all the advice, nothing helps. Is there anything I can do?

    ReplyDelete

As this blog grows in readership - and because it carries the Tesco brand - I have had to become more careful about the sort of comments that are acceptable. The good news is that I'm a champion of free speech so please be as praising or as critical as you wish! The only comments I DON'T allow through are:

1. Comments which criticise an individual other than myself, or are critical of an organisation other than Tesco. This is simply because they cannot defend themselves so is unfair and possibly libellous. Comments about some aspect of Tesco being better/worse than another equivalent organisation are allowed as long as you start by saying "in my personal opinion.." or "I think that...". ... followed by a "...because.." and some reasoned argument.

2. Comments which are totally unrelated to the context of the original article. If I have written about a mobile app and you start complaining about the price of potatoes then your comment isn't going stay for long!

3. Advertising / web links / spam.

4. Insulting / obscene messages.


Ok, rules done - now it's your go: