TikTok, Spotify, and other iOS apps are crashing because of Facebook

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By Joe Wituschek
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What you need to know

  • An issue with a Facebook SDK is causing iOS apps to crash.
  • The company disabled a server configuration update with broke the apps.
  • Apps like Spotify, TikTok, and Tinder are some that are affected.

Many users have been reporting issues with iOS apps like TikTok, Spotify, Pinterest, and Tinder. Reports across Twitter and through Downdetector show that many popular apps on the iPhone have been crashing for the last couple of hours. According to a new report from The Verge, the issue seems to be caused by a bug with a Facebook SDK.

According to Downdetector, the apps began to experience crashing issues around 6:30 ET. Developers on Github noticed that the issue seems to be caused by Facebook's disabling of a server configuration update for its sign-in SDK. For apps that use the tool, the company's action has caused their apps to crash when users are trying to open or sign in to the app. It is apparently affecting all users, regardless of if they use Facebook to sign in to an app.

"The issue is caused by an apparent problem with a Facebook software development kit (SDK) tool that's used to power sign-in features for many of the apps, as many developers have reported problems with the SDK in this thread on GitHub. It also seems that you don't need to be logging into the apps via Facebook to be affected by these crashes. A source with knowledge of the situation told The Verge that Facebook has disabled a server configuration update that triggered their SDK to cause apps hosting it to crash."

The Verge reached out to Apple and Facebook, but have not yet received a response. Thankfully, another report from 9to5Mac says that Facebook has fixed the issue.

"The problem seems to have been fixed by Facebook. It may take some time for the apps to work properly again."

It may take a bit for the fix to go through, so if you are experiencing this issue, try force closing the app and continue to try and reopen until it begins to work again.

Joe Wituschek
Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.