Norman Bauer

… just technical stuff!

Apps won’t open after update to iOS 5

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about apps not opening any more after updating Apple iOS from 4.3.2 or below to 4.3.3 or higher. Now that iOS 5 has been released this problem seems to be still persistent and hasn’t been fixed in iOS 5. While updating your iPhone, iPod or iPad from 4.3.3 or higher to iOS 5 does not seem to be a problem, updating from earlier versions indeed does. So again: when your 3rd party apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon, eBay & Co. do not open any more after updating, simply try one of these methods:

  • Open the app store and update any app that has updates available, or
  • Download any free app from the app store

After successfully logging in to your account all 3rd party apps should open as usual…

Posted under: Apple, iOS 4, iOS 5, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , ,

37 comments

  • stephane on November 4, 2011 at 06:22 said:

    thank you… as much as i love iPhone.. i hate the monopoly that they have created. and their instructions are not user friendly.. but your help was great

  • Cathy on November 9, 2011 at 20:33 said:

    Hi,
    Didn’t work for me. I have several workout video apps and none will open following the update. I have deleted and reinstalled and have followed the advice here but no luck. I can see the app icon but when I click on it, it looks like it is about to open and then it closes and I am back to the home screen. I also bought a new workout app from the same company and it too has the same problem. Any ideas? They all worked fine before the update.

  • JohnFx on November 20, 2011 at 22:11 said:

    This would be great except I can’t get the App store to work either since that upgrade. Does it work if you update apps while connected to a computer?

  • does not work atall… it works once, but when i reboot it has the same problem, while the apps are all updated…

  • after i updated the new software IOS 5 all the apps disappeared even after i did restore back up and now i cant find whatsapp in app store and i cannot downloaded from google

  • I’m having the same issue. Upgraded my 3GS to ios5 and apps won’t open. I can’t follow your solution because the app store app itself won’t open. Any ideas?

  • Lena on March 7, 2012 at 22:27 said:

    Yep, worked for me too. I upgraded from iOS3-iOS5 and not only would third party apps not open, but also photos and iBooks.

    Called tech support and I could tell the guy was using the trick of keeping me talking long enough so he could search his knowledgebase for the answer…ugh…he told me the same thing as this blog!

    He probably google searched and found this blog, then gave me the answer!

  • Work for me too. I think the problem for me was in change de password of my iCloud account. I only start using iPad recently, with iPad one. And at the beginning with the iOS 5.1.
    Nice help, thanks.

  • Chelsea on March 10, 2012 at 17:05 said:

    Thank you sooo much!! It worked now I know where to go if I have any more problems with my phone :)

  • I’m sure this would work.. Except for the fact I have 84 things that need updating…..

  • martha on April 22, 2012 at 22:37 said:

    Wow! Thank you for the info. It was very helpful. I was starting to panic!

  • This worked for me too, thanks so much for the tip! I just switched from a droid to the iphone. It is a very good device but having workarounds like this is annoying. Hope a permanent fix is planned.

  • The Huron on July 7, 2012 at 18:29 said:

    Thanks. 2 minute fix. Unbelievable that after two days of searching thru apple’s support, I never stumbled upon this simple fix. They really need to get their $#!+ together and either fix it with an update or at least post it prominently on their support page.
    Again, thanks.

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