Apple Is Distributing Corrupted Updates For Some Apps

Marco Arment, developer behind Instapaper app, said today that Apple appears to be distributing corrupted updates that cause crashes of some apps immediately after launching. Arment first noticed the issue after updating Instapaper to version 4.2.3 last night. Apple has yet to provide a statement or a fix for the issue. This issue has apparently affected the app updates, which were approved by the company during the past several days.

While Apple began pushing out corrected version of Instapaper app within several hours yesterday, Marco isn’t sure whether the company fixed the issue or it is because time is passed and a cache with bad data is expired. It also remains unknown whether Apple fixed other affected apps, and Marco recommended developers wait several days before releasing updates.

Marco noted that the affected apps crash immediately on launch, even after reinstalling or deleting as long as the corrupted file is being distributed by the App Store.

Marco Arment described the issue:

• It doesn’t even show the Default.png before crashing. Just a split-second of a partial fade to black, then back to Springboard.
• It may only affect customers in some regions.
• If updating from iTunes, some customers might get a dialog citing error 8324 or 8326.
• Mac apps might show this dialog:
  “[App] is damaged and can’t be opened. Delete [App] and download it again from the App Store.”