Mikey Campbell
Apple on Monday informed employees it has identified an issue with gas price tracking app GasBuddy that causes iPhones running the title to become unresponsive.
According to a copy of the memo sent to Apple retail stores, the company is working with GasBuddy developer GasBuddy Organization to rectify an issue that causes some iPhones to enter a crash loop, reports MacRumors.
Reports of inoperable devices followed the release of GasBuddy's latest iOS app update, which hit the App Store last week. Affected iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X, XS and XS Max devices display a black screen with spinning "loading" circle.
Genius Bar employees are instructed to perform a hard reset of iPhones that exhibit the behavior and ask customers delete GasBuddy until an update resolves the issue. If problems persist or the handset does not respond to the reset procedure, employees will follow Apple's standard service process, the report said.
GasBuddy in a statement said it received a single report regarding unresponsive iPhone hardware over the weekend. The developer noted its latest update, which delivered support for iOS 12, was approved by Apple on Oct. 19.
"We are aware that some people are encountering issues with our iOS app," GasBuddy said in a tweet. "We're rapidly preparing an update we believe solves the issue and are making our app temporarily unavailable for download to limit the number of potentially affected users."
GasBuddy is a popular app that relies on crowd-sourced information to help users locate cheap gas prices, find deals and rate local gas stations. The title currently sits in the No. 21 spot on the App Store's top Travel apps.
Update: GasBuddy has subsequently issued an update to its app that resolves the looping crash issue.
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14 Comments
Very disturbing that an app could do this kind of damage, albeit only temporary damage. This is why Apple sandboxes, and obviously there was a major fail here somewhere. I don’t use the app but I hope it is resolved soon.
I’ve used it regularly since it came out with zero problems. FIlled up, LA, Hwd, Fairfax area stations
averaging 3.80 to 4.00/gal, extra three minutes drive saved .59c/gal. Not so good if it’s a long drive but never had to go far.
I removed the app after they changed the privacy policy and planned to do a lot more tracking of their users. No thanks.
https://www.cleveland19.com/2018/09/28/gasbuddy-app-about-start-tracking-your-every-move/
I have the app, but haven't used it in quite some time... so, it's good one has to launch it to experience this problem, I guess.
I get my gas at Costco whenever possible, so don't really need it.
App Store should provide a blacklisting option next to each app so that we can ignore, hide, ban the app from re-appearing if we choose to.