Apps won’t open after update to iOS 5

Oct 18, 2011

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…


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38 Comments

  1. BG on 19.10.2011 at 08:47

    Excellent. Very easy fix for this annoying problem. Thanks.

  2. KFid on 02.11.2011 at 04:46

    Worked for me!

  3. Josef on 03.11.2011 at 12:03

    Thanks that did the trick!

  4. stephane on 04.11.2011 at 06:22

    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

  5. Cathy on 09.11.2011 at 20:33

    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.

  6. tesla vs edison on 15.11.2011 at 07:41

    Good solution, worked well on iPhone 4S iOS5.01

  7. JohnFx on 20.11.2011 at 22:11

    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?

  8. Thankful Me on 05.12.2011 at 13:05

    It works for my iphone 4..!!! Thank you very muchhh for the solutionnn ^^

  9. rene on 19.12.2011 at 20:57

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

  10. confuse girl on 20.12.2011 at 10:23

    what if the apps doesnt have any update? what should be done?

  11. AJ on 25.12.2011 at 23:16

    Worked great, thanks for the tip

  12. Dan on 05.01.2012 at 07:03

    Thank you, worked great for me!

  13. stts on 16.01.2012 at 19:01

    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

  14. Jeff on 16.01.2012 at 21:27

    Thanks! Easy fix to a very annoying problem. Upgraded to os5.

  16. Norman Bauer on 16.01.2012 at 21:43

    You can also follow Whatsapp Inc on Twitter to stay up to date: https://twitter.com/WhatsApp They say: “Sorry, WhatsApp is temporarily unavailable on iTunes. We submitted a new version and are awaiting approval and publication by Apple”

  17. Alex Johnson on 27.01.2012 at 23:14

    Do you guys accept guest blog posts?

  18. Norman Bauer on 27.01.2012 at 23:56

    Well, depends on the post, right?!

  19. Bruce on 15.02.2012 at 19:33

    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?

  20. Lena on 07.03.2012 at 22:27

    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!

  21. Rafael on 09.03.2012 at 17:09

    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.

  22. Chelsea on 10.03.2012 at 17:05

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

  23. Tracey Cox on 12.03.2012 at 18:21

    Worked a treat for me! Thank you x

  24. alisha on 17.03.2012 at 15:26

    THANKS!!! i love u

  25. alisha on 17.03.2012 at 15:27

    thhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannkkkks KISS KISS KISSSSS

  26. adam on 20.03.2012 at 02:26

    The updates worked out the problem. Thanks!

  27. choo on 21.03.2012 at 08:07

    thanks ! it workssssss~~

  28. Amber on 23.03.2012 at 23:17

    Thank you so much! Worked great!

  29. Boogerman on 04.04.2012 at 04:11

    didnt work for me.

  30. Liz on 12.04.2012 at 19:25

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

  31. martha on 22.04.2012 at 22:37

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

  32. Irish on 30.04.2012 at 07:18

    Didn’t work for me. What will I do?

  33. Mike on 14.05.2012 at 03:45

    Thanks for the info now I know for next time. Thanks again.

  34. angsty on 27.05.2012 at 19:47

    only some apps were able to open after i downloaded an app. :(

  35. Sammie on 06.06.2012 at 06:43

    Awesome thank you so much

  36. JD on 13.06.2012 at 05:10

    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.

  37. The Huron on 07.07.2012 at 18:29

    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.

  38. Dan on 11.12.2013 at 20:46

    Thaaaaank you
    It’s work after updating of one APP

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