Facebook has fixed a bug which earlier today caused dozens of the world’s most popular apps including Spotify and MailOnline to crash for iPhones users.
Frustrated Apple customers around the globe complained they had been frozen out of apps including Tik Tok, Tinder, Waze and Pinterest.
Facebook has since rooted out and resolved the problem which saw its software development kit (SDK) – specifically the login feature – corrupting app functioning.
A spokesperson said: ‘Earlier today, a code change triggered crashes for some iOS apps using the Facebook SDK.
‘We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologise for any inconvenience.’
The Down Detector website which tracks reported issues for each major app logged a surge in over 12,000 complaints for Spotify today, with much of the outages concentrated in Europe
Apple customers have also reported difficulty accessing Facebook, Tik Tok and Pinterest (pictured) on their phones amid fears of a bug grinding them to a halt
A huge spike in complaints was recorded around midday GMT.
Spotify suggested it was experiencing a wide-spread outage and tweeted: ‘Something’s out of tune. We’re currently investigating, and we’ll keep you posted here!’
The Down Detector website which tracks reported issues for each major app logged a surge in over 12,000 complaints for Spotify today, with much of the outages concentrated in Europe.
Spotify quickly started trending on Twitter as the social networking site was flooded with complaints from people facing both issues with streaming and complete blackouts.
Exasperated iPhone users shared footage of them trying to open the app but finding it immediately shut down, while deleting and re-installing the app does not fix it.
Other apps then began dropping like flies, including social media platform Pinterest, dating apps Tinder and Bumble, traffic app Waze, and the hugely popular video site Tik Tok, which yesterday revealed it was experiencing trouble.
Video games which also use Facebook log-ins on Apple including Call of Duty were also reported down, while Android users appeared to escape the outages.
PubG, the online battle royale game, tweeted: ‘Dear players, we are aware of the current problem encountered by iOS users.
‘This issue is happening to multiple apps and games on the iOS platform and we are actively looking into solving it.’
The wave of crashes echoes a similar mass outage in May, which was caused by a problem with Facebook’s SDK.
Europe appeared to bear the brunt of the outages, according to the Down Detector website
But disgruntled iPhone users from across the globe piled on to Twitter to share their frustration about being frozen out of their beloved apps.
One person tweeted Waze: ‘I’m getting an immediate crash when opening the app on latest iOS on iPhone 11. Reinstalled app, rebooted, still happening. Any known issues or fixes?’
Rattling off all the non-functioning apps, another said: ‘Spotify, Audubon, webtoon, photoshop, spark post, Pinterest, Podbean, are all down for me in the great iOS app crash of 2020.’
Another tweeted Spotify’s support team and described the problem: ‘Hi after today’s update on iOS the app doesn’t open anymore.
‘Tapping it results in a brief appearance of the logo and then a crash. Known issue? Any solution?’
The Down Detector website which tracks reported issues for each major app logged a surge in over 12,000 complaints for Spotify today, with much of the outages concentrated in Europe
Jake Madders, director of British tech company Hyve Managed Hosting, said: ‘This crash highlights our dependence on Facebook. I don’t even use Facebook, but yet this morning I couldn’t listen to music on Spotify.
‘Facebook manages authentication for many different services. Using your Facebook login details, you can access Spotify, Pinterest and many other services. ”
‘The problem may have occurred when Facebook uploaded a new patch which prevented users from logging into these services. If Facebook’s authentication doesn’t work, then the platforms which use it won’t work either.”
‘We are all tightly integrated with Facebook without even knowing it. It’s amazing that in this day and age, we are so reliant on one company that a problem with its authentication causes so many other services to crash.
‘This is an unusual problem, but it’s massively ruined my morning.’
People are not appy! Social media is flooded with hilarious memes after iOS crash leads to Spotify, Tik Tok and Tinder outages
Times can be tough in a pandemic, and with millions around the world plunged into lockdown, many have been relying on the wonders of technology to cope.
Be it apps such as Zoom to communicate with loved-ones, or entertainment apps such as Tik Tok or Spotify to provide some light relief, many of us have been glued to our phones.
But when an apparent Facebook bug prompted a mass outage of dozens of the world’s most popular apps today, iPhone users were up in arms.
Social media was flooded with hilarious memes from Apple users voicing their frustration.
Gleeful Android users were quick to take to boast about escaping the mass outages scot-free.
Here, MailOnline looks at some of the best reaction to what has been dubbed ‘the great ioS crash of 2020’.