How to stop your apps from crashing due to the Facebook iOS bug

We told you yesterday about a Facebook bug affecting iOS devices that was causing apps on the iPhone and iPad to crash. Several apps like Tinder, Spotify, Pintrest, PUBG Mobile etc were affected by it and could only be launched and used if you were offline. While that might make marginal sense for some apps, in most cases it wasn’t.

Early reports pointed towards the fact that these apps were crashing due to a bug in Facebook's SDK that many apps use to manage user logins. Even users who have not used their Facebook account to log into a particular site were affected by it on iOS and iPadOS devices. Android users were not affected.

This is the second time Facebook’s iOS SDK has caused apps to crash in the recent months and while Facebook should figure out a fix for this (the apps are working now, we checked), there is a way around it in case it happens again. 

Lockdown Apps is a firewall and privacy protection app you can download on iOS. It uses a VPN to block trackers and features like Facebook’s iOS SDK from loading in third-party apps. This will allow apps like Spotify, Pintrest etc to launch during the Facebook iOS SDK outage.

You can download Lockdown Apps for free from the Apple App Store and follow these steps next -

- Download Lockdown Apps from here, in case you haven’t.

- Launch the app and follow the on-screen tutorial.

- There is no need to sign in or log in. Hit cancel when the prompt comes.

- Click on the “Firewall on” button on top of the app.

- “Agree” to set up a VPN profile on the iPhone.

- Once it is done you can toggle the VPN/firewall from within Lockdown Apps.

- Once done, you can skip the trial and apps will now work freely.

This is a temporary workaround for the Facebook iOS SDK issues and should help you open the apps that are crashing. If you want to remove the VPN profile from the phone and the app once you are done, you just need to delete it.