Could not launch app on watchOS downloaded from TestFlight

I've since heard of two other popular apps affected. There aren't all that many Apple Watch apps compared to the number of iPhone apps, and this may only be affecting ones that are set to run independently of their iPhone counterpart (so an even smaller percentage).

Jumping in to say I've also experienced the same issue over the last week. I was beating my head trying to understand what sort of bug I could have introduced, and then decided to check the forums here.

I've just reinstalled TestFlight and, if it still occurs, will also file a ticket with a sysdiagnose.

Reinstalling TestFlight did not help the issue. I have submitted a bug report (FB22779045) with references to FB19339644 and FB22765369 and this thread.

Jumping in to say I've also experienced the same issue over the last week. I was beating my head trying to understand what sort of bug I could have introduced, and then decided to check the forums here.

Wondering if all of us on this thread should start actively spreading the word to other watchOS developers that this is going on?

(Given that Google search isn't getting updates since before we all piled in).

Every Watch developer with the problem that shows up here helps to show Apple that this is widespread. And can be another linked feedback ticket.

Thank you, everyone, for creating these reports.

I have been in communication with the relevant engineering team to share these reports directly with them as they come in. They are monitoring this closely to determine if this is an emerging issue. Please continue to file and share your feedback reports here so I can relay them to that team.

Generally, updates are provided through Feedback Assistant, however, if they provide any updates to me directly, I will make sure to share them here.

For more details on what to expect after reporting, see What to expect after submission.

Currently, I have not seen this issue reported outside of this thread. That's just as far as I can see.

I hope this helps,

 Travis

https://mastodon.social/@brianmueller/116564966499241821

There are some +1 replies to this post.

So far, I'm aware of this issue affecting CARROT Weather, Overcast, Pedometer++, and Parcel.

For what it is worth - there seems to be no difference between Internal vs External testing behavior (i.e., having an "Approved" Test Flight version did not seem to make a difference for me).

Not that anyone proposed there would be a difference, but I thought I would try it in case there was a difference in behavior.

The "immune" TestFlight users are still interesting to me.

There are people who it never happens to, and others who get it frequently.

My sample size is 10 people. 5 hit, 5 "immune".

In the 5 immune, 3 have Apple Watch Ultras. In the 5 hit, none have Apple Watch Ultras.

99% likelihood that it's just coincidence...

But I wonder if Carrot or one of the bigger TestFlight beta's can see any patterns in watch models with a larger sample size?

@tph I think it is coincidence... At least three Ultra users are still affected in the company

@tph But "immune" users do exist Just not sure if it is real immune, or just a matter of time😄

Has anyone tried submitting to App Store yet? I have a critical update ready to go, but I can’t risk this same bug happening with hundreds of thousands of users.

Regular user chiming in. Found this thread while diagnosing the issue I’ve been having. I have a variety of testflight apps impacted. Weirdly all of them are impacted except for Parcel which actually called out this issue in the latest release notes. On AWU3 running 26.5 if that matters.

I've just (2 weeks ago) released an iOS/watchOS app and have a TestFlight user experiencing this.

The app listens for HealthKit updates and wakes/processes/records data to update its complication.

The user in question is on an S10 26.4 (23T240).

That I know of no other user is experiencing this. I've had no reports of this happening for production users.

Thank you for reaching out. We're aware of an issue affecting TestFlight beta apps on watchOS. Apps released on the App Store are not impacted. We're continuing to investigate and will follow up as soon as we have more information to share.

I am seeing the problem as well and have been for a couple of months. One of my beta testers mentioned today that Carrot was reporting it so I searched the forums and found this thread.

It's reassuring to know that it is a TestFlight issue because I assumed that I had broken something and have been rolling back lots of code trying to work out what it was that I had broken.

One thing I have noticed is that it usually happens after the tester has updated watchOS. I had several reports a couple of months ago after watchOS 26.4 was released. And it has been reported more often again since watchOS 26.5 was released.

I always ask them to downgrade to an older beta or the App Store version and it always fixes the problem, even if they then upgrade to the latest beta again.

I'm hoping we see a fix for this soon - I've basically stopped TestFlight builds for people until this is resolved - but it's even painful to deploy Ad Hoc versions for self-testing. I'm guessing about 75% of my testers are running into this.

Ah, I'm so glad I finally found this! I just added a new feature to my watch app and spent the last 3 days trying to figure out why my app would suddenly start freezing after a few minutes in the background (and stay frozen through a reboot which shouldn't be possible). Claude told me my app was likely being penalized by the OS for using too many resources, though I've always striven to keep this app as memory and battery efficient as possible. Welp, I guess I'm blocked from shipping any updates until this is resolved.

We're happy to share that TestFlight 4.2.1 is now available and resolves this issue. To get back up and running, update to the latest version of TestFlight (4.2.1 or later), then delete and reinstall the affected beta app.

If you continue to experience issues testing your watchOS builds, please submit a Feedback Assistant report with relevant logs and reproduction steps, and share the FB number here so we can investigate further.