Technical Q&A QA1780

Why does my app launch to a black screen on iPad?

Q:  Why does my app launch to a black screen on iPad?

A: Apps that have been designed only for iPhone may launch to a blank screen when run on an iPad. This is caused by the presence of an empty iPad specific storyboard in the app bundle as well as an iPad specific UIMainStoryboardFile key in the app's Information Property List (Info.plist) file. Both are automatically created by the various Xcode template projects if the Universal option is selected.

If your iPhone app is launching to a black screen on iPad, follow these steps to remove the extraneous iPad specific resources.

In Xcode

Look for a file named MainStoryboard_iPad.storyboard in the file navigator. If this file is present, remove it from your project.

In In your app's Information Property List

Look for a key named Main storyboard file base name (iPad) or UIMainStoryboardFile~ipad. If this key is present, remove it. You should also remove any other key suffixed with (iPad) or ~ipad.

Finally, test your app on an iPad or in the iPad simulator and verify that it behaves as expected.



Document Revision History


DateNotes
2013-07-25

New document that shows how to determine if an extraneous storyboard is causing your app to launch to a blank screen.