iOS device compatibility question

[SteveB]

Hi

I wonder if someone can give me an answer to an issue that I have come across.

I built an iOS app for a project about 3 years ago, probably on BigSur, since when I have had no involvement with the project. Some of the app content has been updated, and they are now trying to test the app before deployment. It has apparently been uploaded to TestFlight for beta testing.

Their setup is macOS Ventura, LC 9.6.13, and XCode 15. The test device they are using is an old iPad Air I gave them many years ago.

Now the app runs fine in the simulator, but won't run from TestFlight on the iPad Air. Apparently the app opens, shows the splash screen, then quits.

The iPad is running iOS 12.5.7, but looking at the Release Notes for LC 9.6.13 I see that the lowest supported iOS is 14.

So I'm guessing that this is why the old iPad Air won't run it?

Can someone with more iOS development experience confirm, or do I have to start ripping their new Code apart.

[LiveCode_Panos]

Hello Steve,

The lowest supported iOS version in LC 9.6.13 is iOS 9 if I remember correctly - definitely not iOS 14. So something else is the problem.

You could submit a bug report in quality.livecode.com and attach your stack - or if it is confidential you can email it to support@livecode.com and reference the bug number in the subject.

Kind regards,
Panos
--

[SteveB]

Hi Panos,

Thanks for your reply. Looks like I'm going to have to pay them a visit to see what's going on.

I'll post back if I discover anything of use.

Regards
Steve

[SteveB]

@Panos

I've made some progress with this. There is nothing wrong with the changes that have been made, and I've showed them how to test directly on a real device via Xcode.

The outcome of this is that the app will not work on the iPad Air I gave them running iOS 12 but works perfectly on my newer iPad running iOS 16 either by local drag and drop from Xcode, or via download from TestFlight. The only way that I can get it to run correctly on the iPad Air is to build it in an older version of LiveCode. but then the app no longer meets Apple's current version requirements.

This is true with both LC 9.6.13 and 10.0.0 rc 1. I see that 10.0.0 stable and 10.0.1 rc 1 have been released today so I'll give those a try later on to see if these give any different results

[SteveB]

Think this might be the issue.

From the Xcode release notes:

Known Issues

• Binaries using symbols with a weak definition crash at runtime on iOS 14/macOS 12 or older. This impacts primarily C++ projects due to their extensive use of weak symbols. (114813650) (FB13097713)

Workaround: Bump the minimum deployment target to iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8 or tvOS 15, or add -Wl,-ld_classic to the OTHER_LDFLAGS build setting.

[LCMark]

@SteveB: Do you get the crash when the app is built with 10.0.1-rc-1?

If so, then it probably isn't that unfortunately - those iOS binaries are linked using Xcode 14.x (I can't remember the exact version) which doesn't have Apple's new linker (which had numerous bugs in Xcode 15.x - most of which are now fixed in Xcode 15.4 it seems).

Are you able to get a crash report from the device when it crashes? (One from a 10.0.0 or before build will at least give us a hint to the problem - one from 10.0.1-rc-1 build would be more useful).

[SteveB]

@LCMark

Yes, I'm pleased to confirm that the issue is fixed in LC 10.0.1-rc-1

I can now sideload onto the iPad Air running iOS 12.5.7, and the app has been uploaded and accepted to TestFlight

All good now!

Thanks
Steve