Apple promises fix for GarageBand failing to open after iOS 11 update

AppleInsider

Apple is working to fix a glitch preventing some people from launching GarageBand -- the company's simplified music creation tool -- after updating to iOS 11, according to an online support document.

"Apple is aware of the issue, and is investigating solutions," the document reads. The problem appears to be related to iCloud, since a stopgap solution involves turning off the app's iCloud support via the Settings app.

With those functions off, new songs will only be saved locally, and users won't be able to access any existing tracks saved in iCloud Drive. The latter music will still be available once iCloud is switched back on.

Apple has encountered a variety of bugs with iOS 11, such as problems with Reachability. In fact the company has already issued three separate point releases, dealing with trouble like crackling audio on the iPhone 8 and haptic feedback on the iPhone 7.

GarageBand is free for any device running iOS 10.3 or later. It was last updated in June, despite the launch of iOS 11 on Sept. 19.

deepinsider

Apple’s quality control has become  quite poor in recent years. iOS 11 is one of the worst software updates we’ve suffered.

hexclock

deepinsider said:

Apple’s quality control has become  quite poor in recent years. iOS 11 is one of the worst software updates we’ve suffered.

My oh my, you paint with an awfully wide brush. Every operating system ever released going back at least 30 years breaks something, and guess what? The issue usually gets fixed.
Try and have some appreciation for how complex an OS is, and you’ll feel a lot better, despite your “suffering”. 

raspy39

   If anyone is still suffering from this.  Turning off Garageband in iCloud, deleting the app, and reinstalling fixed it on my iPhone 7 Plus.  IOS 11 definitely was one of the buggier releases.  All the last minute betas were a sure sign Apple struggled with it. I’m still waiting on airplay 2 and it's shared up next list, but what’s the alternative.  Android? ...........lol right.  I think I’ll just be a little patient while Apple gets everything figured out.

lkrupp

deepinsider said:

Apple’s quality control has become  quite poor in recent years. iOS 11 is one of the worst software updates we’ve suffered.

Just stop. Parroting troll talking points makes you look ignorant. You probably haven’t been around long enough to remember when things were much worse. I’ve been using Apple products since 1982 and I’ve seen it all (like extension conflicts that could stop a Mac cold in its tracks). Things are much better this century.

jcs2305

jsmythe00 said:

hexclock said:

deepinsider said:

Apple’s quality control has become  quite poor in recent years. iOS 11 is one of the worst software updates we’ve suffered.

My oh my, you paint with an awfully wide brush. Every operating system ever released going back at least 30 years breaks something, and guess what? The issue usually gets fixed.
Try and have some appreciation for how complex an OS is, and you’ll feel a lot better, despite your “suffering”. 

Yeah they’ll fix it(which is why I’m still with Apple) but let’s be real, their quality isn’t what it use to be. I don’t know about you guys but I have massive battery drain.  On a 6SP 11.0.3 and I can watch my percentage drop like a countdown timer

So if I say I have no such battery drain with my 7plus what does that say ?  Is it iOS 11, or is it an app that is eating away at your battery ?  Have you restored your phone as New and brought your apps back down ?  Installing a new iOS version and then restoring from an old back up is bad practice in my opinion. Also things like back ground app refresh and other setting that eat battery can be switched back on, and you not know it when you update. What have you actually done to rectify the situation. I am not trying to be snarky, I am seriously asking because I hear this time and time again with new iOS releases.  After doing this if you still have the issue take it to Apple. This is one of those times that Apple care comes in handy.

kestral

iOS11 = Dumpster fire

dewme

raspy39 said:

   If anyone is still suffering from this.  Turning off Garageband in iCloud, deleting the app, and reinstalling fixed it on my iPhone 7 Plus.  IOS 11 definitely was one of the buggier releases.  All the last minute betas were a sure sign Apple struggled with it. I’m still waiting on airplay 2 and it's shared up next list, but what’s the alternative.  Android? ...........lol right.  I think I’ll just be a little patient while Apple gets everything figured out.

It would be informative to see evidence to support the claims that iOS 11 had more latent anomalies at launch than previous iOS releases. Similarly, evidence to support a correlation between more frequent beta releases and the supposedly higher number of latent anomalies would be interesting to see as well. I think you will find that companies that are employing modern software development practices like continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) are able to push out new software releases very quickly and very frequently. This allows much faster and more finely targeted feedback loops when in the beta testing phase of development. Apple has also setup their installation model to allow incremental updates on iOS devices which makes the release process even more efficient and faster.

Everything Apple has been doing over the past several years has streamlined their software construction, integration, and testing process to support CI/CD very effectively and to allow extreme numbers of customers and partners to participate in their beta testing phase. In earlier times it would have been totally chaotic and nearly impossible to involve the number of beta testers in the development of a new operating system release. Likewise, software quality is baked into every phase of the software development process, not just tacked-on as an end of a production-line type of process. Old notions of how software gets developed and released in a serial waterfall style process no longer apply. 

Does modern software development process mean that no anomalies at all should survive the quality process and get into customer's hands? If there were no humans in the loop perhaps this ideal would be attainable. But software is still an expression of human intellect and is therefore massively adaptable, highly unconstrained, and subject to individual interpretation. In this light you could say that it is still as much art as it is science, with all of the consequent pros and cons. Even the term "software engineering" is highly misleading and an oxymoron because it is not grounded in theory, principles, and mathematical rules and constraints like the true engineering disciplines. This isn't a negative assessment, it's simply a recognition of the fundamentally different nature of software development compared to electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical, etc., engineering disciplines. Different but not lesser.  

Think about it - when an hardware designer puts together a hardware circuit or assembly he or she is is typically constrained to using existing hardware components and is able to apply mathematically backed formulas, principles, and practices to get the design to work and to verify that it works as intended. Not just electrical theory either, but also thermodynamics, physics, mechanics, reliability, etc., all of which are backed by equally grounded theories, principles, and practices.  Software designers have few such constraints. Heck, software designers can even modify their design after the fact and after it's already in their customer's hands. This modifiability is unheard of in hardware design, and even where hardware may look to be modifiable, i.e., firmware, it's only done so by having software elements embedded in the hardware components.

You want software to be perfect? Look for ways to remove the human from the equation. But the result may not be what you really want. What makes software so attractive and compelling to us humans is largely because it is art and not science. 

raspy39

dewme said:

raspy39 said:

   If anyone is still suffering from this.  Turning off Garageband in iCloud, deleting the app, and reinstalling fixed it on my iPhone 7 Plus.  IOS 11 definitely was one of the buggier releases.  All the last minute betas were a sure sign Apple struggled with it. I’m still waiting on airplay 2 and it's shared up next list, but what’s the alternative.  Android? ...........lol right.  I think I’ll just be a little patient while Apple gets everything figured out.

It would be informative to see evidence to support the claims that iOS 11 had more latent anomalies at launch than previous iOS releases. Similarly, evidence to support a correlation between more frequent beta releases and the supposedly higher number of latent anomalies would be interesting to see as well. I think you will find that companies that are employing modern software development practices like continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) are able to push out new software releases very quickly and very frequently. This allows much faster and more finely targeted feedback loops when in the beta testing phase of development. Apple has also setup their installation model to allow incremental updates on iOS devices which makes the release process even more efficient and faster.

Everything Apple has been doing over the past several years has streamlined their software construction, integration, and testing process to support CI/CD very effectively and to allow extreme numbers of customers and partners to participate in their beta testing phase. In earlier times it would have been totally chaotic and nearly impossible to involve the number of beta testers in the development of a new operating system release. Likewise, software quality is baked into every phase of the software development process, not just tacked-on as an end of a production-line type of process. Old notions of how software gets developed and released in a serial waterfall style process no longer apply. 

Does modern software development process mean that no anomalies at all should survive the quality process and get into customer's hands? If there were no humans in the loop perhaps this ideal would be attainable. But software is still an expression of human intellect and is therefore massively adaptable, highly unconstrained, and subject to individual interpretation. In this light you could say that it is still as much art as it is science, with all of the consequent pros and cons. Even the term "software engineering" is highly misleading and an oxymoron because it is not grounded in theory, principles, and mathematical rules and constraints like the true engineering disciplines. This isn't a negative assessment, it's simply a recognition of the fundamentally different nature of software development compared to electrical, mechanical, civil, chemical, etc., engineering disciplines. Different but not lesser.  

Think about it - when an hardware designer puts together a hardware circuit or assembly he or she is is typically constrained to using existing hardware components and is able to apply mathematically backed formulas, principles, and practices to get the design to work and to verify that it works as intended. Not just electrical theory either, but also thermodynamics, physics, mechanics, reliability, etc., all of which are backed by equally grounded theories, principles, and practices.  Software designers have few such constraints. Heck, software designers can even modify their design after the fact and after it's already in their customer's hands. This modifiability is unheard of in hardware design, and even where hardware may look to be modifiable, i.e., firmware, it's only done so by having software elements embedded in the hardware components.

You want software to be perfect? Look for ways to remove the human from the equation. But the result may not be what you really want. What makes software so attractive and compelling to us humans is largely because it is art and not science. 

<— not patient enough to read all that.  As for the first couple lines, if you are interested in such correlations, Apple gives you a list of known bugs and which ones each beta addresses.   You seem like a very thorough person with a firm grasp of the human interface guidelines.  Chip in the 100 for a developer account and become part of the process.

StrangeDays

deepinsider said:

Apple’s quality control has become  quite poor in recent years. iOS 11 is one of the worst software updates we’ve suffered.

Nonsense. The bug doesn’t affect every user of the app, and it’s impossible to prevent all bugs. All the ios 11 devices in our household are fine. 

StrangeDays

kestral said:

iOS11 = Dumpster fire

Nope, that title belongs to the samsung devices that actually caused fires. 

bestkeptsecret

kestral said:

iOS11 = Dumpster fire

I guess that makes me a pyromaniac!