» Darkroom update issue on iTunes

UPDATE: The issue has been fixed by Apple. Please read below for the latest update and instruction.

The new version of Darkroom 2.2 was officially approved by Apple on 8th April. However after several hours of the release, we received floods of support queries. Users reported that they could not update their copy. When the user tries to update the application through iTunes and sync it to iPhone, iTunes returns an error message, “The application “Darkroom” was not installed on the iPhone because it could not be verified.”

We took immediate action to make sure this is not the binary problem that we submitted, and it should not be the case. First, the testing indicates that we do not have any problems on the Darkroom Premium, which was approved several days before the regular version. Both Darkroom Premium and Darkroom were generated from the same codebase (with different features activated). Plus the binaries were signed properly, otherwise iTunes Connect would not have accepted them. Second, this error occurs before the runtime, when verifying the application binary from iTunes store.

This is an issue outside of our reach. We are unable to rollback the binary to the older version as iTunes Connect does not provide such function. We are also unable to submit another version and hope it corrects itself from reprocessing it, because the re-approval process by Apple may take over 1 week before the new version is shown on the iTunes store. Even if there were problems on our submitted binary, we were unable to do much about it quickly.

The only way is to contact Apple to make a request to fix the problem, which we have done as soon as we were aware of the problem, however we have not yet received any concrete replies from them.

If this were a web or desktop application that is distributed directly by us, we could have handled this sort of issues directly and quickly. With this closed platform on App Store, all we can do now is wait for Apple to respond, which is a bad situation for us, their third party developers, as well as all users.

As an user, how can you help? If you can spare two minutes, please submit a brief report to iTunes Support. Apple may see this as priority if they understand this has affected many customers in iTunes. We appreciate your support and understanding on this matter.

We will update any progress on this matter through this post.

---

Thursday, 9 April, 5pm HKT: We received reports from users about this issue. Since it was outside business hours of Apple US office and this is a critical matter for our users, we immediately called the developer program support in Hong Kong. They only asked us to email the developer program support, so we sent them relevant information and screenshots through email.

Friday, 10 April, 7:38am HKT: It was Easter holiday here in Hong Kong but business hours in US. There was still no reply from Apple, so we called the developer program support in US and talked to a representative who understood this is a priority for us and will try to escalate this. We made it clear that this is important to our users, but he mentioned that it was their closing business hour soon (5pm PDT) and there may not be a reply until the next day. We were told to send an email to iTunes Connect support, which we did right after the call.

Friday, 10 April, 10am HKT: There were more reports from users regarding this issue, but no response from Apple yet. We decided that the application has to be pulled out from iTunes store temporary to avoid more users encountering the same problem.

Saturday 11 April, 1:09am HKT: It was business hours (10am PDT) in the US but still no reply from Apple. We called developer program support again and talked to the same representative. We were informed that this was actually outside of their responsibility, but there were no other contacts that could be provided to us. They have already sent an internal email to iTunes Connect for us and all we could do was to wait for his reply.

Saturday 11 April 8:24am HKT: It was the closing business hour (5pm PDT) in the US but still no reply from Apple. We tried to call them again, but their call center was already closed. Have they really put this matter as priority as promised? Do they have people to work on urgent issues over the weekend? We seem to be placed in a desperate and helpless situation to have to wait at least two more days without any resolution.

Tuesday 14 April 3:32am HKT: It was afternoon on Monday in US and there are still no responses. We called developer support. We were told we have to wait for iTunes Connect’s reply. They could re-escalate it by sending another email to iTunes Connect. There are no ways they could contact the team directly. It is interesting to note that support team and the internal team are disconnected and unable to communicate directly.

Wednesday 15 April 8:05am HKT: We have finally received a reply from iTunes Connect after going radio silent for 6 days: “This application is currently unavailable in the App Store because the Available date is set to 4/30/2009. This could be the root cause of your issue. Please change the available date and put the application live in the App Store. Once the application is back in the store, please let us know if you are still seeing these errors.”

That’s not the cause of the issue. It was changed to future date in order to remove the application temporary because there are issues on the app itself! We have to put the application back to the iTunes store and let them know again.

Wednesday 15 April 8:56am HKT: Apple replied with: “Thank you for putting that back on the store in order for us to re-create the issue. If you would like, you may remove the application from the store in order to avoid this error at this time. You may do so by clicking the “Remove From Sale” button for this application.  We are investigating this issue for you.  Feel free to check back with us within 3-5 business days regarding this request.”

It may require 3-5 business days before it could be resolved. We are seeking for shorter resolution time with Apple. The total downtime may increase to 12 days, which is too long for users.

Friday 17 April 4:58am HKT: We suggested to submit a new binary so users can download or update the application again sooner. Unfortunately, Apple rejected the proposal: “We are currently investigating this issue and will have information on how to correct this issue as soon as possible. Please do not submit an update or we will not be able to find out what is causing this issue. Thank you for your continued patience.”

Saturday 18 April 9:09am HKT: At last, Apple has fixed the problem – “This issue has been resolved. Please place your application for sale again on the App Store and instruct users that were having the issue to re-download the free application. If they still experience an error, please let us know.”

Thanks for your patience. It has been a long week for us. Darkroom is up on the iTunes store again and we have confirmed the issue has been fixed. Please re-download the app for free by clicking the “Get App” button and sync the new download to your iPhone.