Apple says that app corruption issue has been rectified, to delete and reinstall affected apps

Apple has issued a statement to All Things D, stating that the app corruption issue that has been plaguing the App Store has been corrected. Apple says that it affected a ‘small number of users’, though we saw relatively widespread reports of the problem.

The statement from Apple:

We had a temporary issue that began yesterday with a server that generated DRM code for some apps being downloaded.

The issue has been rectified and we don’t expect it to occur again. Users who experienced an issue launching an app caused by this server bug can delete the effected app and re-download it.

The issue surrounded the packaging of apps with Apple’s FairPlay DRM.  Developer’s apps would crash immediately on launch, causing the users to believe it was a poor update. It caused major problems for some developers as one-star reviews were submitted for an issue completely out of their control.

Instapaper developer Marco Arment drew attention to the issue in a blog post yesterday evening, which was then reported on by a large number of outlets. Apple began telling developers that it was working on a fix earlier today.

We made the case earlier that this problem has highlighted some major issues with the way that the App Store is structured. It gives developers few options to address the negative reviews and no way to inform users directly that a fix may be incoming.

At this point, if you have any apps that are still crashing on open, you should delete and re-download them from the App Store. That should fix the issue.