The Importance of Sharing Crash Data

What is a Crash Report?

When an app crashes, your iOS device generates a report of what went wrong and what was happening at the time of the crash. It then anonymizes the report by removing any identifying information before sending the report to Apple. Once Apple receives the report, they send it to us so we can get to work fixing the problem.

Crash reports tell us where in our code a problem occurred, when it occurred, and the device and software version it occurred on. This information is very useful at pinpointing the source of a problem and helping us create a better product. No personally identifying information is ever sent to us or to Apple. Also, crash reports are sent only when a device is plugged in and connected to WiFi, so your phone is not using any extra battery or data sending out reports all the time.

For example, a crash report that might be sent to us would essentially read: “Crash occurred on Line 42. MARS Response 1.0.3, iPhone XS, iOS 13.3.1, 6/27/20.” This tells us where to focus our efforts in duplicating and resolving the problem, in this instance, Line 42 in our code. In case the issue is more device specific, the crash report also tells us that this event occurred on an iPhone XS running an older version of iOS, both elements of which may have contributed to the crash happening in the first place.