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Track app crashes

This information helps you understand how crashes are tracked and the best practices to handle false crashes.

Important: You should upgrade to iOS SDK version 4.8.6, which contains critical changes that prevent false crashes from being reported.

When does Adobe report a crash?

If your application is terminated without having first been backgrounded, the SDK reports a crash the next time your app is launched.

How does crash reporting work?

iOS uses system notifications that allow developers to track and respond to different states and events in the application lifecycle.

The AdobeMobile iOS SDK has a notification handler that responds to the UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification notification. In this code, a value is set that indicates that the user has backgrounded the app. On a subsequent launch, if that value cannot be found, a crash is reported.

Why does Adobe measure crashes this way?

This approach of measuring crashes provides a high-level answer to the question, Did the user exit my app intentionally?

Crash reporting libraries provided by companies like Apteligent (formerly Crittercism) use a global NSException handler to provide more detailed crash reporting. Your app is not allowed to have more than one of these kind of handlers. Adobe decided to not implement a global NSException handler to prevent build errors, knowing that our customers might be using other crash reporting providers.

What can cause a false crash to be reported?

The following scenarios are known to falsely cause a crash to be reported by the SDK:

  • If you are debugging using Xcode, launching the app again while it is in the foreground, causes a crash.

    Tip: You can avoid a crash in this scenario by backgrounding the app before launching the app again from Xcode.

  • If your app is in the background and sends Analytics hits through a call other than trackActionFromBackground, trackLocation, or trackBeacon, and the app is terminated (manually or by the OS) while in the background, and the next launch will be a crash.

    Tip: Background activity that occurs beyond the lifecycleTimeout threshold might also result in an additional false launch.

  • If your app is launched in the background because of a background fetch, location update, and so on, and is terminated by the OS without coming to the foreground, the next launch (background or foreground) results in a crash.

  • If you programmatically delete Adobe’s pause flag from NSUserDefaults, while the app is in the background, the next launch or resume causes a crash.

How can I prevent false crashes from being reported?

The following practices can help you prevent false crashes from being reported:

  • In iOS SDK 4.8.6, code was added to better determine whether a new lifecycle session is actually wanted.

    This code fixes false crashes #2 and #3 in the previous section.

  • Ensure that you perform your development against non-production report suites, which should prevent false crash #1 from occurring.

  • Do not delete or modify any values that the AdobeMobile SDK puts in NSUserDefaults.

    If these values are modified outside the SDK, the reported data will be invalid.