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Spotify, Instagram, or TikTok down on your iPhone? Facebook blamed for the lag and crashes

By Daniel Petrov

Published: May 07, 2020, 4:00 AM

iOS Apps

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Spotify, Instagram, or TikTok down on your iPhone? Facebook blamed for the lag and crashes

Last night, a bunch of iOS apps started lagging, crashing, or weren't starting at all, and these include staples like Spotify, TikTok, Venmo, Tinder, and many others we can obviously not live without.

One look at the Downdetector site will show a widespread spike starting late last night, and continuing well until early morning and even now with a bunch of apps and services.

Spotify acknowledged the issue, and said they are working on it, subsequently posting a green light about 5 hours ago that everything should be back to normal. Unfortuantely, it is still not for plenty of users.

We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out! We’ll keep you posted.
— Spotify Status (@SpotifyStatus) May 7, 2020

Why are Spotify and TikTok down?

What happened, and how could so many disparate services be experiencing issues all at the same time? Well, the common culprit seems to be... Facebook. That's right but not just the Facebook login which is used for easy entry into many apps and services now.

It's the actual Facebook SDK that many devs use to take advantage of advertising, prospecting and other opportunities immediately after their app launches.

Yep, Facebook's advertising and data mining machine is a force to be reckoned with, so if you haven't yet disassociated your account from any third-party tracking in the Facebook settings, you might want to do it now, tailored "for you" ads be damned. Not that it's going to help with your current TikTok outage, but that, too, shall pass.

In the meantime, Facebook has assured that they have resolved the rogues SDK issue: "Earlier today, a new release of Facebook included a change that triggered crashes for some users in some apps using the Facebook iOS SDK. We identified the issue quickly and resolved it. We apologize for any inconvenience."

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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.