My Vodafone - iOS app won't connect

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RunningMan

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#129613 21-Sep-2013 16:22

I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with the My Vodafone iOS app on an iPhone 4.

The app was working fine up until an iOS7 install - via USB / iTunes, not OTA.

When the app is opened, it goes through the usual Please wait / signing in / retrieving account info process, then pops up an error message "Your Online ID needs to be setup correctly. To resolve this, please call us on 777"

A call through to mobile support on 777 seems to indicate there is nothing wrong with the online account from Vodafone's end.

Phone has been rebooted, app deleted and reinstalled both through iTunes on a computer, and from the App store on the phone - still no go.

The password is correct - entering an incorrect password to check brings up wrong password (or similar) message.

Account can be accessed fine from the web portal.

Given the phone had only recently been moved to iOS7, I'm leaning to that being the cause - can anyone else confirm if the My Vodafone app is functioning correctly with iOS7?

johnr

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#899481 21-Sep-2013 16:41

What are you using as the user name to login, Mobile number or email address?

RunningMan

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#899492 21-Sep-2013 17:05

johnr: What are you using as the user name to login, Mobile number or email address?

Tried both. Same result.

RunningMan

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#899712 22-Sep-2013 13:52

Tried a couple more things to resolve.

A restore of the phone, followed by an instal of the My VF app works OK.

As soon as a backup of the phone is restored (to get all the other apps working), the VF app then stops as well.

It appears to be a corrupt settings file for the My VF app, but deleting and reinstalling the app does not clear the settings - the settings appear to be stored globally on the phone, not in the app itself.

There's various utilities available to browse the directory structure on the phone, but not being an iOS dev, I don't know where to start looking...

chiefie

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#899720 22-Sep-2013 14:10

The app is working fine on my iPad 2 and iPhone 5.

iPad 2 was done through DFU upgrade and restored with last backup (iOS6).

iPhone 5 was OTA upgrade.

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RunningMan

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#900689 22-Sep-2013 14:31

Yeah, it will clearly work under iOS7 - if I restore the phone, then immediately install the VF app, it works fine.

As soon as the phone is restored from a backup to get the settings for everything else, then the app fails to work.

There must be some settings file that is external to the app itself that is being bought across in the restore.

I'm trying to avoid having to set up every single app from scratch again, just to get this one working!

chiefie

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#900883 22-Sep-2013 22:27

RunningMan: Yeah, it will clearly work under iOS7 - if I restore the phone, then immediately install the VF app, it works fine.

As soon as the phone is restored from a backup to get the settings for everything else, then the app fails to work.

There must be some settings file that is external to the app itself that is being bought across in the restore.

I'm trying to avoid having to set up every single app from scratch again, just to get this one working!

All my system and applications settings carried over from either OTA upgrade and/or iTunes Restore from PC and are working fine.

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RunningMan

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#904442 29-Sep-2013 11:25

FWIW, the solution was a complete wipe of the phone, and reinstall and setup of all apps - nothing restored from backup.

It appears to be a shortfall in the Apple iPhone restore process, in that you can't easily restore just some of a backup.

RunningMan

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#904802 29-Sep-2013 22:12

Spoke too soon. After 24 hours of working fine, the same error is occurring when launching the app.

Deleting and reinstalling the app doesn't alter the issue.

As before though, it's storing the settings data outside the app - if you delete and re-instal, it already has the login and password fields populated.

twister95

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#905297 30-Sep-2013 19:07

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem, except with my iphone5.

I was told by vodafone today, yes a few people have this problem, but not their problem!
Call Apple maybe they can help!

Joy!

I tried deleting the app, but did find that when I reinstalled it, it remembers your name/password but doesnt seem to be passing these to vodafone correctly, I am having the same problem with the BNZ app!
When you delete the voda app, it says it is deleting all of the related data, but obviously it is not...

Very frustrating!

Regards....

twister95

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#905342 30-Sep-2013 19:32

aha, I got it working and my banking apps!

in the iphone settings / Safari setup

make sure you change the block cookies to never.
I also cleared the history and cleared the cookies/data

I also turned off the block pop-ups (not sure if that is needed though!)
also, turned off all the passwords & autofill, and now working..

will try turning some on one by one but this seems to now fix the problems!
Why cant vodafone tell us this stuff!

RunningMan

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#905446 30-Sep-2013 23:33

Spot on - thanks very much for that.

It certainly seems to be the Safari cookie setting that is impacting on the issue. Presumably Apple have changed cookie handling somehow with iOS7, and while it's listed as a Safari preference, it has a wider impact.

At a guess, the MV app is storing settings in a global cookie, rather than in the app itself, but I don't know why...

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r2b2

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#905533 1-Oct-2013 09:31

RunningMan: Spot on - thanks very much for that.

It certainly seems to be the Safari cookie setting that is impacting on the issue. Presumably Apple have changed cookie handling somehow with iOS7, and while it's listed as a Safari preference, it has a wider impact.

At a guess, the MV app is storing settings in a global cookie, rather than in the app itself, but I don't know why...

There's been quite a few apps affected by this change in behaviour - I believe the GMail app was broken by it too just to show its not just the "smaller" development shops that can be affected...

RunningMan

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#905580 1-Oct-2013 10:14

I accept that Apple has made some changes that are having significant impacts on a lot of apps, but why are VF storing the logon information outside of the app itself?

The generally accepted, and Apple supported troubleshooting methodology says that deleting an app also deletes all it's associated data, implying the data is either stored in the app bundle, or directly linked to it.

In the case of this app, when deleted and reinstalled, the logon data is still present, so it's stored and reliant on some external source (which is now subject to some change...). Wy can't it be self sufficent and stored within the app?

I say this as a user, not as someone with expertise as an iOS developer, so it's quite possible I've overlooked something here!