iPhone 5S - Weird App Store bug?

gotmilk0112 · Dec 26, 2013

So I just got a 5S for Christmas, and while it seems to work perfectly fine, I'm having a really weird bug reoccuring every few hours. At random, iOS will randomly switch to the App Store, but not just the App Store, it will go to Candy Crush Saga as well. Just...by itself. I'll be in the middle of doing something, and all of a sudden the OS switches itself over to the Candy Crush Saga page in the App Store....Is my phone possessed by Candy Crush Saga or something? I don't even play that game and have never installed it on any of my iDevices. On top of that, my iPhone has asked me a few times to log in to an Apple account that I don't recognize. Some "[email protected]" or something. That's not my Apple account, and I don't even have any "@aim.com" email accounts. I have successfully logged into my own Apple account, but during the setup of the phone, as well as a few times after, the phone asked me to log in to some "[email protected]". Freaky....also, why can't I make new lines/paragraphs on this forum? When I try to, the forum software just automatically removes new lines and conglomerates everything into one big textwall.

gotmilk0112 · Dec 26, 2013

And just a note, I'm fairly confident that this phone is brand new. When I opened it up, it had all the special Apple plastic wrappings on the accessories, and the phone had the special plastic films on the front and back as well. I watched two separate "5S unboxing" videos and the plastic wrappings that I had were exactly the same as in the videos, so I'm pretty sure my phone is brand new...so I'm not sure why it would ask me to log into some unknown Apple ID that I've never seen before.

scifan57 · Dec 27, 2013

gotmilk0112 said:
And just a note, I'm fairly confident that this phone is brand new. When I opened it up, it had all the special Apple plastic wrappings on the accessories, and the phone had the special plastic films on the front and back as well. I watched two separate "5S unboxing" videos and the plastic wrappings that I had were exactly the same as in the videos, so I'm pretty sure my phone is brand new...so I'm not sure why it would ask me to log into some unknown Apple ID that I've never seen before.

Go to this Apple page and enter your serial number. If the phone was ever registered to another owner, there will be less than the full 12 months remaining. https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

gotmilk0112 · Dec 27, 2013

Yeah, like I said, I'm very sure it's brand new because when I opened it, it had all of the original Apple plastic wrappings and films on it. Here's the result of that "serial number" thing, though. http://i.imgur.com/x0jJPTD.png

scifan57 · Dec 27, 2013

I think you're going to have to take the phone to an Apple Store and show them the problem. If they can't clear out that other ID, you should ask for a replacement phone. You are, after all, within the 15 day no questions asked return window.

Silverado8405 · Dec 27, 2013

The jumping to the App Store is most likely an ad. I've had it happen a couple times and both times I was in an app that had ads displayed but I didn't click on one. Annoying to say the least.

As far as requiring someone else's Apple ID, is it possible this was a refurbished phone that wasn't wiped correctly? Just a thought.

Sent from my iPhone 5S using iPF.net

gotmilk0112 · Dec 27, 2013

scifan57 said:
I think you're going to have to take the phone to an Apple Store and show them the problem. If they can't clear out that other ID, you should ask for a replacement phone. You are, after all, within the 15 day no questions asked return window.

Well I can't exactly replicate either of these problems. iOS has not asked me for that other Apple ID again, and the App Store switch bug just happens at random; I can't seem to trigger it.

Silverado8405 said:
The jumping to the App Store is most likely an ad. I've had it happen a couple times and both times I was in an app that had ads displayed but I didn't click on one. Annoying to say the least. As far as requiring someone else's Apple ID, is it possible this was a refurbished phone that wasn't wiped correctly? Just a thought.Sent from my iPhone 5S using iPF.net

I'm not sure if it's an ad or not. IIRC it happened once while I was using the Mail app, and that has no ads at all. And judging by the whole "serial number" thing saying that I've got 90 days of support left, I don't think the phone is refurbished. It was on a separate number than my own when I set it up though, but that's because when my mother bought it, she had to add a new line to our Verizon plan, and then switch this new phone over to my old number. Maybe iOS7 was gathering info based on the phone number or something?

Mickey330 · Dec 27, 2013

I, too have had this happen to me (on an iPhone 5 running iOS 7). I always thought it was me, cause I'd click on a link in my RSS feed and, instead of the article, I'd be staring at some app in the AppStore (once it was Candy Crush, but I've seen other games).

I don't know what causes it, but I think there's a glitch in the iAd (or any advertising) software/links. At least, that's my theory.

It's not very often and I just ignored it, because a second press on the link would bring me to where I wished to be. This is just to acknowledge that fact that (1) you are not seeing something, (2) it's not just you and (3) I'm not crazy!

Marilyn

gotmilk0112 · Dec 27, 2013

Mickey330 said:
I, too have had this happen to me (on an iPhone 5 running iOS 7). I always thought it was me, cause I'd click on a link in my RSS feed and, instead of the article, I'd be staring at some app in the AppStore (once it was Candy Crush, but I've seen other games).

I don't know what causes it, but I think there's a glitch in the iAd (or any advertising) software/links. At least, that's my theory.

It's not very often and I just ignored it, because a second press on the link would bring me to where I wished to be. This is just to acknowledge that fact that (1) you are not seeing something, (2) it's not just you and (3) I'm not crazy!

Marilyn

Ahh, lovely. Whew. I thought the random App Store switching was a result of my phone being pre-owned or something and not wiped well enough. A user on the official Apple support forums suggested that I restart the phone (holding home+sleep until reboot) and I did that. I'll see if it happens again in the future.