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I've been experiencing an issue that has causing me a lot of problems, as various apps including Whatsapp, Telegram, Linkedin, Authy, Lastpass, and more will randomly log out, and reset back to their inital state as if I just installed it on a clean phone. Apps like Whatsapp and Telegram will have lost all of their chat history, even if it was backup up on iCloud.

I've talked with Apple and they're adamant the problem is not with the hardware or with iOS after restoring the phone using iTunes. Whatsapp support is just giving me the run around with canned responses, so I doubt they know anything about the problem either.

I'm at a total loss as to what might be causing this problem after restoring the phone multiple times (the last time without restoring to a backup).

My phone is an iPhone 6S 64GB running iOS 9.3.2 although this problem has existed well before iOS 9.3.2 was released.

dalearn
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ecnepsnai
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  • The only hunch I have is that the keychain (not iCloud keychain, mind you) is being reset, although I have no clue how I could test this. – ecnepsnai May 21 '16 at 17:39
  • I am actually having the exact same problem on my device. It mainly occurs with WhatsApp. I have also tried resetting and restoring my device but nothing seems to help. – freshking May 24 '16 at 20:57
  • It seems that it only happens to apps that require some kind of login. I am guessing these logins are stored in the keychain which for whatever reason loses some of that data so these apps require you to input that again. – freshking May 25 '16 at 20:18
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    @freshking try resetting your network settings. So far, it's solved my problems. – ecnepsnai May 28 '16 at 17:12
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    Unfortunately this did not work for me. After a while it started happening again. – freshking Jun 05 '16 at 22:02
  • Happening with me also. WhatsApp, FB and Instagram keeps logging out randomly – NinjaCoder Oct 17 '16 at 18:48
  • This exactly happens to me too. WhatsApp, Slack, Instagram, Line, Facebook, Hangouts, Dropbox and PayPal automatically logs out at different times so far. And it happens more than once. I login again, but later I end up being logged out. I will go and ask Apple Store. – erkanyildiz Oct 20 '16 at 15:38
  • Are you a developer using the phone with xcode? – MrJre Oct 21 '16 at 08:07
  • Yes, I am using my phone with Xcode for development. This may be related. And I suspect a Keychain bug in iOS. (I do not use iCloud Keychain btw) And another possibility is that alert I got about time zones. It was saying something like that: Updated Time Zone Information Available Restart to apply new time zone definitions. I am not sure if any of these is related but it seems now it is fine with iOS 10.0.3. I do not experience mysterious logouts anymore. – erkanyildiz Oct 22 '16 at 07:04
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    I am experiencing this on my iOS10 as well. And I am developer too. Anybody has any update on this? Any fix? So annoying to keep on logging on esp on Whatsapp cause u gotta key in and click many buttons before logging in. – GeneCode Nov 08 '16 at 02:09
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    I'm experiencing this with my iOS 9.3.2, iphone6. I'm also an iOS developer, still using Xcode 7.3. Apps I've noticed logging out: Facebook, Whatsapp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, Myfitnesspal, Adventure Capitalist, Apps that are still working: Inbox, Linkedin, Trello, Twitter, Dropbox, Clash of Clans. Basically I hate my life atm. – Esqarrouth Nov 16 '16 at 06:44
  • The comments are for asking for clarification from the OP and suggesting improvements to the question, not for extended discussion. If you have the same question, upvote it, or move the discussion into the chat. – Kisa Ayano Nov 22 '16 at 02:59
  • Same problem, iOS 10 and yes, I'm an iOS developer as well – hashier Dec 09 '16 at 15:02
  • Possible that its actually NSUserDefaults getting reset – YichenBman Jan 16 '17 at 18:02
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    Hi, i have the same Problems. i know all the NSUserDefaults get reset. I have found out that it always happens when the device is connected with iTunes on my 2 different Macs. My first guess was that it is at the backup. I had iCloud backup switch off but iTunes tries it and thereby destroys the settings. I bought icloud again and the backup started. Since then the problem has been less. For a week it is back again, despite a working backup. – Jeanette Müller Feb 09 '17 at 10:02
  • As I don't experience your problems, could you please confirm, that the problem persists when disabling iCloud as backup? – pallox Feb 13 '17 at 13:58
  • I've always had iCloud backup disabled on my iPhone 7+ 256GB (lots of room to spare) and this is happening to me. – swrobel Feb 13 '17 at 15:27
  • Just for the record, everything was right with my phone until I decided to close all applications using the app switcher and then starting every application on my phone. After I made this, I began to experience this major bug. – JPCF Mar 09 '17 at 09:23
  • I have noticed when I update apps they lose logins. Are you updating the apps, or is this just between uses? It's very frustrating to have this happen when you don't have your password notebook handy. – Tunes Mar 10 '17 at 08:43
  • This started happening in iOS 10.2 for me as well. A restart (turning off and back on) was enough to resolve it. – andy.xyz Mar 18 '17 at 18:14
  • Same problem. iOS 10.3 on iPhone 6. Restarting helps, but now it looks like I'll have to restart daily. Not all apps are affected though. – Richard Żak Mar 30 '17 at 15:31
  • Does anyone with this issue mind sharing anonymized logs? – bb216b3acfd8f72cbc8f899d4d6963 May 24 '17 at 20:03
  • I've seen this to both as a user and a developer. I too suspect that it is an issue with Keychain. Specifically, I think the Keychain has different access states, the most common one is "When Unlocked". Sometimes when I try to install an app on my phone it says "Please unlock your device", but I'm actively using the device, so it is unlocked! I think there is some weird state where the device thinks it's locked, but it's actually unlocked. Therefore, I think it doesn't allow some apps to access passwords/tokens/etc. in Keychain. Many apps will log you out and even delete info if this happens. – mergesort Oct 10 '17 at 03:23

1 Answers1

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A found a 'satisfactory' workaround. As I commented on the question, I was having the bug after I decided to close all applications using the app switcher and then start every application on my phone.

My 'solution' is to close all applications in the app switcher and then turn off the device. Then, turn on the phone.

Since that, I have not had problems.

JPCF
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