If you’ve been having trouble with Apple’s Game Center after upgrading to iOS 9, you’re not alone.
Read Apple’s discussion forums and you’ll find 14 pages of comments from disgruntled gamers complaining about — and trying to solve — this rather massive issue.
Users report that after upgrading to iOS 9, the games that use Game Center have been freezing on launch. Some folks are able to play their games intermittently, but most say they’re unable to launch or run any games that use Game Center in any way.
Originally available in iOS 4.1 in 2010, Game Center has become increasingly integrated into mobile games on both iPhone and iPad, even getting into OS X in 2012 with OS X Mountain Lion. Depending on how it’s implemented by individual app developers, it can serve as a leaderboard, turn-based matchmaker, and even save your spot in some games.
If it quits working, as it seems to be in all these cases, your games will no longer be able to access the information it stores, and — sadly — may in fact keep you from even playing games with the Game Center code in them.
The fix is pretty drastic – an Apple representative told one forum user that the only way around this problem for now is to do a clean install of iOS 9 and then not to restore from backup. That means all the data you rely on day to day, including app and game data, could be affected. That could even include game saves, unless developers coded their game apps to save specific game save data in the cloud.
Several posters have noted that support representatives have told them that Apple is aware of the issue and is working on a fix, but until that time, your only options are to perform a clean install iOS 9 (or go back to iOS 8, which no one wants to do).
We’ll keep an eye on the forum and update as we learn of any fixes for this iOS 9 Game Center bug that don’t involve nuking your entire iOS device.
Via: Slide To Play
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
19 responses to “Beware this ‘fix’ for nasty iOS 9 Game Center bug”
Apple support told me this was an isolated incident! They are delusional and have become what Microsoft Windows was to the world in the 90s: a technological plague.
It’s definitely not isolated.
no issue with either of my updates or any of my colleagues. but even if 1% of users have an issue, that’s 130,000 people complaining. and still that’s ‘isolated’ by almost any standard
It’s hit the iOS gaming community in China hard… even with VPNs we can’t login to the Gaming Center, I’d say this is far more than 100k people… I’ve got it on both my iPhone and iPad.
My new iPhone 6s (which obviously came with a clean install) also doesn’t work with GC…that “fix” probably doesn’t work.
Do you think it’s fixed with the new update ios 9.0.2 ?
I updated my iPhone 6+ to iOS 9.0.2 yesterday and did a complete power down/restart of my phone. The GameCenter app is still a white screen of death for me when I try opening it and it still won’t log into GC for some games…so, my problem has not been resolved with the latest iOS update yet…
ok thank you for your reply.
So maybe for the next update…
I, too, can confirm that 9.0.2 does not fix the issue.
I tried no luck
9.0.2 does not contain a fix for GC. I’ve been dead in the water since updating my iPad to iOS 9 on day one. I’ve yet to see any ETA for a fix. This sucks.
Same here. Fingers crossed for a fix in 9.0.3 soon.
I suspect it affects those who play games that integrate with Game Center. So those who say not affected I think may be like my Mother who just play solitaire and puzzles. I have avoided updating so still 8.4 iOS and won’t until they release a fix.
When will Apple learn that wiping/reinstalling is NEVER the right answer?!
So many issues with recent iOS updates have been found that only have the nuclear option of starting as new as the only solution to resolve.
Note: Worse than games data being lost is the total loss of the health data.
All this data should be stored in iCloud (games, health, home kit, etcetera).
Due to the health data loss, I can see a class action lawsuit in Apple’s future.
The nuclear option worked for me. Finally back on Clash of Clans!!!! I’ll restore my phone when they fix this problem. If you erase your data do not restore your phone. You’ll have the same problem. It’s something with our backup that’s causing this problem.
Thank you so much for the reply. I let her know. She tried it and it worked for her too. I sure hope that they get this fixed ASAP.
since steve jobs is gone this company became mediocre in terms of quality and is therefore not worth my money anymore.
i pay top and for that i want top quality and not a shitty update like that. my ipad air 2 is slow like an ipad 3 now and has interrupts while gaming.
i cannot even downgrade to ios 8. fuck apple!!!!!!!!!
Hi, I have the same problem and I play COC a lot. Opening the Game center app in my ipad mini and even in the Settings List is a pain in the ****, here is what I did. Since its freaking out my coc account on my ipad and all i want was to transfer my coc ipad mini account to another android device to save my CoC base, I logged out on my Old Apple Id, Made a new one and relog in the new apple id. The. I opened game center in the Settings List, i know it will give you a blank screen but what i did was…
I waited for it to Open for maybe 30mins and it opened. I dont know how long will it be for you but try to wait it out. Until you can log on a new apple id. Then Open the Game Center App, Wait it out again and it will ask you the same to relog in your apple ID, then relog in and Wait. Thats what I am doing now trying my Chances to have a new game center account link to my COC game so I can finally transfer and end this Game center nightmare. I’ll update you all once my coc works on a new game center account.
I hope apple address this issue, apple sucks and most of their devices and softwares are a scam, either they discontinue an update or send you a bug inside an update. Now I know why many people love android than ios…