Failure to launch app from dock on iPad with PadOS13

Question

I have a weird problem. My iPad app on iOS12 works fine, but on padOS13 it shows problems.

On the simulator, it won't show in the dock. On the device, it shows in the dock, but tapping there won't launch it.

I've put breakpoints into the app delegate methods for applicationWillEnterForeground, applicationDidBecomeActive, etc. and on iOS 12 they get called. On 13 they don't.

I'm not (yet) using Scenes, I'm still reading up on them. But I have a window property on the app delegate, so I should not require Scenes at this time. At least from what I've read about opting out of Scenes.

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this. Tapping on the app in the dock results in no messages to the app to activate. I can tap on the app icon and it will reopen, but the dock icon is unresponsive. Yet it works fine on 12. This is very frustrating!

Any advice?

Answer 1

I’m seeing this on all sorts of different apps (running iPadOS 13.1.2) so doN’t take it personally immediately as I think it’s a bug in the OS. Thought I was going crazy at first and not pressing the icon, then thought it was an app issue, until I realised it was happening to 1st and 3rd party apps. Launching from the icon on the home screen works, and reboot seems to sort the problem out for a short time, but it soon starts failing to launch the apps again.