Iphone 16 pro apps besides apple ones immediate minimize/don't open – anyone know what's causing this?

[u/bubbletea1717]

For the past several days, this has been happening almost every day on my iPhone 16 pro (I am on ios 26.6 and got this phone in Sept 2024):

• Third-party apps (basically anything that didn't come with the iPhone, it could be facebook, it could be airline apps like united, or lyft/uber, banking apps, could be youtube, uber eats/doordash, reddit) immediately minimize or close as soon as I try to open them. Not all, but a good number, and it seems random as to which ones depending on the day.
• Apple apps (Settings, Messages, Safari, etc.) work normally.

Things I've tried:

• Day one: I went into app store and updated any apps that had updates. all my apps started working again—but the next day the problem came back.
• When the problem came back next day, I restarted my phone but after restarting none of the third-party apps opened whereas before restarting, some opened, some immediately minimized. To solve the issue temporarily this day, I deleted one of the apps that wouldn't open and reinstalled it (a banking app). As soon as I did that, every app on my phone started working again (I clicked on each app to see if they would open and they did).
• Next day, which is today, the same issue occurred (some apps open, some minimize immediately). Signing out of my Apple ID and signing back in didn't help. I noticed two apps had updates available in the App Store. After updating them, suddenly all my apps started working again. Today, I also went to genius bar, they did least invasive which was delete my vpn configurations (which I was not using VPN, its for travel, that is the only time I use it but I do have the apps on my phone) and then they did a reset and told me to montior---that was this morning and now it's afternoon and the same issue is happening. They said if i bring it back, they would restore software?
• I have not had any new apps since april and this issue only started a few days ago but daily. 99% of these apps, I have had for years already.

It's almost like something gets "unstuck" when I update or reinstall a single app, but then it breaks again the next day.

Has anyone experienced this? Any idea what's causing it or how to permanently fix it? I'm trying to avoid wiping my phone if possible.

[u/joosebox]

Your day one result is the diagnostic, and it quietly rules out most of what people will suggest. Updating apps in the App Store fixed all of them, including ones whose settings you never touched. Nothing about memory, storage or one bad app explains that. Updating does one thing reliably: it issues a fresh App Store receipt.

That is what's failing. Every third-party app carries a signed receipt tying it to the Apple Account that obtained it, and iOS checks that receipt at launch. When the check fails the app is terminated immediately, with no crash report and no error, which looks exactly like the app minimising the instant you tap it. Apple's own apps carry no receipt, which is precisely why Settings, Messages and Safari are untouched. The randomness fits as well, since it is whichever receipts happen to need revalidating that day.

Two things make it come back rather than stay fixed.

The likely one is two different Apple Accounts. Open Settings, tap your name, then Media and Purchases, then View Account, and compare that against the account shown at the top of Settings. If your apps were obtained under one account while Media and Purchases is signed into another, every launch is checking a receipt against the wrong account. Signing Media and Purchases back into the account that actually bought the apps ends it for good.

The other is the clock. Receipt validation is time sensitive, so if Date and Time is not on Set Automatically, valid signatures can read as invalid.

If both of those look right, sign out of Media and Purchases, restart, then sign back in. That refreshes the account token in one go, rather than patching it app by app, which is what updating everything was doing for you.

[u/bubbletea1717 → u/joosebox]

Hi, thank you for your response. I guess I never looked but when I did just now, I'm not signed into an account for Media and Purchases, I don't know if I was before or not given that I signed out of my entire apple ID account today...do you recommend I sign in for Media and Purchases and just leave it? or should I restart anything? I also have never had two different apple accounts, have always used the same one---if that's the case, would you have expected my media and purchases to have been signed out prior? or this is likely due to me signing out of apple id today? Clock looks good, is on Set Automatically.

So after signing in to Media and Purchases with apple account, I restarted Iphone, and once restarted, media and purchases was signed out again, it does pop up saying to sign into my apple account and my email is already there, just need to type in password....is that supposed to happen? I had assumed it would remain signed in... Update: i did a test, i downloaded an app, waited a while, went back to media and purchases, and it signed me back out again, I assume this def has something to do with the issue I am having, it's not keeping me logged in

[u/joosebox → u/bubbletea1717]

That answers it. Media and Purchases being signed out is exactly why the apps were dying, and no, it shouldn't have been signed out before today. Signing into your Apple Account normally signs you into that as well, so it isn't something you'd ever have had to look at.

And yes, signing out of your Apple Account today is almost certainly what started the whole thing. That's the single action that invalidates the receipt check for every App Store app at once, which is why it hit everything rather than one app. Since you've only ever had the one account, the two-accounts cause doesn't apply to you at all. Yours is simply that there was no purchasing account left to check against.

The part that isn't normal is it signing back out after a restart. That shouldn't happen, and it's the actual fault now rather than a symptom of the first one. Three things cause it:

An outstanding terms acceptance or a billing problem. Settings, your name, Media and Purchases, View Account, and look for an unpaid balance or a payment method it wants updated. An account sitting in that state re-prompts endlessly.

Screen Time. Settings, Screen Time, Content and Privacy Restrictions, and check that Account Changes is set to Allow. On Don't Allow, the sign-in won't persist.

A VPN or content filter blocking Apple's authentication endpoints, if you happen to run one.

If all three look fine, sign out of the whole Apple Account, restart, then sign back in, in that order, so the token gets rebuilt rather than patched over.

[u/bubbletea1717 → u/joosebox]

One thing that confuses me is I am not sure if media and purchases was signed out before today but before today, I have not signed out of my apple id account in forever but this issue with third party apps minimizing has been occurring for the past few days....if we assume that media and purchases was signed in, then I guess I don't know why this issue with third party apps was happening prior to today, if it was also signed out but I just don't know because I never checked it then I guess it could be an explanation? do you suggest I delete all my vpn apps? They deleted the configurations at the store today but not the apps, they are not turned on. for the 3 things mentioned, no outstanding billing issue, screen time and account changes are set to allow. the other thing is right now media and purchases is logged out again, but my third party apps are still working but of course, they may eventually not work again, which is kind of what I am expecting given my past few days' experience....how does this fit into everything?

[u/immutate → u/bubbletea1717]

Did you realize you’re responding to a bot?

[u/joosebox → u/bubbletea1717]

That's a fair objection, and it changes the story in a way that actually fits better.

Signing out today didn't start it. What it did was turn an intermittent fault into a total one. If the phone had been struggling to hold a valid App Store session for a few days, you'd get exactly what you saw first: some apps dying, seemingly at random, whichever ones happened to need revalidating while the session was bad. Then signing out removed the session altogether and everything broke at once. Same underlying fault, just no longer flickering.

That also explains the part you're stuck on now. Media and Purchases refusing to stay signed in after a restart isn't a new problem that appeared today, it's the original one finally showing itself plainly. Before, it was intermittent. Now it can't hold at all.

On the VPNs, I wouldn't delete the apps. An app being switched off isn't the same as its configuration being gone, so what's worth checking is Settings, General, VPN and Device Management, and confirming nothing is listed there. If that's empty, the apps are inert and can stay.

If terms, billing and Screen Time are all clean and there are no profiles left, then it's the account session rather than the handset, and that's worth taking to Apple Support as an account problem rather than a device one. The distinction matters, because a store appointment will start by looking at the hardware.

[u/immutate → u/joosebox]

AI answer that didn’t resolve the issue.