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Why Does Facebook Keep Crashing On My iPhone and iPad? The Fix!

    David Payette
  • 2 years ago
    • Categories: Apps

When you tap to open the Facebook app on your iPhone, it immediately closes. Or maybe you’re scrolling through your newsfeed, the screen on your iPhone blinks, and you’re back staring at your apps on your home screen. In this article, I’ll explain why the Facebook app keeps crashing on your iPhone or iPad and how to keep the problem from coming back again.

Just like any other app, the Facebook app is susceptible to bugs. As good as it is, the software on your iPhone can crash, which can lead to problems as serious as your iPhone getting too hot or battery draining too quickly, as well as less-severe, but still annoying problems like this one.

The question of why the Facebook app keeps crashing on your iPhone is less important than how to fix it, so we’ll focus on the fix in this article. If you do want to put on your technical hat and view the crash logs, go to Settings -> Privacy -> Analytics -> Analytics Data and look for Facebook or LatestCrash in the list.

How To Stop The Facebook App From Crashing On Your iPhone Or iPad

All of the solutions we’ll talk about work for both iPhone and iPad, because the underlying problem lies between the Facebook app and iOS, the operating system that runs on both devices. I’ll use an iPhone in this article, but if the Facebook app is crashing on your iPad, this guide will help you too.

1. Restart Your iPhone

Restarting your iPhone has the potential to fix minor software problems. All of its programs shut down naturally, giving them a fresh start when you turn your iPhone on again. The way to restart your iPhone varies based on which model you own.

Restart An iPhone X Or Newer

Press and hold the side button and either volume button until slide to power off appears. Swipe the power icon from left to right to shut down your iPhone. Wait 15–30 seconds, then press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears on the screen.

Restart An iPhone 8 Or Older

Press and hold the power button until slide to power off appears. Swipe the power from left to right to turn off your iPhone. Wait 15–30 seconds, then press and hold the power button again until the Apple logo appears.

2. Update Your iPhone’s Software

One of the most common reasons why the Facebook app crashes is that the iPhone’s software is out-of-date. We are not talking about the Facebook app itself here – we’re talking about the operating system.

To make sure your iPhone’s software is up-to-date, go to Settings -> General -> Software Update. If an update is available, install it. iOS updates always contain bug fixes, so with few exceptions, it’s always a good idea to update your software. If your software is already up-to-date, move on to the next step.

3. Update The Facebook App

Next, let’s make sure the Facebook app itself is up-to-date. Open the App Store and tap your Account Icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Scroll down to the list of your apps with updates available.

If you see Update next to Facebook, tap it and wait for the update to download and install. You can also tap Update All at the top of the list to update all of your apps at once.

Once the update has finished, check to see if the problem is resolved.

4. Clear The Facebook Cache

Clearing out the Facebook cache can help the app run more efficiently. If Facebook keeps crashing as soon as you open the app, you might not be able to complete this step — but it’s worth a try!

Open Facebook and tap the Hamburger menu in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy. Then, tap Settings -> Browser. Finally, tap Clear next to Your Browsing Data.

5. Delete The Facebook App and Reinstall

If the Facebook app is still crashing, it’s time to put the old “unplug it and plug it back in” philosophy to work. A lot of the time, you can fix the Facebook app by deleting it from your iPhone and downloading it fresh from the App Store.

To delete an app, press and hold on the app icon on the Home screen until the quick action menu appears. Tap Remove App -> Delete App -> Delete to uninstall the app on your iPhone.

Next, open the App Store, tap Search at the bottom of the screen, type “Facebook” in the search box, and tap the cloud button to download it again.

6. Reset All Settings On Your iPhone

There isn’t a magic bullet that fixes all software problems on iPhones, but the next best thing is Reset All Settings. Reset All Settings restores your iPhone’s settings  to factory defaults, but it doesn’t delete any of your apps or personal information.

To reset all settings on your iPhone, go to Settings -> General -> Transfer Or Reset iPhone -> Reset -> Reset All Settings, enter your passcode, and tap Reset All Settings.

7. Restore Your iPhone

If the Facebook app is still crashing on your iPhone, you probably have a software problem that can only be fixed by restoring your iPhone. Unlike Reset All Settings, an iPhone restore erases everything from your iPhone. The process goes something like this:

First, back up your iPhone to iCloud, iTunes, or Finder. I prefer to use iCloud, and if you’re out of iCloud storage space, check out my article that explains how to backup your iPhone without ever paying for iCloud storage again.

After your iPhone is backed up, connect your iPhone to a computer to restore it. I recommend a type of restore called a DFU restore that goes deeper and can resolve more issues than a typical restore. If you’ve never done it before, check out my article that explains how to DFU restore your iPhone.

When the restore finishes, you’ll use your iCloud or iTunes backup to put your personal information back on your iPhone. When your apps finish downloading, the Facebook app problem will have been resolved.

Facebook App: Fixed

You’ve fixed the Facebook app and it’s no longer crashing on your iPhone or iPad. You know that it’s important to keep your iPhone software and the Facebook app up to date, and the problem is most likely fixed for good. I’d like to hear about your experiences fixing the Facebook app in the comments section below, and if you ran into any snags along the way, I’ll be around to help.

View Comments (118)

  • This is the first forum I’ve found in 3 years that hasn’t been deleted or diluted with coverups. For over 3 years I’ve fought this. Even got suckered into buying a new iPad hoping to get a fix but same issues out of the box!

    The ONLY thing I’ve found that slows the crashing time is to ROTATE the iPad and view it longways….I assume that the issue has something to do with video, compression, resolution???

  • I am about ready to quit using marketplace because of this problem. Tried all the “fixes” and still crashes. Isn’t worth my time anymore,

  • I installed a fresh OS on my iPad afterwhich Messenger crashed. Reinstalled. Still crashed. Followed advice below of turning of all keyboard functions and added a phone number.

    problem solved

  • The problem is it is NOT an iPhone it is an iPad that keeps crashing on marketplace, this is going on for a while , so frustrating when you are trying to buy something!

    • I have been having the same problem for years now FB can’t solve this it’s possibly an other app in the background messing up FB. However, I have discovered that if I used web (FB via google) login and not through the FB app I do not have any crashes when looking through FB market place.
      This may help using FB market place without crashing.

      • I’m experiencing the same problem with FB marketplace resetting when I scroll through items. Can someone guide me through the Web/Google method please. Step by step please bearing in mind I’m not IT savvy.

  • How come every other app behaves perfectly EXCEPT FB marketplace? This has been going on for years so it is not an ios or ipados issue it's down to the FB app.

      • Ditto. It’s unbelievably frustrating. I use marketplace on my IPad for my little home business but it’s completely unsuccessful. Have done all that’s been recommended and still drops out after 30 seconds at best.

  • Nothing you’ve suggested fixes the update. Facebook continues to crash every time. I’m getting to the point that I’m beginning to regret switching over to Apple in the first place.

  • You’re the best and I appreciate your kindness in helping all of us. I’ve done everything but factory reset on my iPad Air 2 and nothing so far has worked. I’m 72 and truthfully, too lazy to want to hassle with the complete reset. I suppose I’ll have just put it off for a bit. I can like something on FB but then can’t post below what I liked. I have to get out of FB and then reopen it. Happens with everything FB, only one move allowed per opening.

  • Hi, I’m having trouble with Facebook live streaming freezes. It starts fine and then five seconds later it freezes and it does this intermittently until I get frustrated. I’ve logged out deleted the app and reset my iPad 5. Nothing has changed (except I have login to everything and remember old passwords). Anything else I can do?

  • Hi I’m having trouble with watching Facebook live streaming. It freezes, then after five seconds will start again catch up to the live stream and then stop again intermittently. I’ve gone through the steps that you provided to stop the freezing: reset, deleted app, logged out. Still freezing.

  • Thanks, I did a complete reset, uninstalled and reinstalled Facebook and messenger it worked for about 3 hours then back to shutting down again

  • Why is it that no matter what settings I enable & disable ~ Messenger app still shows random people (Amazon product review solicitations) trying to call me, make noises & basically overrides everything? Even when not an “FB friend” I’ve tried everything

    Even the native apps don't do that, it's so annoying.

    Upon Googling, it seems many people have had same issue. Thanks in advance. Love the site.

  • Well, why it is always user’s responsibilities to spend time to fix problems due to bad design and development of operating systems? Reset is always a mess: you always lost something and have to manually reconfigure your system. iOS is getting more unreliable in the last versions, especially on old iPhones as iPhone 7. Sometimes I wonder if that is done on purpose to move people to buy new versions. I am really upset.

    • I was wondering the same thing. I have the same issue with Facebook too. Upon my last update on my iPad 6th Generation. I believe the companies just want us to get so upset we go buy a new one.

    • I’d like that answer too. I followed many people's advice and it still does the same thing! Crash after a few scrolls on Marketplace. My iPad and FB are totally up to date.

  • The Facebook icon wouldn’t work on my iPad, I did exactly what you said, delete it and download again. It worked, thanks so much

  • Hi all. Switched off the iPad - really switched it off, and after counting to ten, switched it on again. Works fine now.
    (Counting to ten was the hard part ? )

  • It's 1/21/19 and I'm at the restore iPhone 6 point and still not working. I'm fearful of going forward because of these past comments.

  • Mine started yesterday, Oct 4,2018 on my ipad with 10.3.3 and all apps are updated...I did everything several times with no luck...soon as I try to open the app it's closed down immediately...only on my ipad..mary

  • Today is oct 2 2018. Struggling wither FB crashing on my iPhone 7. I have tried all suggested solutions. Nothing working. What are the latest ideas?

  • Thank you!! I had to do everything you suggested but did not have to do the final suggestion about reinstalling my whole phone! The resetting the settings finally fixed my Facebook crash! Thank you

  • Aug 2018. iphone 7 suddenly started having this issue. Did all of the above steps including completely wiping my phone, uninstalling FB and restoring phone and reinstalling FB. Still have the issue. Only with Facebook.

  • Having the same problem as the rest of you with FB just shutting down and going straight to my home page. Sometimes my News Feed page just stays white, sometimes it will have one post and that's it. Does not affect the other choices, ei.: notifications, etc.Tried uninstalling and reinstalling. Nothing. MY Ipad has been in vertical position all the time so nothing there to help. Hope someone comes up with an answer soon.

  • This Worked For Me

    This site and at least a dozen or more I looked at since my iPhone started doing this all say to do the same thing. Nothing helped. Do you guys just plagiarize each other to sell yourselves?

    Almost go to the point of restoring my phone. Tried Opening Facebook through Safari rather than the FB app (after uninstalling and installing FB several times) and saw it looked exactly like it did opening FB from the app, not like it looks through a web browser. Still crashed too. Appears Safaria may have been recently corrupted, perhaps with latest iOS update. Installed Chrome to see if shared files might fix it. Ive done that before with IE and Firefox. Open FB in Chrome. Looked like a web page version and worked better than opening FB from the FB app. Opened FB from the app and it seemed to have done the trick.

  • 7-4-18 Facebook on laptop is fine but crashes after 3 seconds on iphone8-(brand new). Tried all the above several times- still no go - now I'm pissed

  • My wife's iPhone 6s Plus started crashing in Facebook. The battery would die very quickly. I played around with all of the suggestions here and elsewhere. I finally just started trying things. Here is what fixed the issue.

    Go into Settings, Display & Brightness. Change View from Zoomed to Standard. After this, Facebook is once again working correctly and the battery is not draining at an alarming pace.

    For some reason Facebook app was eating up all of the CPU power when the Zoom view was set. Now all is well.

    Hope this helps someone else. It was frustrating trying all of these other things and having them not work.

  • Go to settings, delete FB account on iPad or phone. Delete FB app. Power down device. Reboot. Go to App Store and downloadatest FB app. Open app and log into your account...FIXED finally after 2 annoying weeks where no other suggestions worked!

  • I did everything above and nothing work, the app keeps crashing. Any ideas would be appreciated!

  • has anyone figured out the issue and how to reslove it? my mom is having the same issue its seems its just her account that casues the app to crash

  • My ipad facebook did the same. I did all the above recommendations and could not fix problem. I went to facebook.com on Safari and was able to access my facebook account with out it crashing. I did not use the app.

  • I am having the same problem, started crashing on my iPad since 20/2/17. It seems like I'm just going to have to wait until Facebook resolve the problem?

  • Notice the dates below. Mine was the same 2/17/17, when I updated the Facebook app. I've also done everything except the total reset. The last time I did that on my iPhone for another Verizon issue, it took a lot of time to put things back in place. This seems to be a Facebook problem, but there is no way to communicate this to the company or ask for assistance. Any ideas?

  • My Facebook on my iPad is doing the same thing. It just keeps crashing. Anyone figure out how to fix it??

  • When can solve face book app alway turn back to home screen. This is the app problem after update app on 16/2/2017, hopefully be solve by Facebook company soon or get new update.????

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David Payette: I'm a former Apple employee and the founder of Payette Forward, and I'm here to help you with your iPhone.