Google Photos appeared to break for many users following Apple’s latest iOS 16.3.1 update. Several Verge staff members, as well as people on Twitter, report that the app crashed on launch, making it impossible to access or manage your Google photo library.
Google released an updated Google Photos app (Version 6.23.1) early Tuesday morning in the Apple App Store that “fixed user-reported issues.” Subsequent user reports suggest it solves the crashing issue at launch.
While the problem wasn’t universal — a few people, myself included, were able to open Google Photos just fine — the crashing did appear to be relatively widespread. Other Google apps, such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Maps, all seemed to be working fine.
It’s unclear what caused the problem and why it only affected certain people. The iOS update (which may or may not have triggered the issue) is supposedly relatively minor; Apple’s release notes say it’s mainly meant to fix bugs and a few security issues.
Google said it was aware of the issue, and was “in the process of rolling out a fix in version 6.23.1 of the Google Photos app,” according Michael Marconi, a spokesperson for the company.
Update February 14th, 12:46AM ET: Added statement from Google.
Update February 14th, 7:59AM ET: Added mention of the new Google Photos app release that seems to fix the issue.
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Mitchell Clark