When an app stops working after an update
- Author
- CRYPTO PORT Editorial
- Published
- Updated
- Reading time
- 4 min
In short
An app breaking after an update does not mean your assets are gone. Exchange balances live on the operator's servers, and a wallet can be restored from its seed phrase. Check the official notices for known issues first, then try restarting and reinstalling in that order — and before you reinstall anything, confirm you actually have the seed phrase to hand.
Key points
- An app fault and a loss of assets are different things — separate them before acting
- Official notices usually list known issues and expected fixes
- Never reinstall a wallet before confirming where your seed phrase is
- Reinstall only from the official store; downloads reached via search adverts are often fakes
Definition
The situation where, after updating an app, it fails to launch, will not log in, or shows no balances — usually a display or behaviour fault, distinct from the question of whether you still hold the assets.
The first move is verification, not reinstallation. For an exchange app, log in to the same account from a browser; if balances appear normally there, the fault is confined to the app. For a wallet, open your address on a block explorer. If the assets are on-chain, they are not lost.
Then read the official notices. Operators are usually aware of post-update faults and publish them, often with an expected fix or an interim workaround. Acting before reading means piling operations onto a problem that waiting would have solved.
Next, work from the lightest remedies up: fully quit and relaunch the app, restart the device, check that your OS version still meets the app's requirements, check free storage, clear the cache. Going in order — and remembering which step worked — makes next time faster.
Reinstalling is the last resort, and for a wallet app the sequence is non-negotiable. Before you reinstall, confirm the seed phrase is physically in your hands. If you cannot, do not reinstall. Deleting the app deletes the keys held on that device. With the phrase you can restore; without it, access to those assets is gone. For an exchange app this does not apply, because the account lives on their servers.
When you do reinstall, use your device's official app store and check the publisher's name. Avoid search adverts and links shared on social media: fake apps posing as updates do circulate, and everything you type into one is harvested the moment it is installed.
Watch out for
- · Do not delete or reinstall a wallet app before confirming where your seed phrase is — you may lose the ability to restore
- · Any app or screen that asks for your seed phrase to 'fix a problem' is fake
- · Do not install a 'patched version' distributed outside the official store. Genuine updates ship through the store
Frequently asked questions
After the update my balance shows as zero.
Check the real balance first, either on a block explorer or by logging in from a browser. If the assets are there, it is a display issue. In a wallet, the selected network or account may simply have reset to its default.