iOS 9 App Slicing Feature Missing Due to iCloud Bug

iOS 9 App Slicing Feature Missing Due to iCloud Bug

If you own a 16GB or smaller iOS device, it’s likely that you were looking forward to reaping the benefits of iOS 9’s new “app slicing” feature. So where the heck is it?

iOS 9 App Slicing Feature Missing Due to iCloud Bug

“App Slicing,” which allows developers to send optimally-sized versions of apps to various iOS device is so far MIA in iOS 9. The culprit is reportedly a bug in iCloud that is holding things up.

Slicing is a part of Apple’s app-thinning process that allows developers to deliver only the parts of the app that are needed for a particular device’s capabilities, resulting in a smaller file size. For example, 64-bit code wouldn’t download to a 32-bit device, and image resources would only be downloaded for the particular device’s graphics capabilities.

Sadly, Apple on Thursday notified developers that app slicing isn’t currently available for iOS 9 apps due to an issue with where iCloud backups created from iOS 9 would only restore to the same model device.

“When a customer downloads your iOS 9 app, they will get the Universal version of your app, rather than the variant specific for their device type,” AppleĀ told developers.

Apple says app slicing will be re-enabled with a future software update. TestFlight will continue to deliver variants for internal testers.