We had a TestFlight build of OmniFocus expire recently, and when I tried to open OmniFocus on my iPad, it would show me the “cold launch” screen (black with the purple checkmark), and then appear to crash. Of course, I was trying to launch the TestFlight build rather than the release build! It was an understandable mistake, considering that the OmniFocus icon looks the same whether it’s a TestFlight or release build when it’s shown in the Dock.
An easy way to make sure you are launching the correct build of OmniFocus is to go to the OmniFocus 2 page on the App Store. Tap the “Open” button (or the cloud icon, if the release build isn’t currently installed).
I hope this helps save some trouble, if anyone else is running into this issue!
A couple more notes about iOS app test builds installed via the TestFlight app! (These notes apply to Omni apps as well as other developer’s apps that you might be testing via TestFlight.)
TestFlight builds of an app expire after 90 days, by default (however, a developer may choose to set a build to expire earlier - for example, we might do this if we discover a critical bug in a TestFlight build).
When a TestFlight build expires, it remains on your iOS device but will not launch.
Apps installed via TestFlight include a small orange dot to the left of the app’s name.
When a TestFlight build of an app is installed, the app is not automatically updated when an update is released in the App Store. This makes it easy to accidentally run an older update of the app installed via TestFlight build, instead of the finalized update released via the App Store. Following the app’s Twitter account is one way of keeping an eye out for news about app updates. We recommend always running the newest release of our apps!
Finally, if you’ve stumbled on this thread and are interested in signing up to test Omni apps via TestFlight in the future, you can do so here!
