Submit bug reports or not?

Question

Created Feb ’23

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Over the years I have submitted a variety of bug reports to Apple. Some for annoyance bugs big and small but also a number of (for me) critical issues. Responses to all of these I received were in the range of "no response...", "yep we know", "please verify a fix in Xcode version such and so" etc. and also requests to build example code if the issue persists.

I am starting to wonder if it is worth it to spend time to provide a bug report at all. Responses, if I get them, come in many many moons after I reported them - in many cases I am no longer on that version of Xcode, that library or in that part of the code. I have built example/test code in the past but that can take a good amount of time, which I don't really have. Additionally, I have provided test code that than has no further follow up/answer from Apple - I guess I just chucked a bunch of my time on the window on that one.

Bug reports and the time spent on them are purely for Apple's benefit and maaaaybe in the very long run for our benefit. With every new Xcode release, things are fixed but many more new problems and changes are introduced. I know I am just a little potato to Apple and don't expect VIP treatment - but I don't want to spend that time nor have any hope on some smallish answer on the issue reported.

So what is your opinion, keep providing bug reports or nah save yer time already.

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Answer 1

Claude31 OP

Feb ’23

Bug reports and the time spent on them are purely for Apple's benefit and maaaaybe in the very long run for our benefit.

I fear you misunderstood the logic for bug reports: we signal an issue to Apple (which may have already been identified by the way). That helps improve products (Xcode notably) which we will benefit later.

But it is not a communication channel to Apple (for instance, you have to close the bug report yourself).

For direct communication, use Contact Us or a DTS ticket.

.

So what is your opinion, keep providing bug reports or nah save yer time already.

My opinion is that we should continue sending bug reports, not each time we find an issue (we should first look on forum or SO if someone already met the issue and maybe solved it)

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Answer 2

endecotp OP

Feb ’23

I find that sending bug reports is about as useful as asking questions on this forum. Of my last 10 posts here asking a question, none got useful responses. (The 11th got an answer from Quinn - thanks!)

There are a couple of other things, though. Firstly, the act of writing a (good) bug report or forum question can help you to better understand your problem. Going through the documentation one more time to find the right bit to copy into your post might be enough to find the bit you mis-read previously. Or distilling your code down to something you can share might be enough to reveal your bug. But actually, this works just as well if you're explaining the problem to the invisible rabbit who sits on your shoulder. Maybe write the bug report, but then press "cancel" instead of "submit"?

Secondly, remember that even if Apple fixed bugs as quickly as possible, it would literally be years before those fixes were in the hands of all your customers. So unless you're working on a project that's got very long timescales, fixes don't help. What you need is work-arounds. Bug reports are unlikely to deliver those. The main beneficiaries of your bug reports, therefore, are other developers who try to use the same feature in a few years time. And they may be your competitors. This is a real issue: I have an app that dates from 2009, and it is full of code to work around bugs and missing features in ancient iOS versions. My competitors, whose apps are much newer, don't need any of those work-arounds and should have much cleaner and easier to maintain code as a result.

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Answer 3

yohst OP

Mar ’23

@Claude31, @endecotp thanks for your perspectives. No I am not expecting Apple to fix my issues or help me through a bandaid when I am submitting bugs. My problem is mostly that, being a small startup developer, I have no time to create elaborate reports in particularly when being asked to write test code by Apple.

Apple is not giving feedback of any kind and can obviously not know how much time and effort I can give to a particular issue. As you said, it is not a bidirectional channel - this makes it very clear for me; I am not in a position to provide bug reports and will stop doing this. Much better to spend time hunting for solutions.

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