Shortly after V1.5 of Charmed went live in the iTunes App Store, we started to receive feedback from some players that their games were freezing up very frequently.

After several hours of investigation, I discovered that the problem was due to a defect in the offline handling of Achievements in OpenFeint.  Basically if a user never goes online with OpenFeint, then the “unlock Achievement” functionality of OpenFeint does not work.

To work around this, a player must simply login to OpenFeint.  They do not necessarily need to create a custom username and account, but they do need to connect to the OpenFeint servers.  Once this first connection has been completed, then OpenFeint Achievements are properly unlocked, and the freeze up no longer occurs.

We have also submitted a fix to Apple in the form of a V1.6 update, however, the update must first be approved by Apple.  We hope that it will be approved in approximately 10 more days.

Here is the information we posted on iTunes:

FREEZE-UP ISSUE FOUND AND FIXED!!!
We have identified the problem that was causing freezes for some people and we have submitted a fix to Apple.

We have also identified a workaround that will prevent the freezes from happening until the update is approved (see below).

Also, we would like to apologize for any frustration or inconvenience this problem may have caused you.  If you are happy with the workaround and/or the fix, we would kindly ask that you update your rating and review of Charmed.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

PROBLEM
OpenFeint needs to have successfully logged in at least one time to avoid the freeze-up issue.

WORKAROUND
• Enable WiFi or 3G network on your device
• Launch Charmed
• Enable OpenFeint and allow it to connect to the network
• Start playing Charmed without crashing.
• Note that if you uninstall Charmed and reinstall it, you will have to repeat this workaround step.

If you have disabled OpenFeint support, then you may need to go into the High Score screens and enable it from there.