Tap Forms 5 and iOS 26 – any incompatibilities?

[Fred Katz]

Brendan, thanks for all the work you do.

I’m happy with Tap Forms 5 and don’t want to move to the subscription model of Tap Forms Pro. But I would like to upgrade my iPhone and iPad to iOS 26. Are there are any incompatibilities or loss of functionality with TF5 and iOS26? I’m more concerned with things that might break rather than GUI or display issues, although I want to know about those also.

[Brendan]

Tap Forms 5 works fine on iOS 26 so far. That may not continue to be the case forever as Apple updates the OS with changes that can cause older versions of Tap Forms to break. For instance, Tap Forms 3.5 no longer runs on macOS Tahoe due to a receipt validation issue caused by a change to macOS Tahoe.

[Fred Katz]

Thanks, Brendan!

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Fred Katz.

[Jeff Beaman]

Hi Brendan, I have just registered to your platform hoping to solve an issue. I have enjoyed this app since 2019, it works well for me and my needs. I have applied the latest iphone ios 26.2 update a couple of days ago and upon opening the Tap Forms app today found it hangs on a black screen for approx 1 minute then drops back to my home screen. I cant access the data base, which is a bit of a worry. Have you found any incompatibility issues with 26.2 and following updates? Hope you can shed some light on this. Regards.

[Brendan]

Is that Tap Forms 5 you’re referring to or the older Tap Forms version?

I’ve heard of some people having an issue with the oldest version of Tap Forms. But not with Tap Forms 5 so far.

What’s strange is the older version still works on my iPhone. But I’m not sure of the difference between my database and yours. Was yours encrypted by any chance?

Thanks,

Brendan

[Jeff Beaman]

Yes you are correct, I had been thinking about what I typed before and the app on my iphone is the origional Tap Forms.
It has been awhile but i think I did select the encrypted option. I had done some backups a while ago but cant seem to find them on my new phone. I guess that is the risk when updating phones is that you can loose a bit through the transition. If I leave it for a bit do you think there is a chance of an update or fix?

[Brendan]

Hi Jeff,

There’s no chance there will be an update to the old Tap Forms version (pre Tap Forms 5). I cannot even compile it anymore. The source code for that is over 9 years old and many things in it would never compile anymore with the latest development tools.

Your best bet is to follow the instructions I emailed you when you emailed me directly.

Thanks,

Brendan

[Chun Min Ang Khaw]

Hi Brendan,
I am in exactly the same situation. I have upgraded to ios 26.2 and find that this hangs on a blackscreen.
I am unable to access any of my passwords. Would appreciate it if I could get some help.
Many thanks.
Chun.

[Daniel Jussen]

Hi Brendan,

Exactly the same problem with me. After installing ios 26.2 there is only a black screen.
Is there any way to Access/export my data?

Kind Regards,
Daniel

[Fred Katz]

So I bit the bullet (or bullets) and installed iPadOS 26.2 and iOS 26.2 on my iPad Pro 4th Gen and my iPhone 16. The good news is Tap Forms 5 seems to work fine on both platforms. Yay! If I come across any issues in the next few days, I’ll post here.

Both iPad and iPhone are running Tap Forms 5.3.39 (1111)

And I plan on updating my M2 MacBook Air to MacOS 26.2 later on tonight. I’ll report back on how that goes also with the desktop version of Tap Forms 5.

[Fred Katz]

MacOS 26.2 was installed yesterday on my MacBook Air, and Tap Forms 5 works perfectly. It’s version 5.3.45 (Build 1910)

All this is to say that it’s possible to run Tap Forms 5 on a variety of Apple platforms under 26.2, not that anyone else won’t have problems. And I should say, I don’t use encryption or set a password on any of the versions I have installed. YMMV

[nanwei wu]

Hello Brendan
My app is tap forms 4 but my ios is 26.2.
The app does not work (I cannot open the app).
What should I do for this matter? (I’m ok to purchase the new app but I need to keep my data.)

[Brendan]

Hi Nanwei and everyone else that has had a problem with the old Tap Forms version running on iOS 26.2. That version you’re using is over 9 years old. It’s a miracle it has lasted this long actually. Since then I had released both Tap Forms 5 (9 years ago) and Tap Forms Pro (last year).

But there is a solution to get your data out of the old version. However, if you’ve encrypted your data, you’ll need a Mac running the old version of Tap Forms 3.5 to decrypt it and then migrate to Tap Forms 5 and then upgrade to Tap Forms Pro if you want to keep up-to-date with all the new things happening with Tap Forms.

Here’s the steps you can take to get your data out of Tap Forms 4 for iOS:

What you’ll need to do is copy the TapForms_db.sqlite file and the other files there in Tap Forms to your computer. Then open that in Tap Forms 3.5 for Mac. Then login and decrypt the document. Then make a new backup file and then migrate that to Tap Forms 5.

Here’s some instructions:

Download Tap Forms 3.5 for Mac from here (it’s a 10 day trial, so you have only 10 days to perform these steps):

https://vendors.paddle.com/download/product/498110

1. Plug your iPhone into your Mac with a USB cable.
2. Click the iPhone in the Finder
3. Click the Files tab
4. Expand the Tap Forms application.
5. Drag the TapForms_db.sqlite (including the .wal and .mem files (or other files that have TapForms_db in the name) and the other files and folders to your Desktop.
6. Select all of those files in the Finder.
7. Click the File menu and select Compress.
8. A file named Archive.zip will be created.
9. Rename Archive.zip to TF-MyBackup.zip
10. Use the Restore Backup command in Tap Forms 3.5 to restore the document.
11. Login to the database with your encryption key.
12. Go to Settings / Preferences and then the Security tab.
13. Decrypt the database. You WILL need to know your encryption key password.
14. Make a new backup file using the Backup command in the File menu.
15. Migrate that backup file to Tap Forms 5.

If you have Tap Forms 5 for Mac you can use the Migrate Backup button there.

If you don’t have the Mac version and just want the iOS version, copy the backup file to iCloud Drive and then launch Tap Forms 5 for iOS. Then use the Migrate Backup File function available from the menu button on the main Documents screen.

From there you can migrate the unencrypted backup file to Tap Forms 5.

And then if you want to keep up with all the latest Tap Forms developments, you can upgrade to Tap Forms Pro from there.

Hopefully you’ll be able to work with these steps and get your data back.

I’m very sorry for this issue, but the code for that old version is too old now to even compile on the latest hardware, so there’s nothing I can do to fix this issue and release a new build. In fact, that old version for iOS is no longer available in the App Store.

[nanwei wu]

Thank you so much for your detail instruction. It works well for me!!!

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