Oh, Canada: App Store north of the border goes all Skype-y

Over the past day or so we've gotten a smattering of strange reports, starting with Derek on Twitter, of a bizarre 'takeover' on the App Store for users who are browsing for apps from their iPhones and iPod touch handhelds. These poor souls are faced with the scary image seen here: an App Store devoid of categories and filled with repeating copies of the Skype icon. The horror!

A bit of detective work by the affected users sharing their stories on the Apple Discussion boards soon revealed what they all had in common: Canadian residency. According to the thread, conversations with Apple support folk have pointed to a database problem in the Canadian app store that should be sorted out in the near future.

One workaround suggested by a poster in the thread: try switching the App Store location preference (in Settings -> App Store on the phone) to USA from Canada, then switching back. If this works for you, chime in below or on the Apple support boards.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in.

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Source: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2155773&st…

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Over the past day or so we've gotten a smattering of strange reports, starting with Derek on Twitter, of a bizarre 'takeover' on the App...

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HawkEye1

I have this problem too. Canadian iPhone 3GS, running OS 3.1. I never had this problem with 3.0, as soon as I updated to 3.1 this started happening.

When I was out shopping a few days ago I noticed the categories came back, then went away just as fast.

September 13 2009 at 5:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

I couldn't switch my location to US. It says payment method info doesn't match bank records.

September 13 2009 at 3:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

urth

can't fix it, switched to u.s. and back still skype takeover of categories, and if you click on skype it puts you in featured page even though categories is highlighted, then to go back takes you back to all skype everywhere all the time!! I feel so backwater, thanks Apple Amerika, not so much! syncing doesnt help switching stores no help, though problem is only canadian appstore from iphone.

September 13 2009 at 3:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Devon

Yeah, I think I noticed it first :)
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23001717-iPhone-App-Store-gone-crazy

It went away and came back again, now with the Skype icon instead of the weird robot one.

September 13 2009 at 3:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike Pro

Seriously? This comment has been allowed to sit here for four hours, untouched?

September 13 2009 at 2:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

chief

Agent Smith is taking over!!!

September 13 2009 at 2:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Shay

I had a similar problem, appstore on the iPhone was in French. Setting the language to something else and switching it back fixed the problem.

See: http://www.sanshay.com/2009/08/26/strange-appstore-behaviour/

Shay

September 13 2009 at 1:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tired_

Ironic, considering Skype wasn't available in the Canadian App Store until this week. Now it's all we can see.

September 13 2009 at 1:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jeedee

You can now officially download Skype from the Canadian App Store without having to jailbreak or anything.

September 13 2009 at 12:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

terran

I am in Canada and I too have this problem.
iPhone 3gs 3.0 jailbroken.

September 13 2009 at 12:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply