Scan QR Code Missing!

As with several of my colleagues, we agreed that we developed in React Native, thanks to Expo exists, as we would, but after discovering Expo there is no turning back. Expo I love!

But just like my colleagues, the news of the changes in sdk 26 has not been very good for us.
At this moment I am preparing 6 applications to upload to the stores, taking into account that Apple takes their time to validate them, I think that removing the QR code on the Expo client for iOS is a bad move, although I understand this is because of the work policies of Apple, you knowing of this could have been warned before to change the tactics of working with our clients and as a colleague says in this same thread, see what options to follow to provide a good service to our clients.

Remember that you are always in charge of making us see why it is better to work with Expo, and we (the developers) have relied on you to choose them. For future decision-making of this kind, it would be good that as we are used to keeping the community informed, so should this type of abrupt changes.

Now I have a complex problem, since the times do not give, my client needs to use the applications until they are in the stores and the QR code does not go anymore at least in iOS.

For everything else, I am more than happy with Expo and I will continue using and recommending, but please for the next time this type of changes make them warning with time to see how to proceed and save situations in which (today) are almost insurmountable.
Greetings.

Leandro

Hey @atiladev,

We are really sorry about any and all conveniences these changes have caused, but as you mentioned it was not our decision to make them. If we could have QR code functionality and the ability to open other developer’s projects back in the Expo Client, we would do so in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Apple has the last word and we felt it would be better to make those sacrifices than to not have the Expo Client in the App Store.

As for the warning, we did release a blog post on Medium and tweeted about the upcoming iOS limitations. So if you aren’t already, it would be best to either follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/expo and or Medium https://blog.expo.io/ With that said, we probably could have done more to communicate with the community and we will make sure to do so in the future.

As for having your client test your application, if possible you could share the account credentials of the account that authored the application or create a new account and publish the project under that account. I know it’s a crappy workaround but it’s unfortunately what Apple’s changes have forced us to do.

Cheers,

Adam

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Hey @izzusan @timurbakibayev @anilhurmuz,

Can you guys please upgrade to the newest version of exp and try to run your iOS project? It should be fixed but let me know if you encounter any other issues.

Thanks!

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Thank you @adamjnav

So there’s no way to debug on iphones without xcode?

Hello Adam.

Thank you very much for your prompt response (something that has us accustomed Expo and it is good to thank them).

I follow them on twitter, medium (blog expo), facebook, etc. Let’s say I’m a big fan of you. On the blog I saw the news written on March 26, that is 4 days before the release of sdk26. The same there is no time to do much. I understand as developer and person, that when you have to make good decisions “we are all glad!”, But when the news is not very pleasant, it is difficult to conform everyone.

I agree with the decision they made. I was just looking for ways in the future for information on very large changes to be made in advance.

I was thinking about that option to share the credentials with my client and with theirs for now, until I can save the situation of having all the applications in stores. I just wanted to make sure that the account was going to be able to be used on different devices at the same time and not have a block with that. I saw it as an option after reading the news, but I did not pass it on to my client until I was sure of that. Likewise, I am 100% focused on uploading everything as quickly as possible to iTunes and Play store.

Again, thank you very much for answering.

Greetings.

Leandro

Working for me, was able to test my app on an iOS device…building from Windows 10. Updated exp to the latest version. Ran exp start. Opened the Camera app on my iPad, scanned the QR code and got a notification to ‘open in Expo’, clicked that to open Expo and my app loaded. Thank you for the quick resolution

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npm update exp
npm show expo version
26.0.0

Still have a white screen :frowning: Am I updating it wrong?

And no, there are no logs at all :frowning: It only says that “Log will appear here”

@timurbakibayev Can you run exp --version in your terminal and let me know what it says?

If it doesn’t say 51.1.0, run npm i -g exp and it should update to the correct version.

It works now! My version was 41.1.1 or something.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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Glad you got it fixed. Thanks for your patience!

Using Create React Native App:
Updated react-native-scripts to 1.12.0
Works on Android phone, however, iOS phone is still stuck on white splash screen. Option of updating exp does not seem to be the right approach as not something that is used in CRNA.
Any suggestions?

Hey @shoya,

react-native-scripts needs to be version 1.13.1 to fix the issue on CRNA.

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Thank you very much sir!

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It’s a bummer about the missing QR scanner, but what happens to apps published on https://expo.io/ ?

Is there any way to share our iOS application preview without sharing source code?

Edit:

Just read the part about requiring TestFlight - Apple Developer. I guess this just means I’ll require a developer account eventually.

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See the last part of the reply of @adamjnav to @atiladev:

As for having your client test your application, if possible you could share the account credentials of the account that authored the application or create a new account and publish the project under that account. I know it’s a crappy workaround but it’s unfortunately what Apple’s changes have forced us to do.

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This is super disappointing - negating a huge part of the reason I use Expo - but I understand it’s out of your hands.

Could you please point to specific documentation of the recent changes on Apple’s part that forced you to make this change?

Additionally, is there anything you can do in the client app that would re-enable the sort of live-review-on-PRs workflow you see here? https://github.com/react-navigation/react-navigation/pull/3751#issuecomment-376520605 Perhaps organization accounts that individuals could join to have access to deploys in that organization, separated by release channel? First-class support for this kind of
“review deployment”?

as far as i know there was no change, they just decided to enforce an existing rule in a way we didn’t expect (guideline 3.1.4)

Additionally, is there anything you can do in the client app that would re-enable the sort of live-review-on-PRs workflow you see here? Experiment: use react-native-gesture-handler/DrawerLayout by brettdh · Pull Request #3751 · react-navigation/react-navigation · GitHub Perhaps organization accounts that individuals could join to have access to deploys in that organization, separated by release channel? First-class support for this kind of
“review deployment”?

we’re investigating some options for this but don’t have a good answer at the moment except to share an account. i may look into adding an easy account switcher ui to expo client so this is more feasible.

if the project is open source like react-navigation, you could also consider uploading the code to snack

Apple always put developers in a tight spot even

Hoo boy. Forgive the following rant; it’s obviously not directed at you.

That’s an absurd, myopic interpretation of 3.1.4, which states:

“Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc.”

That’s not what Expo is doing; it’s just loading a link from a QR code. It doesn’t enable any content or functionality; it implements the “load a URL” functionality of Expo itself.

Any chance of appeal? Any personal contact from Apple?

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we’re trying to build relationships with folks at apple to be able to discuss this further but at the moment we don’t have much leverage due to being a small company that accounts for close to zero dollars in revenue for the app store. conversations that we have had so far haven’t been particularly fruitful in terms of being able to defend our stance on the matter. i wouldn’t expect to see the qr code scanner back any time soon, we’ll keep people updated.