Abbott / Apple Librelink SNAFU

 Abbott have updated their Librelink software for the Libre 2 sensor in the UK and the new version 2.10.x has the advantage of streaming glucose values every 60s to the app screen. It works well on Android. https://www.freestyle.abbott/uk-en/home.html

Not much else changed, there's no watch integration or lock screen / notification area display of blood glucose data. But it does work quite well, and the values are pushed through to the Libreview.com cloud and hence on to LibreLinkUp followers continuously.

Unfortunately there were many problems with iPhone / iOS users experiencing white screens when the app updated. This was solvable by deleting the app (and losing up to 90 days data off the phone) and reinstalling. The data is still held at Libreview.com. This problem led Abbott to pull the 2.10.x update from the app store, but not replace it with the old one, leaving no Librelink-GB app on the App Store.

For some reason the Ireland app store still carries their updated version, perhaps the white screen problem didn't arise. https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/freestyle-librelink-ie/id1307010255

So many iPhone Libre users were suddenly left in the lurch with no working app, and no app in the App Store to download.

Abbott released a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfIbDA8ciSg explaining how to delete the app and then recover it from "Purchased apps" in the user's App Store profile. This seemed to work for the majority, the loss of recent history on the phone was collateral damage. There is now a web page too https://www.freestyle.abbott/uk-en/iphone.html

It seems strange that Abbott did not rewind the update process and just put v2.8.x back on the app store. This would have restored the status quo and given them time to resolve the issue. There are some questions to be answered about the testing regime as after all there's a very limited set of hardware using iOS and an even more limited OS/user interface - surely a beta test by 50 end users would have revealed this problem in advance of messing up thousands of users.

The iOS version 2.10.x does work once installed, although some users were struggling to adapt to the movement of the "Scan" button to a more subtle RFID icon top right as shown below. With the new streaming data feature you only really need to scan to start the sensor and if it won't reconnect.