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Why does Fortnite Mobile keep crashing? You could need a newer phone

James Billcliffe avatar
Guide by James Billcliffe Guides Editor
Published on

Epic Games’ Fortnite is just about the biggest game on the planet right now, and with the release of the invite-only iOS game this week, you can take it anywhere. For some people though, Fortnite Mobile keeps crashing, so we’ll do our best to help.

Why does Fortnite Mobile keep crashing?

  • To play Fortnite Mobile you need a compatible device. For phones, this is an iPhone 6S or SE or better. There are widespread reports across YouTube, Reddit and Epic Games’ forums saying that an iPhone 6 will not work. This is because the iPhone only uses the Apple A8 chip and has 1GB of RAM, rather than the A9 chip and 2GB of RAM found in the iPhone SE, 6S and newer phones.

We have the full list of compatible devices with our instructions on how to sign up for Fortnite Mobile. The game is not available on Android yet, but support is supposed to be coming in the "next few months”.

  • To play Fortnite Mobile on tablet you will need at least an iPad Mini 4 or iPad Air 2 or better. This is because these devices have 2GB of RAM, whereas earlier devices like the original iPad Air only have 1GB. The iPad Air 2 came out in 2014 and the iPad Mini 4 came out in 2015, so if your iPad is older than that, it probably won’t be able to play Fortnite Mobile.

Update: We're also hearing reports that Apple made a mistake with the compatibility list in the App Store. They've listed devices as old as the iPhone 5S and iPad Mini 2 as compatible with Fortnite, but they will not work.

  • You also need iOS 11 or higher. The current version on iPhone is 11.2.6, so if you’ve installed the latest updates, you should be fine.
  • Another issue people are finding is that anyone can download Fortnite Mobile from the App Store, even if they don’t have an invite code. If you download the app and try to gain access without first signing up, receiving your code and clicking through from the email, this can cause the app to crash before it opens properly.

If none of these apply to you and the game still keeps crashing, keep an eye on the Fortnite Twitter. Overnight they've fixed some of the problems with logging in, so try re-installing the app and trying again.

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