Weather app. — can no longer add cities

Michael Graubart · Sep 16, 2015

The Weather app. that came with my old iPhone 3G (iOS 4.2.1) continues to update and show the weather for the various cities I selected. But suddenly I can no longer search for and add new cities.

Can this have to do with Apple's recent switch from Yahoo! to the Weather Channel as source for iPhone weather data? Strangely and confusingly, at the bottom left of the main weather display I still see 'Y!', whereas if I press 'i' at bottom right, the next page shows 'The Weather Channel' in a white square; beneath that, 'weather.com', and to the right, 'powered by Yahoo!'

Is there anything simple that I can do to make it possible once more to select cities, short of buying a new phone?

bear7962 · Sep 17, 2015

I use the native weather app and the Weather Channel app and have no problems adding new cities but I have a 6plus and its current IOS. But I also note that the native app no longer says powered by Yahoo. I also know Yahoo has its own app in the App Store so perhaps your app is no longer being device by Yahoo, Apple, or The Weather Channel.

Michael Graubart · Sep 18, 2015

Thanks, bear7962, that's interesting and revealing. It seems that the app. gets its weather data via Apple, not directly from either Yahoo! or the Weather Channel, and Apple — wishing, of course, to sell recent iPhone models — codes it in such a way that old versions of iOS can't handle it.

Or, of course, that Yahoo! has done that in revenge for Apple's desertion!

But the two curious things are that, as I said in my original post, on my 3G phone the second page says both 'The Weather Channel' and 'Powered by Yahoo!'; and the fact that the app. works perfectly (and amazingly quickly) for all the cities that I selected some months ago, but won't let me add any others.

bear7962 · Sep 18, 2015

I do not believe either suggestion is true. All app providers do many updates and eventually stop including old platforms in the update due to the difficulties and expense of writing and keeping numerous older apps functioning securely. Instead they promote their newer apps. Yahoo rebuilt all of their apps using a different platform than the old Yahoo. Your phone stopped being able to get IOS update in March 2011. In the wireless industry, that's more than a lifetime ago. I know you don't like it but your device is not able to handle what apps do now. It does not matter that you do not need or want what the new apps do, the providers are selling to a larger audience. The companies involved don't shut down their apps due to old age but they do not modify them nor conform their servers and platforms for full functioning of d apps. Easy example: I still have my Windows NT Disc. I liked it and was comfortable using it. And I still could use it. But it's would not function as it used to. IE and everything else has changed and no one writes programs to work with it and it has had no updates or security improvements for years. I could say Microsoft only did that to make me buy a newer OS but I would be wrong. My old beloved NT can't keep up with what is needed now whether I realize it or not.

scifan57 · Sep 18, 2015

johnzor said:
Are anyone having problems w/ the app store not loading up? I can only update old apps but couldn't search or view anything else.. It only started happening ever since iOS 9 any ideas?

You're certainly right about being unable to add new cities to the weather app. I have an iPod Touch second generation that also has iOS 4.2.1 as the latest possible version and I had the same problem you did.
Unfortunately you're going to see more and more of this as time goes on.
It may be time to consider updating your iPhone.

Michael Graubart · Sep 18, 2015

Thank you once more, bear7962; this time for a substantial tract on the ways of the modern world. Actually I live in that world, too, and know about its ways. Indeed, I contributed to it in my small way while I was a development engineer in a large electronics firm. But what you have omitted from your account is the driving force: economics — or, as I said earlier on — the profit motive. As for my remark about Yahoo!'s revenge, it is a pity that my joke fell on solemn ears.

'Your phone stopped being able to get IOS update in March 2011.' I know that. That is, of course, why I have not updated the iOS. But there is also the small matter of simple logic. My old weather app. has not changed. (See scifans57's useful confirmation of that fact.) It continues to work perfectly well. So if the selection of cities has suddenly failed, it is not that my app has changed; it is the data stream that it responds to that has changed, and the change may be an update in its characteristics while still originating from the same source (Yahoo!), but — since it seems to have coincided with Apple's switch from Yahoo! to the Weather Channel — it is more likely to be due to a change in its source.

scifans57, thank you very much for your confirmation that it is not that my app has somehow become corrupted, but that the data stream has changed. I do not pretend to guess at why the weather predictions still arrive for the cities that I had previously selected; nor why the second page shows both Yahoo! and Weather Channel. One day Father Christmas will bring me a new iPhone. In the meantime I must battle on with my daughter's cast-off G3. She, it seems, can afford a new one. I can't!

bear7962 · Sep 18, 2015

To belabor this, I believe it's security and update driven. Apple switched from Yahoo weather to The Weather Channel in Sept. 2014.

Michael Graubart · Sep 18, 2015

We could go on indefinitely! Security — quite possibly. But an update that is update driven? Do updates drive themselves? Updates are driven by the economic need to make older versions obsolete.

But September 2014? That changes my understanding of the situation radically, because while I was in France in July 2015 I was able to add cities in France that I was possibly planning to visit without any difficulty. If Apple made the change in 2014, that rules out Apple's switch as the immediate reason for the present impossibility of adding cities.

Given that my app and my phone have not changed, nor my mobile phone service provider, this suggests that after the switch The Weather Channel continued not only to provide the forecasts, but continued to permit cities to be added, but has now changed the format or coding of the latter while continuing to provide the former. Strange!

Michael Graubart · Sep 18, 2015

Further info.: See http://recode.net/2014/06/20/as-wea...apples-upcoming-ios-8-storms-ahead-for-mayer/

This paragraph, 'The irony? Yahoo’s weather app and services have long been powered by the Weather Channel, part of a longtime partnership it has had with the Silicon Valley Internet giant. In simple terms, Yahoo had slapped a pretty chrome cover on it and Weather Channel provided the more substantive back end and critical weather data', at least explains why both Yahoo! and Weather Channel appear on the second page of the app on my phone.

But that still does not account for the change of only part (the cities) of the service in 2015.

Michael Graubart · Oct 3, 2015

Surprise! On a whim I tried again today to add a city, and it worked! Nothing is irrevocable in this world — fortunately for me and my antiquated phone, in this instance — not security-driven updates, not update-driven updates, not even the profit motive.

davidv911 · Jan 31, 2016

Well, my 6 Plus weather app still doesn't work. I've deleted all the cities and am now unable to add any cities back in again. All I get is "Validating City" for a few seconds, then "No Results Found". I was typing in "Clearwater Florida". Typing in Zip Code yielded the same results. Of course I've tried soft resets (holding down both buttons) and hard resets where I've deleted everything and restored from iCloud (losing all my my music and pictures due to iTunes problems). Honestly, I almost feel like throwing this $800 phone against a brick wall and going over to Samsung. At least I'd have better picture quality if nothing else. I wonder how many hundreds of hours I've wasted on Apple software problems?

Bkdodger · Jan 31, 2016

No worries I'm sure we get you fixed up ...are you on Wifi or Data ? And have you tried with each ?

6s Plus [emoji390]

scifan57 · Jan 31, 2016

davidv911 said:
Well, my 6 Plus weather app still doesn't work. I've deleted all the cities and am now unable to add any cities back in again. All I get is "Validating City" for a few seconds, then "No Results Found". I was typing in "Clearwater Florida". Typing in Zip Code yielded the same results. Of course I've tried soft resets (holding down both buttons) and hard resets where I've deleted everything and restored from iCloud (losing all my my music and pictures due to iTunes problems). Honestly, I almost feel like throwing this $800 phone against a brick wall and going over to Samsung. At least I'd have better picture quality if nothing else. I wonder how many hundreds of hours I've wasted on Apple software problems?

Is this the stock weather app that comes pre-installed on the iPhone? Maybe your iOS update update became corrupted somehow. Have you considered restoring your iPhone through iTunes on your computer? Backup your iPhone and select the restore option. It will install a fresh copy of iOS 9.2.1 on your iPhone, which you can then set up from the backup you made.