Every now and then you may have an app on your iOS device that stops working properly. In some cases it may stop responding to tapping and dragging, or it may unexpectedly quit and drop you back to the main iOS home screen, either during launch or shortly after loading. At other times your app may be working as expected, but you have a special need or concern that you would like to have addressed. In either situation, contacting your app’s developer may give you some quick answers.

To do this, open the App Store app on your iOS device, and then go to the Purchased section. This will show you all of the apps you have purchase, and you can limit the list to those on the current device, if needed. This will reveal the problematic app, which you can tap to view its information page. In this page, tap the Reviews section where you should see an App Support link. Tapping this will open your browser to the developer’s support pages. The support options will be different for each developer, so in some cases you may get direct contact information, but at other times you might find yourself at a community support forum.

Granted another approach for this is to do a Web search, which may be easier for popular apps, but if you have a relatively obscure app, then you may have to perform several different searches to find what you need. In these cases, using the App Store’s links will be your quickest bet.

Beyond contacting the developer directly, if you are having issues with a particular app, especially if they revolve around crashing and hanging, then there are several options you can try for fixing the issue on your own.

Starting with the simplest approaches, first try fully shutting down and restarting your iOS device, as opposed to only quitting the app and putting the device in standby mode. To do this, press and hold the power button until you see the power slider, and then drag the slider to shut the system down. Wait until the screen goes completely black (you may see a spinning progress indicator before it does so), and then press and hold the power button again, to start the system up. If done right, when starting up you will see a white Apple logo in the middle of the screen.

Next, try installing a new app from the App Store, as this will trigger the system to access your iTunes account and overwrite configuration files used for associating your apps with your account. Since any new app will do, go grab a small and free utility, but be sure it is one you have never purchased before. Also be sure to do this from within your device, and not by using iTunes on an attached computer.

Lastly, try deleting the app and reinstalling it. Doing so should remove all of the app’s settings and data, so be sure you have your iOS device backed up to your computer or to iCloud, and then tap and hold any app on your home screen to enter edit mode. When the apps are jiggling, tap the “x” next to the faulty one to remove it, and confirm you would like to do so. Then go to the App Store and re-download the app.