Pokemon Go players have reported losing Raid Passes when they shouldn’t be and have resorted to inconvenient measures to combat the issue.
Raid Passes grant unfettered access to battle the ‘mon in whichever Gym it spawned. Win or lose, the Pass is consumed, except for one specific circumstance. If a player uses a Pass but doesn’t inflict any damage on their target, they’ll be refunded the entry ticket for future use regardless of the outcome.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, anyway. Claiming to have lost multiple Raid Passes to what they consider a bug, one player on Reddit stated that, on two previous occasions, they followed that exact protocol, but still had the currency removed from their item bag.
“Twice last week, I was in the lobby when the timer was counting down and my game crashed,” the affected player stated, adding, “After I re-enter the gym, the raid boss was already defeated and I did not get the encounter (same as before the changes), but the raid pass was consumed, giving the error ‘this raid has been defeated!'”
Corroborating the anecdotal evidence provided by the thread’s author, multiple responses shared similar experiences, adopting a cumbersome workaround to try and minimize the risk of game crashes.
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“On iPhone I’d strongly suggest pre-crashing (force quitting) and restarting the app before each raid,” one user encouraged, adding “You can only perform so many of certain actions before the app is poised to crash.”
“This is exactly what I’ve been doing due to my iPhone not being able to handle the RAM it demands for prolonged periods,” came another. “Yep, it crashes a lot on iOS. Restarting before every single Raid for safety now,” added others affected.
Why the problem only appears to be affecting Trainers on Apple devices, or, for that matter, what the root cause is, remains unclear. There’s every chance these are isolated incidents rather than indications of a widespread issue.
Pokemon Go’s current season, Max Out, introduces Dynamax Battles. Check out our guide on Power Spots and Max Particles to learn more about how the feature works.