A software error in a mobile computing device is patched in the field when an application executing on the device crashes. The usage pattern of the device determines the type of crash data that is submitted to a crash server. The crash data is compared to registration information to identify the availability of an application fix that overcomes the error that caused the device software to crash. Crash information that identifies information corresponding to the device where the crash occurred is submitted to a patch detection server. The patch detection server generates Extensible Markup Language (XML) schema based on the crash information. The application fix is located on the patch server using the XML schema and a patch identifier associated with the application fix. The device loads the application fix into memory to correct the error in the software code.