App Store now supports legacy versions of iOS Apps

DubDJ · 17-09-2013 12:29PM #1

In a pretty big move from Apple, they have silently updated the App Store to allow previous versions of Apps to be downloaded to a device which runs an old version of iOS. This is big news IMO, especially for users of older devices such as the iPhone 3GS, iPad (1st Gen) and iPod Touch (4th Gen). A lot of these devices are still in cirrculation and used regularly so it's great to see they no longer miss out on the numbers of available Apps.

So if you own an old device and you can't update to the latest version of iOS that a specific app supports you will now be promoted by the App Store to install an older version of the App, which supports your current version of iOS.

This is probably related to the new 64bit A7 chip too, so if an App gets updated in the future and drops support for the 32bit chip you will still be able to download a legacy version of the App. Probably wont become a problem for a while though. Glad to see certain iOS devices been given a new life.

More info.

Piliger · 18-09-2013 03:04PM

This a terrific new service !! I know a few people who's 3GSs will have a whole new life :-)

DubDJ · 18-09-2013 03:35PM

Piliger wrote: »

This a terrific new service !! I know a few people who's 3GSs will have a whole new life :-)

I was recently given an old iPod Touch to put apps on. After an hour on the App Store I managed to find two that suited and were compatible for the version of iOS. It increases value of older devices too.

whiterebel · 18-09-2013 04:42PM

Not before time. That's great news.

Bigcheeze · 18-09-2013 04:50PM

Having paid 700 for an ipad three years ago I was really pissed off that the device was effectively obsolete.

It would be great if they'd also let me go back to ios 4 which was the last version that didn't lag terribly.

Piliger · 18-09-2013 05:00PM

Why was it obsolete ? Surely all the apps that you downloaded are still working fine ??

Bigcheeze · 18-09-2013 07:27PM

Piliger wrote: »

Why was it obsolete ? Surely all the apps that you downloaded are still working fine ??

New apps often aren't supported. Old apps often can't be updated. Apple stopped updating the OS with ios5, which was approx 18 months after the ipad was released!!

The device lags for several seconds when trying to input a url or use the keypad.
It's just a crap experience so I use a laptop or phone now for most stuff.

Piliger · 18-09-2013 07:55PM

Bigcheeze wrote: »

New apps often aren't supported. Old apps often can't be updated.

So what ? That doesn't make them work any less. You should still have loads of useful working apps.

The device lags for several seconds when trying to input a url or use the keypad.

That's a different issue and nothing to do with this topic.

Have you done a hard reset ? A backup and a restore ? anything ?

guil · 18-09-2013 07:56PM

Have you tried disabling spotlight search? That made a hell of a difference to a 3G on iOS 4

Sad Professor · 18-09-2013 09:07PM

The iPad 1 was rendered almost unusably slow by iOS 5. I ended up upgrading to an iPad 2 not long after the 3 came out because I just couldn't stick the terrible performance anymore. But I'm not angry about it - it was a first gen device and didn't have enough RAM. Apple supported it for as long as they could. There's a good reason so many people waited for the iPad 2.

Piliger · 18-09-2013 09:34PM

Sad Professor wrote: »

The iPad 1 was rendered almost unusably slow by iOS 5. I ended up upgrading to an iPad 2 not long after the 3 came out because I just couldn't stick the terrible performance anymore. But I'm not angry about it - it was a first gen device and didn't have enough RAM. Apple supported it for as long as they could. There's a good reason so many people waited for the iPad 2.

This iPad 1 issue with iOS5 was solved way back - related to the Cloud service. My sister in law has her iPad1 running 5 and it's whizzing...

wilford · 18-09-2013 10:55PM

It's not working for my ipod touch.

DubDJ · 19-09-2013 12:30AM

wilford wrote: »

It's not working for my ipod touch.

Maybe it's down to app developers to offer older versions, or maybe with some apps older versions can't be supported for whatever reason. Maybe it's just the app you tried?

Bigcheeze · 19-09-2013 08:27AM

Piliger wrote: »

This iPad 1 issue with iOS5 was solved way back - related to the Cloud service. My sister in law has her iPad1 running 5 and it's whizzing...

What do you need to do to resolve this issue ? Turn off icloud ?

Bigcheeze · 19-09-2013 08:27AM

guil wrote: »

Have you tried disabling spotlight search? That made a hell of a difference to a 3G on iOS 4

No, will try it.

munchkin_utd · 19-09-2013 08:34AM

Bigcheeze wrote: »

What do you need to do to resolve this issue ? Turn off icloud ?

according to this support thread (toward the bottom) that does help.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3415448?start=390&tstart=0

Disabling iCloud and turning off apps in the Notification center, plus clearing the Safari cache helped. Still not blazing fast, but better. Thanks again.

and killing imessage also helps aparantly.

DubDJ · 19-09-2013 01:54PM

More info today, Apple has released details to developers allowing them to manage older versions of apps allowing them to choose what they actually want to be available for download.

So I'd say older versions will start showing up soon enough.

srsly78 · 19-09-2013 02:25PM

Bigcheeze wrote: »

New apps often aren't supported. Old apps often can't be updated. Apple stopped updating the OS with ios5, which was approx 18 months after the ipad was released!!

Fragmentation in the apple ecosystem!? Surely not, only android has this problem.

Piliger · 19-09-2013 02:25PM

srsly78 wrote: »

Fragmentation in the apple ecosystem!? Surely not, only android has this problem.

Only Android has this problem.

DubDJ · 19-09-2013 04:49PM

srsly78 wrote: »

Fragmentation in the apple ecosystem!? Surely not, only android has this problem.

Android has a huge amount of Fragmantation compared to a tiny amount with iOS.

munchkin_utd · 20-09-2013 08:35AM

srsly78 wrote: »

Fragmentation in the apple ecosystem!? Surely not, only android has this problem.

it depends on what you define as fragmentation.

I would argue that iOs has no fragmentation as there is only one path of development/ versions.
Versioned software is not the same as fragmented software.

srsly78 · 20-09-2013 08:46AM

Strangely that's how android works too. You target an android version not a specific phone.

munchkin_utd · 20-09-2013 08:50AM

srsly78 wrote: »

Strangely that's how android works too. You target an android version not a specific phone.

yup, but each "version" has heaps of different manufacturer specific "flavours"
(for want to a better word as subversion would half imply it was a centrally organised and managed changing of the official version) which shouldn't cause a problem but they do.

srsly78 · 20-09-2013 08:56AM

The skins they put on top don't matter that's just cosmetic.

Piliger · 20-09-2013 01:39PM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

it depends on what you define as fragmentation.

I would argue that iOs has no fragmentation as there is only one path of development/ versions.
Versioned software is not the same as fragmented software.

Indeed so. The fragmentation being stated about Android means that people with Android phones rarely upgrade to newer versions. They just continue to work away with older versions even inf they phones can cope with the newer versions. Hence developers are completely undermined because when they are encouraged to invest in new and better versions of their apps, they are fully aware of the fact that only a portion of the phones out there can use their improvements if they depend on the update.
iPhone users, in contract, update their software to the latest version possible in something like 90+% of cases. This is a huge boon for developers AND it gives users a far better experience.

srsly78 · 20-09-2013 02:28PM

I'm amazed how much Apple fans know about Android development, especially the finer details about fragmentation. Truly a better class of individual. It's not like you just repeat what you read off some apple fansite or anything right?

In reality, both platforms have this "fragmentation" nonissue. You can't run the latest version on ancient hardware, at some stage support has to stop.

Piliger · 20-09-2013 02:48PM

srsly78 wrote: »

I'm amazed how much Apple fans know about Android development, especially the finer details about fragmentation. Truly a better class of individual. It's not like you just repeat what you read off some apple fansite or anything right?

In reality, both platforms have this "fragmentation" nonissue. You can't run the latest version on ancient hardware, at some stage support has to stop.

Some of us work in the area and some of us self educate instead of just spouting opinion based on no facts.... not necessarily referring to you

ALL statistical reports demonstrate clearly that this fragmentation is extremely low with iOS and very high with Android. My comment clearly differentiated between devices capable of taking newer versions and those not able. I haven't time to get references, but these reputable reports are easily located on the web.

coylemj · 20-09-2013 03:11PM

I have an iPod Touch G4 whch I knew would not support iOS7. When app updates are downloaded by iTunes, it deletes the old version because I can see them in the recycle bin which is busines as usual but it then informs me when I sync the device that the new version will not work on my device - clearly several recent app updates I have downloaded in the past few days will only run on iOS7.

My problem is that if I need to do a hard reset on the device, I won't have the iOS6 versions of those apps when I'm syncing the apps back to the (now factory reset) device and I will have to download them all over again, is this how Apple intended things to work? I don't sync an iPad3 or any other iOS7-compatible device from my laptop so I can't see why iTunes (11.1 - latest version) is downloading iOS7-only app updates and throwing away the versions that work on my device.

DubDJ · 20-09-2013 03:24PM

srsly78 wrote: »

I'm amazed how much Apple fans know about Android development, especially the finer details about fragmentation. Truly a better class of individual. It's not like you just repeat what you read off some apple fansite or anything right?

In reality, both platforms have this "fragmentation" nonissue. You can't run the latest version on ancient hardware, at some stage support has to stop.

So your saying the replies here are wrong? It's a very wide known fact that Android contains a lot of fragmentation, especially compared to Apple. This is based on how both OSes are operated and run, Android being open-source and very open to customisation from manufacturers, whereas Apple controls every iOS update and doesn't allow any tweaks or overlays. It's obvious Android is going to have a problem like this with so many different devices and things like Sense or Touchwiz making things more complicated.

In a real world situation, every single person I know personally with an iOS device is running either iOS 6.1.3 or 7.0, one of those is now stuck on 6.1.3 as they own a 4th Gen iPod Touch. Comparing that to Android only one person is running 4.3, the rest are on a lower version usually ICS. I'd consider that fragmentation.

srsly78 · 20-09-2013 04:31PM

The point that you miss is that "fragmentation" does not really matter or cause developers difficulty, this is what is overblown. Sure there are some niche cases with graphics drivers and so on that have caused trouble but this does not matter to 99.9% of devs (if e.g. samsung have a buggy driver this does equal "fragmentation" anyway). There may be 500 android devices, but most developers only worry about 2 android versions, gingerbread and froyo. Target those and you cover everyone, simple. Thus fragmentation is at best a red-herring and at worst a malicious rumour.

So it wasn't an issue in the past, except to some ill informed developers and journalists. Things have been streamlined even more since then. Google now deploy a lot of stuff in the google play app itself, which everyone will have the latest version of. This mostly applies to specific google features like maps etc. Some people are upset because this updates silently in the background tho, you just can't win!

Piliger · 20-09-2013 04:41PM

srsly78 wrote: »

The point that you miss is that "fragmentation" does not really matter or cause developers difficulty, this is what is overblown. Sure there are some niche cases with graphics drivers and so on that have caused trouble but this does not matter to 99.9% of devs (if e.g. samsung have a buggy driver this does equal "fragmentation" anyway). There may be 500 android devices, but most developers only worry about 2 android versions, gingerbread and froyo. Target those and you cover everyone, simple. Thus fragmentation is at best a red-herring and at worst a malicious rumour.

So it wasn't an issue in the past, except to some ill informed developers and journalists. Things have been streamlined even more since then. Google now deploy a lot of stuff in the google play app itself, which everyone will have the latest version of. This mostly applies to specific google features like maps etc. Some people are upset because this updates silently in the background tho, you just can't win!

What you say is completely misleading. I know a lot of Android users and most have very old versions. I ask them about updating and they just don't do it.

The effect of this fragmentation is big.
a) What it encourages developers to do, and they have written about it many times, is write apps for the lowest common denominator OS functions. When Android bring out great new functions in their latest OS, developers tend to stay away from them.
b) Users using Android older versions tend to then only use older versions of their apps and they lose out on the latest and greatest developments by Android. This gives them a much worse user experience and when they see what iOS users are getting, they lose out in a major way.

App Store now supports legacy versions of iOS Apps

Comments