Still using 10 year old iOS devices? April 2023 is the end of app updates for you.

sonosaurus

For those of you still rocking your iPhone 5 or iPad 4 or older, Apple has decided for us all that developers can no longer deploy any new app updates to you, even for those of us who would like to. As of next month, all apps and updates submitted must be built using Xcode 14, which only supports the arm64 architecture for iOS, and minimum iOS 11. That means your >10 years old 32bit armv7 devices won’t be getting anything new after this month.

I’m just curious how many of you still have some of these around doing special audio jobs, running older apps, etc. I know most of them probably haven’t been getting any app updates for a while, but I for one will be a little sad to see my own geriatric apps having to push that minimum iOS version up, and leaving those old friends behind.

qqq

Alas! I still use my iPad 4 as an external display (for terminals) with Duet Display, good to know I won't be able to update soon.

senhorlampada

I still use my iPad Mini 2 a lot. I have been feeling a lot of apps are getting left behind already

wim

Why would the apps need to be updated? They're not going to break if they don't change and the OS doesn't change. OS security flaws are the only reason I can think of, and that doesn't change with this announcement.

tbh, I'd prefer not to have to worry about an update breaking something on an ancient device. The odds of even the best developer inadvertently breaking something on such devices goes up significantly over time.

Also, the time Apple spends maintaining such backward capability can be better used. (Though there's nothing to say that they will use it in ways that help us.)

catherder

Reading this, I feel inclined to dump a huge pile of electronic waste in front of Apple HQ. And denying developers to include older devices in their apps potentially reduces their income. The best thing (if possible) would be an alternative app store that allows one to step out of the Apple jail.

Telefunky

My iPad One is still ready to SamplR on it‘s Alesis ioDock
I‘m 100% with @wim it really doesn‘t matter.
Most of my favorite apps aren‘t even on the App Store anymore...

kitejan

I'm back using my iPad Mini 2 for all music duties - AUM, Animoog, Addictive, Thumbjam, iSEM, Sunrizer are my goto apps.
I also use a iPhone 4 and an iPad first generation mainly for Nanostudio 1 (and much to my surprise Alchemy).

I'm always surprised when my iPad Mini 2 prompts me to update an App! But so long as they all continue to work I can live without updates on them.

sonosaurus

@wim said:
Why would the apps need to be updated? They're not going to break if they don't change and the OS doesn't change. OS security flaws are the only reason I can think of, and that doesn't change with this announcement.

tbh, I'd prefer not to have to worry about an update breaking something on an ancient device. The odds of even the best developer inadvertently breaking something on such devices goes up significantly over time.

Well, new features are what I was thinking of, but your point is quite valid, it was easy to accidentally break backward compatibility… I’ve done it before, and then fixed that in a subsequent update.

BiancaNeve

I still have an iPad 1 as well full of e-pub books from a bookseller who subsequently was taken over but the books they sold were no longer downloadable.
And an iPad mini 1 for late night kindleing

bygjohn

I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3 which I kept for some older apps that don’t run on newer devices, but TBH they only get turned on extremely rarely. I guess there had to be a cutoff at some point, and many apps haven’t had compatible updates for ages. I assume that it’d still be possible to download any purchased apps that are still in the App Store (in older compatible versions), rather than them being actively removed?

NeuM

Going to be some time before I update to a newer iPad Pro, so…

Littlewoodg

@Telefunky said:
My iPad One is still ready to SamplR on it‘s Alesis ioDock
I‘m 100% with @wim it really doesn‘t matter.
Most of my favorite apps aren‘t even on the App Store anymore...

+1

EdZAB

Still using my iPad Mini 4, but I have a 2021 iPad M1 model which is my main gig now. I have a lot of great apps that are 4+ years old that are still useful. I like to make my apps and devices feel important for as long as possible. 😊

wim

@bygjohn said:
I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3 which I kept for some older apps that don’t run on newer devices, but TBH they only get turned on extremely rarely. I guess there had to be a cutoff at some point, and many apps haven’t had compatible updates for ages. I assume that it’d still be possible to download any purchased apps that are still in the App Store (in older compatible versions), rather than them being actively removed?

I know this post is a couple of months old, but just to clarify ...

There is always the small chance that a developer lets their account lapse, or is forced to remove an app for legal reasons, or removes an for some unknown reason. Making an iMazing backup before this happens can in theory restore the app, provided the device hasn't been upgraded past a version that no longer supports the backed up app.

In short, freezing an older device should ideally consist of:

• Backing up all apps using iMazing (the free version is sufficient for this)
• Turning off iOS updates and App Store updates
• Avoiding using the device online as much as possible (for security reasons)
• Avoiding using Bluetooth in public settings as much as possible (again, for security reasons)
• Backing up regularly to a desktop computer if your work is important to you.

Might be overkill, but people seem to take it very hard when they lose old apps, so those are the best safeguards. If you do all that and your device doesn't die (they do actually completely die sometimes), you'll have the greatest chance of not losing anything.

Telefunky

@wim said:
There is always the small chance that a developer lets their account lapse, or is forced to remove an app for legal reasons, or removes an for some unknown reason. Making an iMazing backup before this happens can in theory restore the app, provided the device hasn't been upgraded past a version that no longer supports the backed up app.

It’s of course best practice to backup before, but (at least in some cases) iMazing seems to have the ability to succeed after an account was finished and stuff was removed from the store.
They do check validity of your purchase, but then provide the app from whatever source if it‘s not downloadable from the iTunes store anymore.
In my case it happened with the PPG apps, which took way longer than regular backup and even included a couple of failed connection attempts.
(but in the end all was delivered... cool guys )

rs2000

@sonosaurus said:

@wim said:
Why would the apps need to be updated? They're not going to break if they don't change and the OS doesn't change. OS security flaws are the only reason I can think of, and that doesn't change with this announcement.

tbh, I'd prefer not to have to worry about an update breaking something on an ancient device. The odds of even the best developer inadvertently breaking something on such devices goes up significantly over time.

Well, new features are what I was thinking of, but your point is quite valid, it was easy to accidentally break backward compatibility… I’ve done it before, and then fixed that in a subsequent update.

Two thumbs up for taking care of older iDevices!!
I still have a few older ones (sitting in an Alesis ioDock and in a Focusrite iTrack Dock) which still run some apps from the previous century 😄, and I treat them more like separate standalone instruments now.

bygjohn

@wim said:

@bygjohn said:
I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3 which I kept for some older apps that don’t run on newer devices, but TBH they only get turned on extremely rarely. I guess there had to be a cutoff at some point, and many apps haven’t had compatible updates for ages. I assume that it’d still be possible to download any purchased apps that are still in the App Store (in older compatible versions), rather than them being actively removed?

I know this post is a couple of months old, but just to clarify ...

There is always the small chance that a developer lets their account lapse, or is forced to remove an app for legal reasons, or removes an for some unknown reason. Making an iMazing backup before this happens can in theory restore the app, provided the device hasn't been upgraded past a version that no longer supports the backed up app.

In short, freezing an older device should ideally consist of:

• Backing up all apps using iMazing (the free version is sufficient for this)
• Turning off iOS updates and App Store updates
• Avoiding using the device online as much as possible (for security reasons)
• Avoiding using Bluetooth in public settings as much as possible (again, for security reasons)
• Backing up regularly to a desktop computer if your work is important to you.

Might be overkill, but people seem to take it very hard when they lose old apps, so those are the best safeguards. If you do all that and your device doesn't die (they do actually completely die sometimes), you'll have the greatest chance of not losing anything.

Good advice, and thank you. In my case I still have the .ipa files for these older devices from iTunes before it stopped doing apps!