What happens when my iPhone is to old for iOS upgrades?

furby3 said:

I have an iPhone 3GS. Works fine for me and I'd like to keep it as long as possible, but I realize it's getting a little long in the tooth compared to the latest iPhone and upcoming iPhone 5.

I'm wondering what will happen when it gets too old to support future iOS upgrades?

When I plug it into my computer and go to iTunes will it no longer tell me there's an upgrade available?

And what about the apps? Are they frozen in time? Are they still able to function?

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Yes, it will no longer tell you that there's an upgrade available.
You will get updates on apps as long as the app supports the iOS version you have.

Everything will work, you just won't be able to update iOS. It will just be like as if there wasn't an update.

Surely each time you do an iOS update it updates it all bit by bit just like an iPhone 4 and soon to be iPhone 5/4S.

Otherwise millions of iPhones would become obsolete and Apple would lose customers and money?

DollFaceDork said:

Surely each time you do an iOS update it updates it all bit by bit just like an iPhone 4 and soon to be iPhone 5/4S.

Otherwise millions of iPhones would become obsolete and Apple would lose customers and money?

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I wish I understood what you were trying to say.

nebo1ss said:

I wish I understood what you were trying to say.

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Haha never mind it sounded OK in my head...

OllyW said:

No. The original iPhone stopped getting updated at iOS 3.1.3 and the 3G at iOS 4.2.1.

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True, but the phones still work great.

Be glad they don't pipe a hog of an OS update to you like they did ios4 to the 3G. You don't always need the latest update.

redbotsoftware said:

Yes, it will no longer tell you that there's an upgrade available.
You will get updates on apps as long as the app supports the iOS version you have.

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So apps won't upgrade if you don't have a compatible OS?

diamond.g said:

So apps won't upgrade if you don't have a compatible OS?

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Not on your device.

You have to watch out upgrading them in iTunes though. It will let the upgrade happen. I have a 3G and have not upgraded to 4.x.x because it is awful on the 3G. I had to download a cracked older version of an app I had paid for due to iTunes upgrading an app to a version that was not compatible with my firmware. I didn't have it on my phone at the time so the cracked version was my only option if I did not want to lose an app that I had paid for.

the 3GS will run iOS 5, not all the features, so you should be fine until the iPhone 6 comes out

Interstella5555 said:

True, but the phones still work great.

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I can't say the iPhone 3G works great, because my 3G with 4.2.1 is extremely slow. Hope that won't be the case for future 3GS users.

I got my phone free 2 years ago.

My phone is iphone 3. I am now seeing pages that are blank or inaccessible. At least my phone is at the end of the 2 year agreement. Ends February. Yay, I am having the most problems in Facebook when I want to open a video. Some places in app store is unavailable. If I would of bought the next one up; I wouldn't be having any problems right now. I don't mind tho I am use too working around glitches with other devices I am sure this wont bug me.

It gets... left behind.

furby3 said:

I have an iPhone 3GS. Works fine for me and I'd like to keep it as long as possible, but I realize it's getting a little long in the tooth compared to the latest iPhone and upcoming iPhone 5.

I'm wondering what will happen when it gets too old to support future iOS upgrades?

When I plug it into my computer and go to iTunes will it no longer tell me there's an upgrade available?

And what about the apps? Are they frozen in time? Are they still able to function?

Click to expand...

I still use my iPod Touch 4th generation with an A4 and 256MB memory. If you do not update the iOS since you got it; it will be very fast still but you will get left out of the more corporate Apps like CBS, NBC, ESPN, Apple Store, etc... want you to upgrade to near the latest iOS. But many of the smaller company type apps still work well and don't require you to upgrade to have it run. Be very cautious of bug fix upgrades. I your app is running fine; skip the upgrade. I use to have 5.1.2? and on a lark; did finaly upgrade to 6.1.1 and it slow the Touch down by 40% or more and many of the Apps that worked after the upgrade; got left behind with 7.0 update requirements. So I did myself a big disservice! It so slow now with 6.1.1!