How to find old (iOS 3.x) apps?

[umiwangu]

I have a friend with an original iPhone, and I think she has 3.1.3. She keeps getting update notices for her apps, and once she updates them, they report that they only work with iOS 4 or higher.

Any repo or website where I can find genuine versions of v3 apps? I don't want them cracked in anyway (the iPhone is jailbroken though), just older versions...

Thanks!

[SWLinPHX]

Yes, I have a 1st gen iPod touch and when I restored a couple apps were not backed up to iTunes and suddenly I see they updated them not to work before iOS 4.0 or later! I just need the original versions that were out a few months ago. There must be a way to get these? If people have them backed up on their iTunes can't they just share these relatively small 5 - 30MB files???

[SWLinPHX]

Man I need to know this too! Two of my iOS 3.1.3-compatible apps were not backed up and now I can't use them because the newest ones need iOS 4.x or higher!

[umiwangu]

Originally Posted by SWLinPHX

Man I need to know this too! Two of my iOS 3.1.3-compatible apps were not backed up and now I can't use them because the newest ones need iOS 4.x or higher!

I guess it makes sense for Apple not to make them available, because it forces you to upgrade your software (and therefore your hardware).

I'm going to do some searching on Google to see what I can find.

S

[SWLinPHX]

I searched Google a long time but all I could find were solutions to retrieve backups from the iTunes "Mobile Applications" folder (which luckily I did from the trash when I mistakenly updated a few apps within iTunes that were only for iOS 4.0+. After that I made sure to check the compatibility of each app before downloading the update in iTunes (if you do it on your device they can tell what iOS you're running and it shouldn't update it if not compatible). Unfortunately, I had just gone a long time without syncing so these two apps never got added to iTunes at all (I downloaded them directly from my iPod touch).

Some suggested writing the developer but others said they can't release them directly to users as per Apple's agreement. Why do older versions of most computer software reside online (even Apple's) but I can't find a mobile app version that was just the latest a couple months ago? I even searched P2P file sharing and torrent sites. Let me know if you fare any better.

[umiwangu]

Originally Posted by SWLinPHX

I searched Google a long time but all I could find were solutions to retrieve backups from the iTunes "Mobile Applications" folder (which luckily I did from the trash when I mistakenly updated a few apps within iTunes that were only for iOS 4.0+. After that I made sure to check the compatibility of each app before downloading the update in iTunes (if you do it on your device they can tell what iOS you're running and it shouldn't update it if not compatible). Unfortunately, I had just gone a long time without syncing so these two apps never got added to iTunes at all (I downloaded them directly from my iPod touch).

Some suggested writing the developer but others said they can't release them directly to users as per Apple's agreement. Why do older versions of most computer software reside online (even Apple's) but I can't find a mobile app version that was just the latest a couple months ago? I even searched P2P file sharing and torrent sites. Let me know if you fare any better.

Yeah... I did find one torrent that said it had a lot of v3 apps, but they were not very common ones. And I don't think there were many seeders.

I really have no idea what to do. Maybe one way would be to search for the file name of the app. The only danger is that if you download it from a non-Apple source, you really have no idea what's in there.

[robbieduncan]

Mod Note: this is straying dangerously towards discussion of piracy. I'd suggest you stay away from discussion downloading apps via torrent...

[SWLinPHX]

Torrents in and of themselves aren't illegal, just stealing with them. We are talking about free apps (at least I am) and the previous version that can't be found anywhere else. This has nothing to do with circumventing payment or trying to find cracked or pirated copies whatsoever. We are discussing any way at all to find a simple version that is only one revision old and can't seem to find it anywhere. The discussion itself is not about anything illegal or dishonest.

Anyway, again: I can't believe we can't find a single copy of any app that is just the previous revision, maybe just a couple months old. That's never the case with computer apps.

[robbieduncan]

Originally Posted by SWLinPHX

Torrents in and of themselves aren't illegal, just stealing with them. We are talking about free apps (at least I am) and the previous version that can't be found anywhere else. This has nothing to do with circumventing payment or trying to find cracked or pirated copies whatsoever. We are discussing any way at all to find a simple version that is only one revision old and can't seem to find it anywhere. The discussion itself is not about anything illegal or dishonest.

Free or paid this is still copyright infringement and 100% illegal. The copyright holder has not permitted these copies to be made so it's a clear case of infringement. The only legal torrents are those containing non copyright material, material that has it's copyright expired through age or those containing material the copyright holder has explicitly allowed these copies to be made.

As for "cracked or pirated" copies: all torrents must contain these. There is no way to distribute others outside of the app store in large numbers. The only way to distribute non-cracked apps requires the application owner (the copyright holder) to actively participate using the Ad Hoc distribution method.

So in short: I will delete any further posts that mention using torrents to get iOS applications unless concrete proof is posted that the copyright holder has given express permission for this distribution. This is as per the MacRumors rules.

[SWLinPHX]

I understand what you're saying. All I'm saying is that was not what our discussion was about. It was about how there is no way imaginable to get an app version that was just replaced two months ago. That topic came up as even there you can't. I believe you can see the nature of our discussion was forthright and not about trying to do something illegal. I thought that is what counts. But if you can't even type the word then I guess that is different.

[umiwangu]

Originally Posted by SWLinPHX

I understand what you're saying. All I'm saying is that was not what our discussion was about. It was about how there is no way imaginable to get an app version that was just replaced two months ago. That topic came up as even there you can't. I believe you can see the nature of our discussion was forthright and not about trying to do something illegal. I thought that is what counts. But if you can't even type the word then I guess that is different.

It's frustrating, but I can see it from his pov. Even though we have legitimate needs, it probably is against the tos to get them outside of the App Store. Unfortunately.

----------

So even though no one has stated this specifically, there is no way to get old versions of apps unless the developer makes them available, and even that might be against Apple's tos's. Once you download a newer version, you're stuck with it (if you don't realise it wasn't compatible).

This is so dumb. :-|

[psonice]

Indeed, this is a really silly situation. Even if you've legitimately bought an app, if you update it and the update requires a later iOS version than your device supports then the only way to get it back is to pirate it.

From a developers perspective:

- We want to support the majority of our customers, who are almost all on iOS 4 or later. Many new features we want to add to our apps require iOS 4 or even 5, so sometimes we have to drop support for older versions.

- We can't really give out copies of older versions. The only way for us to do that is to register your phone under our developer accounts and make a custom build - which is time consuming, and besides we're only allowed a limited number of registered devices and most of those will be used for testing. It's probably against apple's TOS too.

- We can't easily make old versions available. For a free app, we could release a separate app for the new version and leave the old one, but you'd lose any saved data from the old version when upgrading, and for paid apps it means customers would have to buy the app again.

- Sometimes we can make an app compatible with older iOS versions, by detecting it and removing some of the new features. Not always though - some of my recent apps have been iOS 5 only, and making them support 4 would have been extremely impractical. iOS 3 support would have been impossible. It's worth asking the developer though - sometimes it's only a couple of lines of code, and it's no trouble.

[umiwangu]

Originally Posted by psonice

Indeed, this is a really silly situation. Even if you've legitimately bought an app, if you update it and the update requires a later iOS version than your device supports then the only way to get it back is to pirate it.

From a developers perspective:

Yeah, it's just unfortunate.

------------

On another note... I just looked at the links in your sig. Does your app really make that much of a difference? I'm assuming you'd have to hold it pretty still. I sold me 3GS, but when I go back to the US in a couple weeks I'll probably be getting another iPhone and I'll keep these apps in mind.

[psonice]

Originally Posted by umiwangu

On another note... I just looked at the links in your sig. Does your app really make that much of a difference? I'm assuming you'd have to hold it pretty still. I sold me 3GS, but when I go back to the US in a couple weeks I'll probably be getting another iPhone and I'll keep these apps in mind.

They do make a big difference - there's a thread about nightcap particularly here with some good comparison shots (that I didn't take ): http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1317353

True NightVision goes a lot further by adding software enhancement, but it's more of a 'fun' app and doesn't do full resolution.

And yes, you definitely need to hold the camera still - it depends on conditions, but for night use you're best putting the phone against a solid surface to keep it still, or get a tripod.

[mattraehl]

So if you're running an app on iOS 3, and an update is put in the store which does not support iOS 3, you still get update notifications? That is pretty bad. And even worse once you've updated theres no way back without jailbreaking?

Apple should provide a way for developers to keep a "legacy" version of their app in the store to present to users of legacy devices, and should also not notify users about incompatible updates.

Speaking practically, I guess it means that if you are on a legacy OS you need to check the app requirements before downloading updates as a precaution.

[jamewhite86]

Apple are no longer accepting apps with deployment targets earlier than 3.1; it's likely they'd have been requiring 4.0 by now but for the desire to allow developers to support the iPad's iOS 3.2 in universal apps, given that the iPad wasn't upgraded to iOS 4 for quite a while.Thanks for sharing the information.

[pre]

Not about finding iOS 3 apps, but about restoring them if you downloaded an update unintentionally. Maybe it helps someone.

If you use Time Machine on your Mac, your iOS apps in iTunes are by default backed up.
So if there is a new update requiring OS 4+, which you unfortunately downloaded on your device, then you can simple restore the old version from the Time Machine back up and sync it back to your iPhone.

(Never tried it, but I am pretty sure this works).

[umiwangu]

Doesn't help with a Windows machine. :_)

Originally Posted by pre

Not about finding iOS 3 apps, but about restoring them if you downloaded an update unintentionally. Maybe it helps someone.

If you use Time Machine on your Mac, your iOS apps in iTunes are by default backed up.
So if there is a new update requiring OS 4+, which you unfortunately downloaded on your device, then you can simple restore the old version from the Time Machine back up and sync it back to your iPhone.

(Never tried it, but I am pretty sure this works).

[SWLinPHX]

Originally Posted by pre

If you use Time Machine on your Mac, your iOS apps in iTunes are by default backed up.
So if there is a new update requiring OS 4+, which you unfortunately downloaded on your device, then you can simple restore the old version from the Time Machine back up and sync it back to your iPhone.

Yes, that's what I did with a few, and the rest I double-checked what the minimum system requirements were before updating. Obviously iTunes tells you to update whenever there's any new version available, but your device knows what version iOS you're using so that is usually not an issue when updating directly from the device. My problem is there are still two that I hadn't synched with iTunes before I had to wipe my device (long story) and all I need is those two which were just replaced within a couple months.

Apple should provide a way for developers to keep a "legacy" version of their app in the store to present to users of legacy devices, and should also not notify users about incompatible updates.

Yes, could someone please tell me why it's simple and perfectly fine to get the previous version (or even versions several years old) of Mac OS (or Windows) apps on many Apple and third party software update sites (VersionTracker, MacUpdater, etc.) yet the second the new one comes out the previous (and all previous) one is immediately unretrievable and nowhere to be found on the Internet at all, even by file sharing? How is this even an issue for free apps for iOS when it is no issue at all for Mac OS? I can see no legitimate reason for this. I am not asking for the new updated versions to work with iOS 3.1, just to keep and stay with the one I had that I was perfectly happy with.

[davorp]

I have the same problem with my iPod touch iOS 3.1.3. All I know that my next phone / tablet will be Android, and I am an Apple fanboy

[umiwangu]

Originally Posted by SWLinPHX

I am not asking for the new updated versions to work with iOS 3.1, just to keep and stay with the one I had that I was perfectly happy with.

Exactly.

[entitymike]

I have older iPhone legacy apps backed up onto an external hard drive. Multiple versions of the apps that I had installed. Are you able to list the apps and versions that you're looking for? I had a first generation 8GB iPhone for four years and now an iPhone 4.

~M

[aziatiklover]

Only apps that I could saved for my original iphone were whatsapp, emoj, and viber! Fb, yahoo messenger and others no longer work I think.

[SWLinPHX]

Originally Posted by entitymike

I have older iPhone legacy apps backed up onto an external hard drive. Multiple versions of the apps that I had installed. Are you able to list the apps and versions that you're looking for?

Do you happen to have the app for the Samsung remote control (that works with all their smart HDTV's and home theater systems)?

[Tubamajuba]

Originally Posted by SWLinPHX

Yes, could someone please tell me why it's simple and perfectly fine to get the previous version (or even versions several years old) of Mac OS (or Windows) apps on many Apple and third party software update sites (VersionTracker, MacUpdater, etc.) yet the second the new one comes out the previous (and all previous) one is immediately unretrievable and nowhere to be found on the Internet at all, even by file sharing? How is this even an issue for free apps for iOS when it is no issue at all for Mac OS? I can see no legitimate reason for this. I am not asking for the new updated versions to work with iOS 3.1, just to keep and stay with the one I had that I was perfectly happy with.

Software distribution for Mac OS and Windows is simply a matter of downloading the necessary files and going from there.

iOS uses only the App Store for software distribution, and every app must be signed by Apple for use on your specific Apple ID. This system is in place to prevent piracy. As far as I know, you can't simply download the IPA files and drag them into iTunes.

In the end, it is probably a better use of your time to invest in a newer iOS device if you don't already have one- much less hassle, more and better apps, and you'll see a massive performance increase.