Apple Drops iCloud Support for iOS 10 and macOS Sierra

[MacRumors]

Apple devices that are running iOS 10 or macOS Sierra no longer meet the minimum system requirements for iCloud, according to Apple's updated iCloud support document.

All iCloud features now require iOS 11 or macOS High Sierra at minimum. iCloud services like Keychain, iCloud Photos, iCloud backups, Find My, and iCloud Drive will no longer work on devices that are running iOS 10 or macOS Sierra.

iOS 10 and macOS Sierra launched in September 2016, which means the updates are now nine years old. iOS 10 was the final version of iOS available for the iPhone 5 (2012) and the iPhone 5c (2013), along with the fourth-generation iPad (2012). These devices will no longer be able to access iCloud services.

macOS High Sierra was compatible with all Macs running macOS Sierra, so there are no Macs that are losing iCloud support with the compatibility change unless those Macs have not been updated to the last version of macOS they support.

Article Link: Apple Drops iCloud Support for iOS 10 and macOS Sierra

 

[woolypants]

I'm a little surprised at this. Yes, it's tricky to support a nine-year-old OS. But I thought this was something Apple prioritised. You can still access iMessage using some very old iPhones, for example.

It's also yet another reminder that "the cloud" is not really a permanent storage medium that's comparable to, say, a archival DVD-R. It's inherently transitory.

 

[goonie4life9]

It would be nice if Apple enabled some of the features, like Find My.

 

[DHagan4755]

Was there any warning or did they just yank support?

 

[SnowPenguin]

Whoa, they supported them for so long.

 

[montuori]

It's also yet another reminder that "the cloud" is not really a permanent storage medium that's comparable to, say, a archival DVD-R. It's inherently transitory.

I'd like to see a DVD-R with Google Cloud Storage's 11 9s durability.

 

[Astuces iOS]

nah this is sick

 

[thetotalitaria]

Just because they drop support it doesn’t mean it stops working. It will still work at least as good and probably a lot better than it does on iOS6.

 

[JohannesO]

High Sierra already lost App Store support.

 

[winxmac]

Aside from iPhone 11 Pro Max, I still use an iPhone 5c

2016 - iOS 10, macOS Sierra
2025 - iOS 26, macOS Tahoe

And the same will happen by 2034

 

[icymountain]

High Sierra already lost App Store support.

I think that there are two things: one is support of the OS (new releases) and the other is ability of machines running the OS to use some services. Sierra lost both. High Sierra lost only the former. Of course, we can expect this to mean that it will lose iCloud support next year...

 

[spyguy10709]

I'd like to see a DVD-R with Google Cloud Storage's 11 9s durability.

Google Cloud actually lost some of my videos from around a decade ago (load to a fragmented MP4 when I KNOW they played fine a few years back), so I wouldn't be too sure of anything google publishes regarding data reliability anymore

 

[kagharaht]

At least all your local files and documents can still accessible and usable between devices if you keep those old Macs around. Also thanks to emulation software I can still run System 8 - 9 and fire up PowerTalk and Cyberdog if I really wanted to. I still have some mail that I didn't move to MBOX from Cyberdog. It would be funny to me to see those old emails.

 

[sotosoul]

That's why my iPad got kicked out of iMessage this early afternoon! Pity but it was about time iCloud moved on to greener pastures. I'm still using my iPad but it's becoming more and more like an iPod at this point... I use it as an e-book reader (I prefer PDFs but epubs will do), podcasts, movies (via iTunes/TV app syncing) and the occasional Broken Sword gaming.

 

[Ctrlos]

It’s only to a certain extent. For example if you were to buy an iPad Mini 2 you can still sync your old Apple Notes which are still in your iCloud data but buried under the new ones! Old reminders are still there too.

 

[JosephAW]

Meanwhile all Intel browser support for macOS Mojave have been dropped by everyone, Firefox was the last hold out but it’s still working for now.
Meanwhile it’s nearly impossible to surf the web using iOS 12 or older let alone iCloud support.
And Apple dropped iCloud support for the Apple TV third generation years ago.

 

[lazyrighteye]

I'm a little surprised at this. Yes, it's tricky to support a nine-year-old OS. But I thought this was something Apple prioritised. You can still access iMessage using some very old iPhones, for example.

It's also yet another reminder that "the cloud" is not really a permanent storage medium that's comparable to, say, an archival DVD-R. It's inherently transitory.

I was just going through some old boxes this weekend. Found a lot of my work stored on formats I can no longer access; [amongst others] ZIP disks (remember those?), CD-R, even some older SATA drives I pulled from a Drobo (ha!) and other enclosures. What do I do with that stuff? Made me realize permanence, especially in digital, is a myth. But I totally hear, and mostly agree with, your point about the cloud.

Now I’m curious to hear other users’ backup strategies. Sadly, I haven’t thought much about it of late…

 

[ScreenSavers]

That’s too bad. Not too long ago basic iCloud and iMessage functionality still worked on iOS 5.

 

[ecapdeville]

I still use a MacPro 5,1 and a Mac mini 2011 with High Sierra and is good to be able to get and save files to iCloud. Well... maybe next year will be the end, I'll try to enjoy it meanwhile it still works.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

The last OS to run 32bit iOS apps was 10.3. Truly the end of an era.

Now I’m curious to hear other users’ backup strategies. Sadly, I haven’t thought much about it of late…

Local device, Time Machine backup on my NAS, and some folders with important stuff on my NAS gets sync'd to AWS glacier. It was around $400 for the Synology NAS and HDDs, plus less than $1/month for AWS. Granted if I ever have to restore from aws it will cost $$$, but I'm OK with a one-time fee to restore from a catastrophy.

I have a pile of CDs on my basement flood I need to go through, and move from disk to HDD, because I'm not certain how much longer they'll last, or I'll have a drive to read them.

 

[Bregalad]

At least all your local files and documents can still accessible and usable between devices if you keep those old Macs around. Also thanks to emulation software I can still run System 8 - 9 and fire up PowerTalk and Cyberdog if I really wanted to. I still have some mail that I didn't move to MBOX from Cyberdog. It would be funny to me to see those old emails.

I have a bunch of old Macs, but the last time I tried to boot one of them it just sat there unable to find the startup disk. Many old Macs, particularly from the beige era, won't even try to boot if the battery on the logic board is dead. So yes, keeping the old hardware around might allow you to access old data, but it might not.

I got really lazy with my backups for a while and lost almost everything. I realized that keeping spam from 20 years ago was pointless. Today I only have mail going back about 2 years. I have two SSDs for Time Machine and some files are also in iCloud. The only thing with a zillion backup copies now is my photo library.

 

[SeaFox]

High Sierra already lost App Store support.

The App Store is pretty brain-dead. I have a file copy utility I got from it and use on High Sierra. A new version of the utility was released and the update was installed to my High Sierra machine... except the new version requires a higher version of macOS. I can't run the new version, and there doesn't seem to be a way to roll back to the older version that was compatible. if the Mac can tell the minimum OS version needed for an app there's no reason the App Store shouldn't be tracking this as well, and not installing apps on machines that can't support them.

 

[seek3r]

It’s only to a certain extent. For example if you were to buy an iPad Mini 2 you can still sync your old Apple Notes which are still in your iCloud data but buried under the new ones! Old reminders are still there too.

Yup, I just added my old 4s back to my account so I can use it as a music streamer in my den, works fine for older services

 

[woolypants]

I was just going through some old boxes this weekend. Found a lot of my work stored on formats I can no longer access; [amongst others] ZIP disks (remember those?), CD-R, even some older SATA drives I pulled from a Drobo (ha!) and other enclosures. What do I do with that stuff? Made me realize permanence, especially in digital, is a myth. But I totally hear, and mostly agree with, your point about the cloud.

Now I’m curious to hear other users’ backup strategies. Sadly, I haven’t thought much about it of late…

Considering this very issue yesterday, I wonder if the only real way to archive old media is to provide an entire computer setup to access the data. So, say if I wanted to archive data today. I could use a BD-R disc. But wherever I stored this, it would be wise to store alongside it a laptop with a Blu-ray drive so I could access it in future.

None of this will necessarily help transfer the data from the disc in future if computing technology has moved on, such that no physical or network connections are compatible. But at least it will be accessible.

Of course, we have the issue of electrolytic capacitor leakage that means that, beyond 20 years, the computer itself might fail. The power supply could be the biggest issue, but this should be easily overcome at the time.

It's worth adding that there's usually a retro scene for old computers designed to bridge old and new technology. For example, the Gotek drive is the saviour of 8 and 16-bit era machines, and emulates 3.5 or 5.25in floppies.

 

[svish]

Long support and also since no Macs are actually losing access due to the fact that they can be upgraded to next version, this is not going to cause any issue for customers.