iOS 10.3 Beta Says 32-Bit Legacy Apps Will Not Work With Future Versions of iOS

[Tycho24]

To think of it from a DRM perspective, all those 32 bit apps you purchased... you will have no access to them because Apple axed 32 bit all together. That's DRM. Your purchases are not yours after all. You are at the mercy of the company who enforces the DRM.

Developers being lazy is not a valid reason. Not everyone has to be like Facebook to routinely update their app with junk lines of code and keep on bloating it till it explodes.

I will have to upgrade my 5 year old CCTV camera system which will cost me $1000 because their remote app is 32bit and very old. It may stop working in iOS 11.

Now I will lose $1000 because of DRM.

It is clear, in this case, that a company charging thousands of dollars for a product w/ an accompanying app, is in extreme dereliction of duty, if they can't perform a simple recompile for their customers.
I would assert that either: they likely will, and you've nothing to worry about, or- they're an EXTREMELY unprofessional company, and next time you drop $1,000 on something- research the company.

 

[2010mini]

Thanx for the heads up, avoid next update at all cost!

You think not updating is also worth the lack of updated security that comes with it also?

 

[DotComCTO]

Looking forward to seeing millions of 32-bit apps disappear from the store because the developers don't see it as worth the cost to update

Sometimes they can't update it, or it isn't worth it financially. I had a long back and forth with Slitherine about this a year ago. The short story is that all their games that use the Battle Academny engine are stuck in 32-bit. Apparently, it isn't a simple matter of "compile and go" for them. Also, you have to factor in the cost of QA involved in retesting all these games.

TBH, this is Apple pushing an non-issue. Microsoft still produce 32-bit apps and they work perfectly well in their 64-bit Windows OS. Blame Apple, not the developers.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Looking forward to seeing millions of 32-bit apps disappear from the store because the developers don't see it as worth the cost to update

Those apps haven't been updated since Feb 1, 2015. I'm totally fine with them going away.

If your app isn't worth the little bit of work involved in making it 64-bit (and it's not much work), then it's not worth having in the App Store.

 

[Col4bin]

Good. Update or die.

 

[psac]

TouchArcade will be the worse for me. It's a great app for the wishlist price change monitoring and notifications (which I understand Apple's Wish List doesn't do), and they can't update because of the App Store rules.

 

[wizard]

This warning... It's BAD DESIGN. I've seen it from time to time. Not sure exactly what Apple wants me to do with it though. Does it want me to contact the organization making the app and protest? It's borderline ridiculous! Apple knows which apps are old and going to be incompatible soon. Apple needs to contact the organization not contact the customer. iOS should continue to support old legacy apps. If the customer enjoys the app and it works for them, then why break it???

​

They are doing you a favor here and trying to forestall complaints in the future. Frankly I'm not sure if you are ignorant of reality or just a Snowflake but you do realize that iOS updates have broken many apps over the years. Even on my old iPhone 4 apps stopped working because of updates.

The other thing i find distressing is people trying to make DRM look bad because of this. DRM may be bad but you end up with the same problem on Linux, libraries or apps don't ge updated and stop working.

 

[peter2]

This is probably intentional. If an app isn't worth a recompile, it probably isn't worth staying on the app store.

If I payed for an app (with the prospect/promise that the payment is per-life) then I don't care about whether it's worth to recompile to you or to the developer. I want to use what I payed for and if Apple wants to hinder that, then please give back my money!

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Or you understand from the start that nothing is forever on any OS or even any stand-alone system. This has nothing to do with iOS, it's just that Apple is doing some spring cleaning and throwing out all those wide lapel sport jackets and ties buried in the depths of it's App closet. But no OS guarantees compatibly tomorrow for an app you buy today. Not Apple, not Google, not Microsoft, not Samsung.

So you honestly see no difference in the wisdom of purchasing a proprietary platform that runs on Windows vs one that runs on iOS?

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Sometimes they can't update it, or it isn't worth it financially. I had a long back and forth with Slitherine about this a year ago. The short story is that all their games that use the Battle Academny engine are stuck in 32-bit. Apparently, it isn't a simple matter of "compile and go" for them. Also, you have to factor in the cost of QA involved in retesting all these games.

TBH, this is Apple pushing an non-issue. Microsoft still produce 32-bit apps and they work perfectly well in their 64-bit Windows OS. Blame Apple, not the developers.

But Apple gets blamed for not making this move. It means the OS and other apps run slower and then people cry to Apple that their iPhone isn't running right.

The number of apps that can't put in the time and effort to update are very very small. These are apps that were updated last more than 2 years ago now (Feb 1, 2015). The developers have shown they've given up on them. Sorry, but that's a lifetime in the app world.

 

[skinned66]

Bye bye Logitech Link. I guess I'll have to load up my 32-bit devices.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

If I payed for an app (with the prospect/promise that the payment is per-life) then I don't care about whether it's worth to recompile to you or to the developer. I want to use what I payed for and if Apple wants to hinder that, then please give back my money!

You're welcome to keep using that app. Just don't upgrade to the latest version of iOS. Apple doesn't require you to. If you want to keep using it, keep on your current OS.

You're demanding the latest and greatest but also want to be able to use old legacy systems. It's like someone complaining that they can't run their old DOS apps on their new Windows 10 machine, and then blaming Microsoft for it.

You're demanding to drive your Model-T and getting mad that they don't still sell leaded gas.

 

[kingjames1970]

I have a couple of apps on the store that I can't update anymore because Adobe dropped single edition DPS from the Creative Cloud subscription. (My programming skills only exist as far as exporting the necessary files using the plug in that Adobe provided.) I only upgraded to CC because of DPS but I've bitched until I'm blue in the face and it doesn't make a difference.

Does anybody know if it is easy to take an .ipa file and update it to 64 bit? I didn't tell the client their apps would only 'exist' for a few years and get deleted.

 

[deivydas]

Great news! Now Apple should warn all of the developers, that 32-bit apps will be removed from Appstore. There are not many things that i hate more (if we talking about tech) than outdated apps. Progress all the way!

 

[weup togo]

Simple solution: don't upgrade. I'll continue using 9.3.5 until my iPad dies. 10 is worse in every way that matters to me. There's no hope for 11 fixing that trajectory.

 

[max2]

Looking forward to seeing millions of 32-bit apps disappear from the store because the developers don't see it as worth the cost to update

Same.

 

[wizard]

If I payed for an app (with the prospect/promise that the payment is per-life) then I don't care about whether it's worth to recompile to you or to the developer. I want to use what I payed for and if Apple wants to hinder that, then please give back my money!

No problem just avoid the free iOS updates.

Beyond that nothing lasts forever not even a crowbar.

 

[usarioclave]

This sucks. There are still some old games that I love playing that work just fine. Slow down my iPhone? Like I care. They don't run in the background, and I don't care if they disrupt stuff running in the background.

 

[RMo]

Before people are too critical of Apple-

https://www.macrumors.com/2014/12/17/apple-64-bit-support-reminder/

They're being generous for letting 32 bit apps work 2 years after the deadline.

Sort of--that deadline was for (brand) new apps and the other deadline was for app updates. To my knowledge, there was never a time (until now) when they announced any sort of deadline for when existing 32-bit apps that were already in the store would be automatically purged.

what 'performance issues'?
I thought 64bit OS is backwards compatible with 32 bit apps?

Apple has made 64-bit iOS backwards compatible with existing compiled 32-bit iOS apps, yes. That doesn't mean there isn't a performance penalty or other cost, however slight, for doing so. (I think the ARM chip is able to run 32-bit code, at least for non-OS components, without emulating, by way of a "compatibility mode" in the same way that x64 can run x86 without needing software emulation, so that part shouldn't be terrible--though they'll still need both 32- and 64-bit copies of frameworks and whatnot apps can use--but long-term support of backwards compatibility isn't exactly Apple's forte.)

 

[Peel]

Is there any way, via settings on the iPhone, or in iTunes to get a list of the apps installed that are 32 bit? I'd like to know how much this might affect me, but don't really want to open each of the 260 apps on my phone to find out.

 

[KPOM]

If I payed for an app (with the prospect/promise that the payment is per-life) then I don't care about whether it's worth to recompile to you or to the developer. I want to use what I payed for and if Apple wants to hinder that, then please give back my money!

Old software isn't guaranteed to be compatible with new operating systems. Apple has done this on the Mac. Heck, 16-bit software no longer works on 64-bit Windows, and Microsoft is known to value backward compatibility.

 

[Arran]

I have at least two old apps (dating back to iPhone 3G) that contain a ton of archived data (contacts, notes, etc). I use them sporadically now - but I do still use them. So it's going to be a royal pain extracting all that old data and stashing it somewhere safe. And I guess I have to do it now, while the old apps still work.

Guess I need a Data Migration strategy for my phone? Maybe I should hire a consultant?

Apple: It Just Works! (until it doesn't)

 

[flowsy]

*Radium* !!! For the love of god, please get an update!

 

[konqerror]

TBH, this is Apple pushing an non-issue. Microsoft still produce 32-bit apps and they work perfectly well in their 64-bit Windows OS. Blame Apple, not the developers.

And this is why my Windows 10 tablet has 32 GB of flash but 6 GB of usable storage, takes several seconds to launch the simplest app and can't stay in standby for more than 24 hours. Can't have it all. The harsh truth of engineering.

 

[LordVic]

And this is why my Windows 10 tablet has 32 GB of flash but 6 GB of usable storage, takes several seconds to launch the simplest app and can't stay in standby for more than 24 hours. Can't have it all. The harsh truth of engineering.

actually, this is nothing why that happens.

At the end of the day, if the application itself has no use for 64bit extensions and doesn't take advantage of anything in the 64bit realm, why is there a requirement to compile and deploy them as 64 bit?

64bit doesn't magically mean applications are faster. It doesn't automatically mean they use less resources or memory. (quite the opposite in fact).

So at the end of the day, the question still rises. Why is 32bit compiled binaries being removed? 64bit CPU's will run 32bit applications fine. it's an arbitrary cutoff