Is it possible to update Safari without updating my iOS version?

[G-Ziss]

I got a message on one of the sites I use saying I need to update my Safari browser because the site will no longer be accessible from the old version soon.

I tried looking in the app store for an update, but found nothing. I read that you can update it by updating your OS version, but I'd prefer not to do that.

Is there a way to just update my Safari app? If not, what's the next safest browser to use on a non-jailbroken iPad? One of the reasons I like using an iPad as opposed to an Android tablet is because they are supposed to be more secure and I'm a little worried that using a different browser won't be as secure.

 

[chrfr]

I got a message on one of the sites I use saying I need to update my Safari browser because the site will no longer be accessible from the old version soon.

I tried looking in the app store for an update, but found nothing. I read that you can update it by updating your OS version, but I'd prefer not to do that.

Is there a way to just update my Safari app? If not, what's the next safest browser to use on a non-jailbroken iPad? One of the reasons I like using an iPad as opposed to an Android tablet is because they are supposed to be more secure and I'm a little worried that using a different browser won't be as secure.

It’s impossible to update Safari independently from updating iOS.

 

[flaubert]

Sometimes when a web site tells you that it won't work unless you upgrade they're actually kind of lying... it sometimes means "We don't want to test our site against all these old browser versions," even though they probably work. The trouble is, sometimes they code the site to check the user agent string supplied by your browser, and refuse to even try to work. One way around this is to use a non-Safari browser that has more control over what it supplies as the user agent string. One such browser is iCab; if you tap on the gear (settings) icon in iCab for iOS, and select the Web Sites settings page it will bring you to a page where you can change what they call the Default Browser ID. This is the User Agent setting, and they let you select from a wide variety of different strings, even including desktop browser user agent strings. You can even get tricky and use a specific ID string for a specific site.

 

[ltlink]

It’s impossible to update Safari independently from updating iOS.

Paste into terminal. Thank you to “theadamcraig” on GitHub

appName="Safari Web Content"

function updateSafari () { updateName=$(softwareupdate -l | grep "Safari" | grep "Label" | awk '{ print $3 }') if [ -z "$updateName" ] ; then echo "update not found." echo "listing software updates to make sure there is not an error:" echo $( softwareupdate -l ) exit 1 fi softwareUpdate -i "$updateName" sleep 5 exit 0 }

appRunning=ps aux | grep -i "$appName" | grep -v "grep" echo "Checking if $appName is running" echo "$appRunning"

if [ -z "$appRunning" ] ; then echo "update Safari" updateSafari else echo "$appName is open. skipping Update" fi

exit 0

 

[chrfr]

Paste into terminal. Thank you to “theadamcraig” on GitHub

appName="Safari Web Content"

function updateSafari () { updateName=$(softwareupdate -l | grep "Safari" | grep "Label" | awk '{ print $3 }') if [ -z "$updateName" ] ; then echo "update not found." echo "listing software updates to make sure there is not an error:" echo $( softwareupdate -l ) exit 1 fi softwareUpdate -i "$updateName" sleep 5 exit 0 }

appRunning=ps aux | grep -i "$appName" | grep -v "grep" echo "Checking if $appName is running" echo "$appRunning"

if [ -z "$appRunning" ] ; then echo "update Safari" updateSafari else echo "$appName is open. skipping Update" fi

exit 0

There’s no terminal in iOS. This thread isn’t about the Mac. Also, all that script does is run Software Update in terminal, it’s not doing any magic to update Safari any differently than Apple is doing it.