PSA: Your Older 32-Bit Apps Won't Launch After Installing iOS 11

It's difficult to take someone seriously who refers to "idol speculation" rather than "idle speculation".

 

Sorry, but it's idle. Some people may revere Apple but...idol worship, idle speculation. I wouldn't usually mention it but it's quite an amusing mistake in this context where people are arguing about 'The way of the future' and putting other people down for wanting a way to keep hold of apps that they hold dear, whilst others object to being steamrolled along under the name of progress and both sides are quite fervent in their beliefs. Personally I'm usually all for progress and the new and spangly, if it weren't for this one app...

I think the people who are dismissive of the others are lucky because they aren't having to give something important to them up. I'm sure everyone has lots of apps. When we downloaded them and grew to love them/rely on them, we had no way of knowing whether the developer would abandon them or not. It's just the luck of the draw whether you can keep yours or not. It's certainly not the blame of the people who downloaded them, found a use for them in their workflows or lives for whatever and came to rely on them. I have 8 apps affected and I don't care about 7 of them at all. I could easily be on the other side of the fence, but I'm not. It's the lack of choice and helplessness that's so upsetting. If some third party company came along and offered a service to convert the apps in some way, I'm sure they'd get some customers. I know that's not practical of course due to copyrights etc. but wouldn't it be nice to actually have a choice?

I will be putting IOS 11 on my iPad Pro 10.5 because it looks good for that, but my phone will have to stay as it is because of the app. I use the app intensively for about 3 months a year, so it's not something I'd miss on a daily basis, but when it's time to cram (coming soon) I would be utterly bereft without it.

 

Fortunately I have a spare iPad Air that I will put my old apps/games on before I update the phone and iPad Pro 10.5. Sadly, the developers of the apps I want to keep are no longer around.

 

Oh I know lol. I only used it that way since he did lol. You’ll notice I used it twice the wrong way to make note of how my words were cherry picked. My own spelling for my own, non-sarcastic posts are A+ lol.

 

People always forget: Apple is a hardware company and has never made a dime of profit on software, yet it thinks it can dictate how software companies make money on its platforms.

I've been on the app store since the very beginning publishing my own apps and also have worked for other large companies who published iOS apps. So I've directly witnessed the difference of how Apple treats smaller developers compared to large developers. Apple is just not treating all developers fairly.

I also noticed how larger companies (I actually worked at), while putting on a happy face, also really hated Apple. One even appeared on stage during a keynote address - but in the end Apple knows they have no real friends....

I guess the real test will be whether or not a new app will show up eventually on iOS that replaces the app YOU can no longer use on iOS 11. AND if you're going to pay for it via the "new" way software is monetized... Meaning:

1: Will you pay for it the way Apple requires you to.
2: And, can the developer sustain a business making money the way Apple allows them to.

Apple never allowed selling app updates on their App Store, but now they claim that is old fashion, and subscriptions are the new way to sell software. But remember, when a developer goes out of business now, your app subscription cannot renew. This model is ultimately easier for Apple because the developer kills your app when they die, so Apple won't have to purge these apps from the app store in the future.

Ultimately, the market will decide.

 

Open Terminal and type:
/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Flash\ Player\ Install\ Manager/fpsaud -setUpdateMode 0

This should enable silent updates for Flash (https://managingosx.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/unattended-installs-of-flash-player-11-3/)

 

I didn't have any of these apps on my iPad Pro so I upgraded it to iOS 11, spent 5 minutes on it and put it back in the drawer where it will stay warm and toasty again as it's been for the past 4 months. I am just so done with everything iPhone/iPad these days.

 

As a non-expert I would be interested in knowing what impact it would have had on iOS 11 user experience if 32 bit applications were to have been supported? Moving forward is one thing - creating long term uncertainty around the platform is something else.

--- Post Merged, Sep 20, 2017 ---

The flip side of that is what harm would be done if older apps were supported? What is your rationale for inflicting inconvenience on end users?

 

Digits is my favorite iOS calculator, I reached out to them via email yesterday about an update.....here's the response from "Josh":

From: "Josh" <hello@shift-apps.com>
Subject: Re: Where is the iOS 11 update for Digits?
Date: September 19, 2017 at 9:06:39 PM EDT
To: [redacted]

Thank you for your message.

Unfortunately Digits won't be ready in time for release this week. We’re sorry to miss this important date but we want to ensure that we launch the update with the quality you expect.

We can promise that the wait will be worth it. If you are interested in joining our beta, please reply to this message with details about your location (city, country) and device (i.e. iPhone 7, iPad Pro).

 

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/05/02/app-store-revenue-up-40-percent/
Overall, services brought in $7 billion during the quarter, up from $6 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple's "Services" category includes the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iTunes, and iCloud.

 

Thank you so much for the heads up. Good information.

 

Either that would be a tremendous name for a band, or it is one who wagers on the prospective winner of talent contests.

This might just be idle speculation on my part.

 

That would totally be a great name for a band!

 

I was under the impression that when people asked Apple to remove the bloat from iTunes, they were referring to, the actual bloat. The app store and being able to manage your apps was actually useful. I haven't checked in recent years, but last figure I got was iTunes is 500MB? Does a music player and media manage program need to be half a gig?

If nothing else, Apple tries to brand itself as a company that's hip, cool, and trying to change the world for the better, but in the end, it's just like any other corporation out there. And yeah, to be fair, there aren't really any other corporations that are that great in that regard either.

 

They're all still listed in the settings->about->applications.

Although, I suppose Apple could have actually deleted them. Since I can't actually launch them it could just be a symbolic link to an error message. I did have a little more space then I expected after installing iOS 9, but I deleted a lot of big apps and didn't take notes as to the sizes. They're still listed in the iPhone storage section and they take up varying amounts of space.

Regardless, it'd be nice to have a relatively easy way to locate and delete them.
I've got about 200 in my list on my iPad!

 

That's good to know.

I'm not upgrading in any case.

 

As someone who's held out on an older device that doesn't support 10.3, I can't even use the mentioned method to check whether I'll be losing some of my apps when I inevitably upgrade to a newer device in the near future, or if I'll risk losing the app forever if I delete it or do any sort of restore. Hmm.... At least I don't really have any "important" apps I can't afford to lose, and I think they were all free also, so not a huge deal, but still annoying and I'm sure there are others in my shoes as well.

 

Griefrev there is an update in the App Store. I downloaded it before I upgraded to 11.a lot of my apps had updated versions in the App Store. I just had to download them. Some did not. I guess I’m a rare breed but I enjoy upgraded technology more than keeping my old apps.

 

I’ve only been using 11 for a few days but notice a substantial improvement in the Kindle app.

 

"They" updated my HP 12 C app!

 

Hard for end-users not to do when Apple forces the installer onto your device. We can delete the installers these days (not the ios 7 installer wasting 3.5GB on my iPhone 4!), but Apple continuously nags users to upgrade "FOR FREE!!!!111!"

--- Post Merged, Sep 27, 2017 ---

True for many, but there are also many others who just abandon their apps because "it doesn't make me profit" (both small and large developers). This platform was a money grab and many programmers are hobbyists who just get bored with things after they've released the first couple versions. The people who keep things up-to-date are the ones that are legit developers.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/ace-attorney-phoenix-wright-trilogy-hd/id365681816?mt=8

--- Post Merged, Oct 3, 2017 ---

I searched 3 minutes and found two.....

 

Absolutely. And you would too if whoever pays you (or whoever supports you) started paying you every month with paychecks that bounce, or in the amount of zero.

 

Eh, I'm not gonna pay again for it.