Ever tried to download an iOS app on your iThing and got a “This application requires iOS X.Y or greater” message, but no app? Annoying as heck.
There are various reasons you might not be able to install/run iOS X.Y. For example, I have an original iPad running iOS 5.1.1 – I can’t upgrade any higher, the device isn’t supported on later versions. My iPhone could have upgraded, but I ran out of storage space, so it couldn’t handle the installation, and I couldn’t find a convenient time to archive a bunch of content, so I was similarly blocked there for a while.
Newer apps (or newer releases of older apps) tend to make the most of the latest fun features in iOS, so don’t support older versions. But apps that have been knocking around for a while probably did at some stage, and that’s something you can take advantage of.
- Buy the app you want on a device running a supported iOS, or through iTunes on a PC/Mac.
- Go to your device running an old version of iOS, find the app in the App Store and click Install.
- If the app used to support your version of iOS at some point in its history, you’ll see a message saying: “Download an older version of this app? The current version requires iOS X.Y or later, but you can download the last compatible version.” Click Download and you’re in business.
If the app never supported your version of iOS, you’ll see a message that says “This application requires iOS X.Y or later.” Click OK and resign yourself to living without the app on this particular device.
Use case
Back in the day, iOS came with a YouTube app by default. Quite some time ago, that app stopped working. Now if you try to use it you see a message saying: “Oh no! The version of YouTube you’re using isn’t supported any more. To watch the video you’re looking for, just head over to m.youtube.com.” However, if you search the App Store there is a version of the YouTube app by Google that has an historical release that works on iOS 5.1.1, so if you “buy” that (free) app on another device or on your PC/Mac, then go to your iOS 5.1.1 device and click Install, you can begin to enjoy that wonderful time sink on your iPad 1 again. 🙂
