not true. I’ve written a couple personal apps that sync with health kit data collected from my Apple Watch and nutrition apps to help me track things in a way that is useful for my fitness goals. In 2016-2027 I used these apps to put on 30 lbs and stay relatively lean but I’ve never wanted to publish them in the app store. I don’t pay for any developer program. Just need to download some (free) developer tools / SDK for XCode, build the source, and put it on my phone. The install is tethered, but afterwards it stays there until I delete it. Restarting the phone doesn’t delete the app either. Only time I needed to re-install was when my 5s crapped out and I had to get a new phone.

If you turn on WiFi debugging the install can be untethered.

When did that change? I wrote an app that I use every day and have been for about 4 years now. The most recent time I've had to load it on a new phone was in Dec of last year.

My apple dev account was originally a paid one though so maybe that has something to do with it?

I really hope I don't run into this deactivation thing.

>My apple dev account was originally a paid one though so maybe that has something to do with it?

Yeah that is why. I had a paid one also and I still have those perks.

I think you're confused with iTunes Connect. Whatever I push with Xcode stays on my phone forever.

Are you sure you don't have a paid account? My provisioning profiles expire after 7 days (the app is still on my phone but upon launch it just crashes with a white screen)

http://mybyways.com/blog/new-limitations-imposed-on-free-app...

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36998956/why-does-my-fre...

https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/47837

https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/4hotx3/news_free...

The worst part is that these changes weren't announced by Apple in any way.

>a 3 month long period before they get deactivated

It's 12 month long actually.