Re:It's your device, you should be able to repair it
by joshspankit on Friday April 30, 2021 @11:47PM
(#27002875)
Source: I purchased the first iPad when it came out, and I've gone through all of these.
The first let-down was Orphion: when I purchased the app it was amazing, but they used the finger touch API in a way that Apple did not agree with. They were forced to remove that API call in an update, and the app has not been the same since. Unfortunately I did not get a copy of the original version, and so I lost access to that specific experience that I paid for.
This is a subtle point about older devices that doesn't get enough attention imo.
In order to have an app I purchased with the features I purchased on an older device that I purchased, I must:
- Jailbreak the device
- Extract the iOS app and externally save it
- Turn off automatic updates for apps
- Be signed in to the Apple account that purchased that app
- Have that account be valid and not revoked
At some point, Apple may:
- Remove the app from the App store entirely
- Allow an update to the app that changes or removes the features that I specifically wanted
- Insist that the app does not support that older version of iOS (even if the version you purchased was fine, and only a later version removed support for older iOS versions)
In order to restore access to the app in that case I must:
- Jailbreak the device
- Sign in to that Apple account
- Copy the backed-up version of the app to the device
- Risk losing any data in that app, especially if it was updated and I'm now downgrading to a version that might not support the newer data format