I’m confused, that is how it works. If a developer increases their target version to say iOS 18, a user running iOS 16 would be able to download the last app version that supported it, even after factory resets. If the third party developer dropped support for APIs or whatever to break that version, it’d be broken regardless to whether or not you had the app downloaded already.
Re:My first attempt at iOS app development
by ryandrake on Monday June 09, 2025 @03:09PM
(#44228150)
I'm pretty sure what I've seen is: If you backup and restore your apps, the version you previously had gets copied back over. But, if you wipe and try to re-download, only the versions that the developer has up on the AppStore are available to you, and if none of them support your OS, you're hosed. This is definitely true if you set up the device with a new account.
I consider that "everything around it" (The Ecosystem, as they say) to be part of the product I bought. When I bought my OldPhone N years ago, I could go to the app store and download versions X, Y, and Z of apps A, B, and C, and they worked. I expect today that if I factory reset that OldPhone back to fresh, I'd still be able to re-download those compatible versions of those apps, and that those apps continued to work as they did N years ago (barring some obvious, but still unfortunate cases like companies going out of business or turning down online services). That's my bar for "working."
If the world moves on, and people are sharing image formats that my phone was never able to read in the first place, or writing web pages my browser was never able to render correctly, then I have to accept that. But what I don't accept is the device manufacturer, or (usually the case) 3rd party apps telling me "your phone is too old, and we're no longer going to let you use it as you have for the last N years anymore!"