If you don’t know how to download incompatible apps on an old iPad, iPhone or iPod, we are going to help you out in this guide. If you have an old, outdated iPad and you want to use it to watch YouTube videos, access your Dropbox files you will probably get a bitter surprise when you open the App Store. Because when you search for those apps you might see that they are no longer compatible with your iOS version.
The App Store allows you to download the latest version of an app that is compatible with your version of iOS, although that means sacrificing new features implemented in newer versions. If that’s not a problem and you just want to do some basic usage, it’s not a hard task.
How to download incompatible apps on an old iPad, iPhone or iPod?
As we said, the App Store allows you to download the latest compatible version of an app. But if you want to download an incompatible app you need to go to the “Purchased” section.
Open the App Store. You will see that at the top there are different sections like “Featured”, “Hits”, “Explore”, “Purchased” and “Updates”. If we go to the “Purchased” section we will be able to see each and every app we have ever downloaded using our Apple ID.
Next to the name of each app, there is a cloud icon. If we click on it App Store will give us the option to download the latest compatible version, so we click on “Download” and wait. This system works with applications such as Spotify, Facebook, LinkedIn, Dropbox, etc., but not with new applications. And it is normal, there are apps that have been released with iOS 13 or iOS 12, so they do not have lower versions.
Let’s summarize all the steps:
- Go to the App Store on the outdated device.
- Access “Purchased.”
- Find the app you want to download and press the cloud icon.
- When it asks if you want to download the latest version available, accept.
This same system works for an iPad, an iPhone, or an iPod. It can be useful to reuse an iPod as a music player or turn an old iPad into an eReader. Using this guide, you can use incompatible apps on an old iPhone or iPad.
