iOS 14 and earlier will seemingly stop getting App Store app updates in 2027

22 points by talklittle 16 days ago on tildes | 8 comments

It's not a good idea to use a device stuck on an old version of iOS day-to-day because of security concerns (or indeed connect them to the internet), what does make them basically ewaste regardless though is that there is no option to unlock the bootloader for these things after EOL.

Really wish there was interest in legislation to change that.

joshtransient | 15 days ago

Apple does push security updates for older version of iOS when the vulns are serious enough. 15+ got updates this past may

snake_case | 15 days ago

Up until like a month ago I had an iphone 8 with like ios12 or something on it and it still got security updates even though apple website swore it didn’t. Was pretty cool.

Ive still got an iphone 4s and eventually it just failed to download the latest update, didnt give a specific error code but I suspect it was just too large.

Right to repair could essentially fall under that umbrella.

There is a bug in my car's dashboard. I must be able to unlock my bootloader to be able to fix it.

For those who don’t know how the Apple App Store works, you can still download the last compatible version of an app if you already own it. It’s not like they won’t be able to use the store, just that they won’t be able to use the latest version of third party apps, so it will serve them an older version.

WeAreWaves | 15 days ago

That’s only if those older versions are available though right? I have an old iPad (2017) and there are a few apps that I’ve tried to install but it says they aren’t available for my operating system.

myrrh | 15 days ago

...still rocking my 2017 ipad pro but i'll probably migrate to my M1 this month; the older model still works fine but its screen, case and speakers are really beyond-done at this point...anyway, i haven't bumped into any issues with iOS17 support on applications yet, but i don't install much new software these days...

...that said, i concur that unsupported OS versions really need to open up to third-party application stores; maybe the EU will do something about it if the FTC won't...

joshtransient | 15 days ago

do you upload to the jailbreak stores? i would assume that a strong reason for people to stay on older versions (besides older hardware) is jailbreak ability.