Apple will release the highly anticipated iOS 11 update tomorrow Tuesday, September 19th 2017. However, unlike previous iOS updates this one is likely to leave some of your apps behind.
P.S.A.: Before I go any further, don’t even think of installing iOS 11 without having backed up your iOS device first! Now on to the topic at hand:
With every operating system update since the beginning of time there have always been incompatibilities with 3rd party applications. In most cases the applications have small glitches and sometimes the more severe incompatibilities cause the applications to crash upon launching. However, this time you may have some applications that will never work again!
Apple is dropping support for 32bit applications in iOS 11
Moving forward iOS will only work with 64bit enabled applications. iOS has grown and a 64bit architecture is a good thing. As iPhones and iPads continue to add more RAM these newer applications will be able to take advantage of the newer hardware.
How to tell which of your Apps won’t work anymore?
Currently in iOS 10.x Apple has been warning you all along about apps that may not work in iOS 11. When You launch one of these older apps you sometimes get a message that states:
“This app will not work with iOS 11. The developer of this app will need to update it for compatibility.” Other than those occasional warnings you can actually get a list of which ones iOS 11 will leave behind. Launch your Settings App and tap General->About->Applications to see your App Compatibility List
Every app on this list will need to be updated to even launch in iOS 11. The problem is that many of these apps are probably old and will not be updated because the developer has ceased development on them. Of course it’s possible that the developer of something is just behind and will release an update, but I’m guessing that most of these are a lost cause.
Find replacements before you upgrade to iOS 11
Luckily for me there was only one App that I used regularly that the developer stopped development on a couple of years ago. I spent some time on the App store and found a replacement app that has most of the same functionality. The rest of the apps are either apps that I haven’t used in a while or can live without. When I upgrade to iOS 11 I will likely just delete them from my iPhone/iPad.
More to come…
I’ll probably do a post and video about my favorite features of iOS 11. Stay tuned!
that’s actually shitty. Most of my 332 apps are fine, 17 of them need updated before they work. Of those, only one of them is in regular use. So I’m not affected in a geat way, but if you use a weird app often and it’s not been updated in ages, you may have lost use of it forever, and that, just shit.
@belfastbiker:disqus
Welcome to the World of Progress. Sometimes advancing forward hurts those that are left behind. Adapt.
No problem with me. My iPhone 5 won’t do iOS 11 and none of the apps I use need the upgrade.
I’m more worried about what I have heard about iTunes 12.7, that it will not let me upgrade apps on my Mac. I have been told all my upgrades will have to be done on my iPad AND my iPhone AND over WiFi rather than gigabit Ethenet. That’s a big time waster and a nuisance.
Really, Apple, all 727 of them, with most of them not even install on my iPhone or my iPad. Do your executives take a stupid pill each morning. App ugrade is the only reason I use iTunes any more.
Terry — any word on Lightroom and Photoshop supporting the new native HEIC and HEVC photo and video formats on IOS 11? We’ve had a request to support for a few months now.
I would also like to hear Adobe’s timeline for support of the new formats. For now, I just have them turned off but I would really like to see if it adds any significant quality and Creative Cloud is really the only tool set I am comfortable using. Adobe’s website seems to be silent about this issue.