iOS developers - Support For Devices of Different Versions

Question

I was wondering what others do in the ways of testing for multiple iOS versions. Do you use multiple iPhones / iPads running different iOS versions? Do you rely only on the simulator? Is there an easy way to swap versions out on a device?

Everything I'm finding is telling me that my iPhones at 5.x cant be downgraded to 4, and I was just wondering how others deal with this sort of thing

Thanks

Answer 1

I would suggest buying one old device to run 3.1.3 (they're extremely cheap on ebay or similar) and just test on that and the newest version. If an app runs on iOS 3.x and 5.x, it will basically always work on 4.x.

Answer 2

I keep as many devices as I can in the oldest OS I can, unless I already dropped support for a too-old version (e.g., 3.1.3).

Last time I checked (5 minutes ago), it is impossible to downgrade (even with jailbreak) unless you have saved the proper "SHSH Blob" corresponding to the OS version you want to downgrade to, specific to your device.

Answer 3

Start by developing on the oldest device/IPSW you have at hand. If necessary, downgrade. When your app builds and runs correctly on, say, an iPhone 3G[S] on 3.2.1, you can move on to testing on newer hardware/software.

Answer 4

Personally, I test on the newest firmware and start downgrading my device and testing again on each. It's kind of tedious, but it works for me. There are plenty of tutorials online on how to downgrade your firmware by downloading the ipsw and then restoring from it. It works well, and I wouldn't suggest testing purely on the simulator. Some older methods may be deprecated and you would want to switch those out. You can also switch the deployment target so you can build it on an older iOS version.